Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

 

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Ingredients for approximately 12 cones:

Vanilla cake mix (or you can buy the individual colored cake mixes)

White chocolate bark (or you can buy milk chocolate if you want a chocolate instead of vanilla look)

Butter cream frosting

Red M&M's or any red candy

Any toppings/candy you prefer - I used sprinkles

Ice cream cones (flat bottom)

Food coloring (unless you buy the individual colored cake mixes)

Ok, so I've added pictures or I know I would have totally confused everyone with my instructions!! Enjoy... I hope ;)

Make batter by combining ingredients for the vanilla cake mix in a large mixing bowl and set aside.  I used a box cake mix this time but you can certainly make yours from scratch. Next you'll want to add the coloring to the batter so you'll need a separate plastic or foam cup for each color of food coloring you'll want to use.  I used five different colors and put several drops of coloring in each cup.  You'll want really deep vibrant colors so don't be greedy....unless you are anti food coloring then you probably shouldn't be reading this post ;)  Add about 2-3 ice cream scoops full of batter to each cup and stir until there is no streaking.

                         

Fill a greased cupcake pan with the batter and bake according to cake instruction.  Repeat until you've used all of your batter.  You can also use the cupcake baking cups if you prefer. I didn't but will for sure next time.

            

         

Next you'll want to crumble the cupcakes and separate each color in a bowl.  The picture below is about what two cupcakes will like in your bowl.  You can certainly do all your colors at once and put in a bigger bowl but this just helped me keep up since it was my first time. Next time I'll probably do that.  Once you get the cupcakes crumbled and separated you'll add about a tablespoon of the butter cream icing to each bowl and mix.  You can use your fingers or if you don't like sticky or messy hands like me you can use a knife or spoon :)  **Your finished product will look and feel something like a play dough consistency.

         

Now you're ready to start rolling balls.  And I mean rolling!  Watch tv, blast music, dance, do something because you'll be a while my friend!  It took me forever since I really didn't know what I was doing.  Then I repeated the process with crumbling, adding icing, and rolling again and again. Next time I'll roll all of them at once.  After you roll each color cupcake, you merge them together.  Grab a ball of each color and put them together as if you're sticking pieces of play dough together.  Then gently but firmly roll into a smoother ball.  I was very particular and neat and realized quickly it doesn't matter.  It's all going inside the cone so it doesn't have to be perfect.  If you have a little helper, that would be helpful!  Mine was super handsome!!

Melt your white chocolate.  I bought one piece of bark that was microwavable. It came with a tray so that just made things simple but you can obviously buy bark chips and melt them according to the directions.  Ok, so after that looooonnnnggg process, you will add the balls to the cones.  I didn't think to do this until afterwards but next time I'll add some candies or chocolate in the bottom of the cones before I stuff them with the balls.  Drumsticks are my fave so it would be like getting the little chocolate treat at the bottom  :)  Forgot to take pics but hopefully you can figure that out!

Dip the tops of the cones in the melted chocolate just enough to cover the top edges.  This helps that ball on top to adhere to the cone once you're ready for dipping.  After dipping the cones in the chocolate add your two cupcake balls.  Refrigerating for a few minutes will help the chocolate harden a bit, adhering the cupcake ball to it.  Next you'll dip your cupcake cones in the white chocolate.  It's ok if it isn't perfect because you'll want it to look like melted ice cream.  You don't have to cover terrible thick because you'll add a second top coat.

        

Refrigerate for a few minutes to allow the chocolate to harden some because you'll dip for a second coat.  Re-dip just the top portion and add the sprinkles and red candy to the top. Only dipping the top will allow it to give it that "drip" look and it will also be enough for your sprinkles to stick.  Be sure to do this fairly quickly before the chocolate dries.  I added my sprinkles and red "cherry" immediately.  **You can add anything here that you like - chopped nuts, shredded coconut, candies, crumbled cookies or cereal, etc.

I put these in the refrigerator overnight since my son's birthday party was the next day. The easiest way I know to store them is in muffin pans.  You can add aluminum foil and poke holes for the cones to be inserted into but I would also stuff the inside of the pan.  I only had wax paper which I don't recommend but you get the point.

This isn't the most sturdy way and obviously will be tough if you make more than 12 or 16, depending on your muffin pan size.  For transport to the party was another issue.  Since the outside was hardened chocolate I was able to gently lay them in a pan in a cooler.  Still made me really nervous though!  Anyway, the finished product was a hit with the kids...and the adults too! 

                         

 

I hope I didn't leave anything out!  You can't ever tell with me!  I found this by looking at a few different YouTube videos and then just merged together some of the ideas.  This entire process took me several hours.  Probably half a day.  I normally would have been so over it but I actually enjoyed every bit of the process.  As I went along, I knew where I would do things differently next go around - to save time and create different looks.  I will definitely be doing this again.  Like my mom used to say...practice makes perfect! :)