Camp Cupcakes and Homemade Frosting

With summer in full swing what better way to enjoy this beautiful world and your family than by camping! And who doesn't want a tasty treat to enjoy around the camp fire.
Here are some fun decorative cupcakes that will remind you of those happy camping memories. They're also a great treat to take up the mountain to enjoy those first few days, depending on how long they last with the kids around. I've also included a simple homemade frosting recipe!

What you'll need for the cupcakes:
1 cake mix
1 tube of graham crackers
crushed up red hots, or coconut died red (click here for how to dye your coconut, under step 10)
cupcake papers

What you'll need for homemade frosting:
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c butter
1 tsp vanilla
4 c powdered sugar (1 lb.)
2 T. milk
Green and brown food coloring (you can use powdered cocoa if you don't have brown food coloring)
2 piping bags
Piping tips: 5, 8 and 233


Step 1: Mix the cake as directed and divide into cupcake pans. Bake as directed. When done baking let cupcakes cool completely on a cooling rack.

Step 2: While cupcakes are baking we'll make the homemade frosting.
In a bowl combine powdered sugar, shortening and butter. Sometimes I'll just use all shortening. This way I get a super white frosting.
Mix these two together until combined. It will be crumbly.

Then add the milk and vanilla. If you're going for a super white frosting for future creations you can buy clear vanilla flavoring at the store. If you are going to color your frosting, as in our case, then using the regular brown vanilla flavoring is just fine.
You may need to add more milk to help with consistency. You don't want your frosting too think or too thin so only add extra milk a little at a time.
This homemade frosting is super easy to make and is delicious!

Once you've made your frosting it's time to color it. We want green for the grass and brown to secure the tent and make the logs. You can also make red frosting to replace the coconut/red hots as the flames.

Set aside some white frosting in a separate bowl to use for a different color. Other wise use the majority for the green grass. Color the frosting until you reach a desired shade of green. I like to use Wilton's food coloring because it doesn't make the frosting a neon green, it's a more natural color. For the brown frosting you can add food coloring or add powdered cocoa. If you're adding cocoa add it 1 tsp at a time until you reach a desired shade. I started with a light brown to match the graham crackers and then added more chocolate later on to make the logs a darker color.

Step 3: While your cupcakes are cooling you can cut out the sides for your tents. For this cut with a serrated knife along the dotted lines on your cracker. Then cut each piece in half hamburger style. Depending on the kind of graham cracker you have you should either end up with 4 or 8 small squares or enough for 2 or 4 tents. Each of my crackers only made 2 tents, 4 squares. Be careful when cutting your crackers so you don't break them or else you'll end with a lot of cracker crumbs.

You can also smash your red hots at this time. I had to put my red hots in a bag and then crush them with a hammer. I was lucky my downstairs neighbor wasn't home at the time.

Step 4: Put your piping bags together one for green with tip 233 and one for brown with tip 5 to start with, tip 8 we use for the logs to make them thicker. Because these cupcakes represent the outdoors, which isn't perfect, you can stripe your piping bags with extra green and brown food coloring.


All you do is use a paint brush, finger, cotton swab or something similar and make a few stripes on the sides of the piping bag before putting in your frosting. I forgot to stripe my green bag but the brown turned out amazing making cool lines like bark on a log.

Now with your 233 tip you're going to pipe grass on all of your cupcakes. If you're not used to piping your hand and wrist will get tired very easily, very quickly so do this sitting down while watching something. Also remember that grass out in the wilderness is not perfect so if some is short, and some long, and some gets squished don't sweat it!

Step 4: Now that we have grass time to place the tents. Take 2 small squares and lean them against each other on one side of your cupcake to form a tent. Don't put your tent in the center of your cupcake or you won't have room for a campfire. Then take your brown frosting with the 5 tip and pipe a line of frosting on the top of your tent where the two squares meet. This will hold it in place so the tent doesn't fall over.

After you put tents on all your cupcakes you can squirt the remaining brown frosting from your bag into the brown bowl if you need to make a darker shade of brown for the logs. Then you can stripe your bag and place the brown frosting back in the same bag but use the 8 tip. You don't want to use anything bigger than an 8 so your logs are super fat.

For the logs I just piped an X in front of each tent. Then I placed/sprinkled some of my crushed red hots in the center of the X to look like either flames or hot coals. You can also use coconut or just red/orange frosting. If you pipe your flames do an orange frosting and stripe your bag with red food coloring for a fun effect!

After you put the flames on your cupcakes are done and ready to be devoured! I hope you have fun with this camp treat and that you enjoy the homemade frosting and never go back to store bought again.  ;-)

Let me know how your creations turn out and how you enjoy the homemade frosting recipe.