How to Make a Campfire Cake...It's SO Easy!

Over the years, I've made all of my children's birthday cakes (except my oldest's very first). Being a bit over-eager, I often attempted difficult cakes. Some came out great...

 Others, not so much...

But last weekend I made one of THE easiest cakes I've ever made...and my little boy loved it! I posted a photo of it on Facebook, and thought I'd leave it at that. But so many people "liked" and commented on the photo, I thought I'd share it - and the super easy directions for making it - here.

How to Make a Campfire Cake

You will need:
A cake and frosting
Twix candy bars
Life Savers in red, yellow, and orange
Parchment paper
Rimmed baking sheet

1. Bake the cake, using your favorite from scratch recipe, or a boxed cake mix. (I admit it; I used a cake mix, even though it's not as healthy!) You can make any type of cake you want. I made a double layer chocolate cake.) Let the cake cool completely.

2. Frost the cake. I recommend doing a crumb coating (i.e., a rough coat of frosting), then letting the cake sit in the refrigerator for an hour or more. Then do a second frosting; this time it should be easy to make it smooth and crumb-free. If you won't be serving the cake right away, pop it back into the fridge.

3. Make the "fire:" Place a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet. Place Life Savers about 1/2 inch apart on the parchment paper. Use only red, yellow, and orange candies. Pop into the oven and turn the temperature to 300 degrees F. Check on the candies every minute or so until they start melting, then watch closely. As soon as the candies are completely melted, remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let the melted candy cool completely.*

4. Shortly before serving the cake: Pile a little extra frosting - 3 or 4 tablespoons, I'd say - in the middle of the cake. This will give the "logs" on the cake a foundation to stick to. Place Twix candy bars in the center of the cake, to look like wood logs.

5. Break the melted and cooled Life Saver sheets to form the cake's fire. Stick the larger "flames" in the center of the logs. Place smaller "flames" in between the Twix "logs."

You're done!

* I think lollipops would work well, too, though I've not tried it. I would try to remove as much of the lollipop sticks as possible before melting, then, once the candy is fully melted, use tweezers to carefully remove the remaining sticks before the candy cools.