These BBQ cupcakes are so fun to make and even more fun to eat! Kids of all ages will love making these BBQ cupcakes! They’re so simple, fun, and great as a camping themed treat, a summer treat, or even as a Father’s day treat! Candy, cake, and frosting… who could ask for more! We made these BBQ cupcakes to continue our camping themed lessons, but you can make these BBQ cupcakes for all occasions!
BBQ Cupcakes
How cute are these BBQ cupcakes? They’re chocolatey, sweet, fruit, caramelly… they have all the flavors! These BBQ cupcakes are just so fun. And they’re budget-friendly as well! You just need a few items to make them that you can easily get at places like Walmart, Target, or even the Dollar Tree! So without further ado, let’s make some tasty BBQ cupcakes!
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Related: Have you tried our campfire cookies yet?
Ingredients Needed To Make BBQ Cupcakes
Step 1
Prepare your cupcakes as directed by the package. Once they’re finished let they completely cool off.
Craft note:
If you don’t let them cool completely the frosting will melt off/in the cupcake. Which will taste good, but not make for a good “fire.”
Step 2
Take a piece of parchment paper and draw out your grill. A circle with multiple lines. Do this multiple times and allow them to dry.
Step 3
Melt your candy melts in 30 second intervals, stirring each time.
Step 4
Fill your piping bag with the warm candy mixture. Cut a small tip off the frosting decorating bag.
Step 5
Flip the parchment paper over, so the marker side is down and start tracing the melted candy over the lines. Make as many as you need and place in the fridge for them to harden.
Craft note:
Place it on a cookie sheet to move the candy grills easier.
Step 6
Shape your candy. Use your (freshly washed) fingers to mold the caramels into meat shapes. We went with steaks.
Step 7
Cut up some of your gummy candies and place them on the toothpicks to make kababs.
Step 8
Frost your cupcakes with orange frosting.
Step 9
Place your completely cooled candy grills on top.
Step 10
Add the rest of your candies on top and enjoy!
Craft Notes:
- If you can’t find black candy melts, then you can use a little black food coloring in white candy melts.
- You can use black icing to make the grill marks, the gel kind would work best.
- If you don’t have cupcake liners, make sure you grease your cupcake pan so the cake doesn’t stick.
- You can make your own frosting using powder sugar, butter (or cream cheese), vanilla extract, and a little milk.
How To Make This BBQ Cupcake Your Own
Like all our crafts and recipes, you can change up our crafts/recipes to make it more to your liking. There are so many different things you can do like:
- You can use any flavor cake you want like: carrot cake, spiced cake, chocolate, vanilla, butter, even red velvet!
- Change up the frosting! Use red frosting, yellow, or mix them together!
- Add some sugar sprinkles to your frosting to add more color and depth.
- Use different gummies (I highly suggest this for the kabobs, Mike and Ikes work, but I feel like others would look better and is easier to get on the “skewer”.)
- You can use foil cupcake papers to make it have more of a grill feel to it.
- Use fondant, marshmallows, or other candies to create “grilled food”.
- You can make burgers for your BBQ grill cupcakes by using modeling chocolate or tootsie rolls. I think they’d make cute hamburgers.
- You can use hot tamales instead of Mike and Ikes. And putting whole red ones on your grill looks like sausages or hot dogs.
Our Experience Making BBQ Grill Cupcakes
We are still on the camping themed kick for our lessons and I thought this would be so much fun to make! We love grilling in general. And this is a fun treat that I think we will make again in the summer, Memorial day and even for Father’s day.
My kids loved making these. It’s a messy, fun, edible craft and treat. I know if we make them again we may make a few changes, but I think they turned out great regardless. And my kids had a blast not only making these grill cupcakes, but get tickled that they got to make dessert for us all.
Materials
- Favorite Boxed Cake Mix (We used King Arthur’s Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix)
- Muffin Tins
- Baking Cups
- Black Candy Melts
- Orange Frosting (Either bought or vanilla frosting + orange food coloring)
- Goetze Vanilla Caramel Cream Candies
- Mike and Ikes (Or any gummy candies. We used the sour flavor of Mike and Ikes.)
- Parchment Paper
- Washable Non-Toxic Marker
- Toothpicks
- Frosting Bag
- Scissors
Instructions
Prepare your cupcakes as directed by the package.
Once they’re finished let they completely cool off.
Take a piece of parchment paper and draw out your grill. A circle with multiple lines. Do this multiple times and allow them to dry.
Melt your candy melts in 30 second intervals, stirring each time.
Fill your piping bag with the warm candy mixture. Cut a small tip off the frosting decorating bag.
Flip the parchment paper over, so the marker side is down and start tracing the melted candy over the lines. Make as many as you need and place in the fridge for them to harden.
Shape your candy. Use your (freshly washed) fingers to mold the caramels into meat shapes. We went with steaks.
Cut up some of your gummy candies and place them on the toothpicks to make kababs.
Frost your cupcakes with orange frosting.
Place your completely cooled candy grills on top.
Add the rest of your candies on top and enjoy!
Notes
- If you don’t let them cool completely the frosting will melt off/in the cupcake. Which will taste good, but not make for a good “fire.”
- Place the parchment paper on a cookie sheet to move the candy grills easier.
- If you can’t find black candy melts, then you can use a little black food coloring in white candy melts.
- You can use black icing to make the grill marks, the gel kind would work best.
- If you don’t have cupcake liners, make sure you grease your cupcake pan so the cake doesn’t stick.
- You can make your own frosting using powder sugar, butter (or cream cheese), vanilla extract, and a little milk. Add some orange food coloring after.
More Camping Fun From Kids Activities Blog
How did your BBQ Cupcakes turn out?
