Kitchen Disasters and Funfetti Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

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Walk Through The Bible In One Year**
Week 24 reading plan Psalm 81 through 118    Click on the colored link to read each day’s scripture.    Monday Psalm 81-87, Tuesday Psalm 88-91, Wednesday Psalm 92-100, Thursday Psalm 101-104, Friday Psalm 105-106, Saturday Psalm 107-110, Sunday Psalm 111-118

When our family gets together for our bi-annual play date, we all take turns cooking the lunch meal and the night meal.  This year the Chief and I served Chicken Enchilada Casserole,  Mexican Stuffed Pasta Shells, tossed salad and chips & salsa.  For dessert I opted for a family favorite, Tommy Cake.

We had 10 kids under the age of 12 and I wanted to give them something special for dessert that they could eat on-the-go since they were mostly in constant motion! I was thinking about something they could easily hold in their hands without a plate and fork.  I am not sure when I stumbled upon the memory of making ice cream cone cupcakes when my boys were little, but I did.  You will have to excuse me for the lack of pictures. Continue reading and you will understand…

A quick internet search refreshed my memory on how easy these are to make.  I needed some cones (which I found several sizes and COLORS at Walmart), a cake mix (I chose the Funfetti because my grown-up niece, Cathy, loves Funfetti) and icing.  Eggs, water and oil I would already have on hand.  Simple. Done.

First hurdle — can’t make them ahead of time.  The cake moisture soaks into the cone and the whole thing gets soggy.  They will store uncovered for a day, but that is about it.  No problem for me … I will just whip them up in the afternoon on the day I am serving them. Sounds simple enough.  Everyone else will be together on the beach, sunning, boating, building sand castles, but hey – I wanted to make something special for the precious little ones 🙂

I decided I would be smarter than the average dummy and use little cones and place them in little muffin tins.  That way they will stand up easily to fill and bake.  So far so good.  Then I planned 12 larger cones for the bigger kids! So far so good.

Made the cake. Filled the cupcakes. Carefully placed each muffin tin in the oven.  5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes … I wonder if the little ones are done?  I had better check.  Carefully I opened the oven door, carefully tapped the top of the cake in one little cone, oops, oh no — it’s tipping, oops, hot! careful, grab the cone, hot! hot! the next one tipped, then the next one tipped, a dominoes effect and now they are spilling over into the oven.  Quick! what should I do?  Frankly, I was so stunned I stepped back, looked into the oven and just stood there.  At this point 6 little cupcakes and at least 4 of the bigger cupcakes were laying on their sides spilling their not-so-funfetti cake batter all over the oven.  I really should have just turned off the oven, taken a picture, cleaned up the mess and served the little brats Tommy Cake.  Oops, I mean little darlings 🙂

Just then I snapped into action, grabbing hot pads and paper towels and a BIG spatula.  I removed the tipsy cakes trying not to even remotely come close to the ones still standing.  I used the BIG spatula to scoop up the quickly burning goo from the bottom of the oven in hopes of keeping the now smokey kitchen from setting off the fire alarm.  Some of the cones were beyond repair, others went back into the oven.  My creative genius decided the cake spilling down the sides of the cones would actually look like ice cream melting.  Any chance?

While the cakes cooled – I cleaned the oven.

I had such cute icing for them … pink for the girls, blue for the boys.  Colored cones of pink, blue, and purple.  Oh, they could have been so cute.  But by the time I frosted them I just wanted to get it over with.  I didn’t “pipe” on the icing in any kind of decorative way.  I got a knife, slathered it on, threw on some sprinkles and headed for the beach, where I should have been all along.

The kids? How did they like them, you may be wondering?    The absolute moment I took them outside to the picnic tables the children were gathering around, jumping up and down, and calling out their favorite colors.  At that moment it was all worth it.  They didn’t care how lopsided they were, that the frosting wasn’t applied perfectly, or that 6 of the cupcakes were back in the trash can in the kitchen!  You just gotta love that about kids!

Here is what I have learned about Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

1.  Using regular size cones and regular size muffin tins, place cupcake liner in muffin tin, fill 2/3 full of cake batter. Place cone upside down on the batter and BAKE!  When the cake is done, remove from pan, take off the paper and the cupcake will be sitting pretty on the top of the cone with some of the cake baked down into the cone.  This is also possible with the small cones or with sugar cones since they are baking upside down.

2.  After baking, place a little spot of frosting on the bottom of the cone and it will stand up nice and pretty on a plate or back in the muffin tin for serving.

3.  Kids love ’em and they are totally worth the effort!

~ Blessings, Catherine