We All Scream for Ice Cream...Cone Cupcakes!

Wow....is it really the second week of July already??  Where did the time go?  I had all of these plans to post tons of recipes over the summer, but sadly, I have posted not a one since May.  On the bright side, I have been having a great summer with my kiddos, family, and many of our great friends.  Much fun in the pool, up north, and cooking out.  Summer will be over all too soon.

I have been baking, though, and do have some fun, summery recipes to share.  I'm going to start with these adorable ice cream cones cupcakes because they are simple and cute.  And let's face it.   Who wouldn't love a cupcake, baked in a cone, and decorated to look like an ice cream cone....right?

First of all, I will confess that I used a boxed yellow cake mix to make the cupcakes.  I made these on a whim one day and decided to go the easy route.  Go ahead...judge me if you must.  :)  Second, don't underestimate how few "perfect" cones there are in a box of ice cream cones.  You may have to settle for only sort of broken.  I went through 2 boxes to get 12, of what I considered to be, acceptable cones.  In retrospect, I think I may have gone overboard.  Imagine.  However, you don't want them to have holes in them or to be too broken on the sides, as the batter will spill out and bake out of those holes and cracks.

Now, I have read a couple of blogs about making these cupcakes.  The primary complaint was the risk of them toppling over on the way to the oven, or in the oven.  There is even a pan made specifically for baking ice cream cone cupcakes to eliminate this problem!  Well, since I don't have one of those super special pans, I decided to just stand my batter filled cones up in my mini cupcake pans.  Genius!  I thought it worked great, but you still have to be careful.

After you have filled your cones with the batter of your choice, bake them as you normally would.  They will come out of the oven looking like this...

Fun, right?!  Now just frost them with your favorite frosting and decorate as desired.  I use vanilla butter cream piped on with the Wilton 1M tip.  Then I decorated them with sprinkles.  I was so pleased with the way they turned out!

These are really fun cupcakes to make.  My kids loved them.  I did find out, though, that they are definitely one of those make and eat in the same day cupcakes.  The cones don't hold up well if you try to store them. They absorb the moisture from the cake and wilt.  Found this out the hard way.

Oh, and one more tip....after you decorate them, they will be kinda top heavy.  Learned that the hard way, too.  :)