Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

You will  need:

Boxed cake mix ( I used Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix)

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

Flat bottom ice cream cones (comes in a box of 18 or 24)

Cupcake pans

Foil

Frosting ( I used three different kinds. A betty Crocker whipped strawberry frosting, a pack of Hershey Smores Frosting, and a canned Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting)

decorations (This is optional. For this one I used colored sprinkles, red sugar, chocolate sprinkles, red M&Ms and chocolate syrup)

Make The Cake:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

Follow the direction on the cake box mix. I used Pillsbury Funfetti Cake mix and it called for 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil and 1 cup water. Mix those ingredients up.

Prep the Cones:

It is important to make sure that the cones are stable when baking. So, put foil on top of the cupcake baking pans and poke holes into them to put the ice cream cones in.

Then pour in about 2/3 of cake batter into the cone. You need to leave room for the cake to rise or risk having a spilled mess.

Bake the Cake

Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Don’t worry about burning the cones. They will be fine.

The cakes are done when the toothpick comes out clean when you poke it.

When I searched on the internet, a lot said to put batter up to the inner rim. But, since this was my first time making them and I do not have the luxury of time to redo them as the party I need to bring this to is in 3 hours, I only put in a little over half. This resulted in a nice mound just on top of the cones. I did have some batter left to make 6 more cupcakes.

After baking, poke a hole at the bottom . I don’t really know why, but according to my internet search, this supposedly retains the moisture of the cake without having the moisture be all absorbed by the cones.

Now for the fun part….

Decorate

I had three different kinds of frosting. A Pillsbury canned vanilla frosting that already came with a swirly tip, a pack of premade Hershey Smores flavored chocolate frosting, and a tub of whipped Betty Crocker strawberry frosting. If you’ll ask why I have three, it’s because I could not make up my mind as to what frosting flavor I liked best and since this was my first time frosting cupcakes, I wasn’t sure which of the three would be easy to use.

The Canned Vanilla Frosting was very convenient to use. No mixing and no mess. I did leave it in a mug of hot water for a couple of minutes to soften the frosting inside to make using it easier. It was easy, however, if you are impatient like me, there is  a wait time before the frosting comes out of the nozzle. My pre-arthritic fingers were also a bit painful pressing on the nozzle the whole time, but the end result was a perfect white swirl that I topped with colored sprinkles, a dab of chocolate syrup and a red M&M.

The Chocolate Smores Frosting was stiff for me. A search on the internet said that I can whip it with a hand held mixer to add volume and make it fluffy and/or mix in some Cool Whip. I just used the mixer and I think it really didn’t increase in volume nor turned softer than how it was. I did knead the packing before I put it in my bowl, but I feel that it really did not make any difference. I put it in a piping bag with a basic round tip after blending it and swirled it on the cupcake cones. The result was still nice. I topped it with some vanilla frosting at the top to make it look like it was topped with whipped cream. Then I sprinkled it with chocolate sprinkles and added the red M&M for a finishing touch.

The Betty Crocker whipped strawberry frosting was the best. All I needed was transfer it into a piping bag and it was ready to go. It was easy, fluffy, and smooth. It came out nicely swirled on top of the cupcake cone and I just added red sugar sprinkles and a red M&M. I am certain that for the next time I'd be making cupcakes, I would go for this one.

 

Transportation

Cupcakes are easier to transport. You could easily buy cupcake pans that come with a cover that make carrying them easy while keeping the décor intact. The cupcake cones were a bit tricky. So I bought a cake box from Walmart, made holes in them, decorated it with flowers, and stuck the cupcake cones in them. This made it carrier-friendly, stable, and presentable.

Storing

As for storing, I really do not have enough information on this. I was trying to do an internet search so I could figure out how soon I can start making the cupcake cones before serving them. All my searches said to serve it immediately because the cake will transfer moisture to the cones and hey wouldn’t be crunchy if left for a long time. So I suggest, should you decide to make these, that you have ample time to make them on the day of the party itself. All in all I spent about 2 hours from prep time to cleaning up.

In the end, I find that these are too sweet for my taste, but the kids LOVED them (while the parents were left to deal with all their sugar high kiddos). Next time, I think I would use dark chocolate cake to counter the sweet frosting.

I would have to say that I didn’t do bad for my first time.