Soft Serve Twist Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

There is something about me you need to understand before we proceed.

I hate summer.

There, I've said it. I know, it makes no sense. Everyone loves summer - a time of fun in the sun, freedom from your studies, and getting to have super-fun mani-pedi dates with all your girlfriends so you can show off your cute nail polish in your brand new, fashionable wedge sandals.

I hate all those things.

Go ahead, judge me. I know, I'm a weirdo. But maybe you'll forgive me by the end of this post, because you know what I do love about summer? The ice cream truck! And the soft-serve ice cream that comes with it. My favourite is choco-vanilla twist with sprinkles...

Of course, this was all a big awkward segue into the fact that I felt like making ice cream cone cupcakes. Yes, those are cake! And guess what? The choco-vanilla twist goes all the way down.

If you know what I mean. Which is of course that the inside is swirled, too. What else could that even mean? Jeez, what were you thinking?

Anyway, to get the interior swirl effect, first prepare a batch each of your favourite white/yellow and chocolate cake batter, or a half-recipe, if you don't want to make 3 dozen of these! If you want my recipes, the chocolate cake is here and the yellow cake is here (uh, just omit the hot chili flakes. Yeah.)

Fill two piping bags with your batters, and tape them together near the tips so you can squeeze both bags at once. I totally got that idea from Bakerella, though I've made this type of cake before by putting 2 batters in the same bag. This was much simpler!

Carefully pipe swirls of batter into your ice cream cones. You'll notice I've stood mine in a cupcake pan for baking. When you pipe these, make sure you get right into the bottom sections so your cakes don't sink during baking.

Whatever you do, don't fill them this much! Leave about a half inch from the inner rim.

Use pie weights - or like I have, dried beans, to fill around the cones. This keeps them upright very well when they're being put into or taken out of the oven.

This picture isn't sideways. You're talking crazy.

Make at least as many mini cupcakes as you've made of the cones. You can swirl them too, if you like.

So, why did I tell you to be careful not to overfill your cones? Well, see, if they're overfilled, and they rise past the rim, they apparently can spill down the sides of the cones and make a big terrible mess.

Like that. Euugh. Luckily, they didn't all spill over, but I think we all learned a valuable lesson. Like I'm always saying, learn from my mistakes! I was able to save many of these. Others... the evidence had to be eradicated.

A dirty job, but some had to do it.

To decorate the cupcakes, once fully cooled, whip up your favourite vanilla and chocolate frostings, and cram them into the same piping bag. (By the way, my vanilla frosting is the same as the chocolate, except you omit the cocoa powder and up the icing sugar by a cup. So easy!) Try to keep them in their own half of the bag for the most part, but it's okay if they blend a bit. After all, a twist cone can be like that, too.

Yes, filling this piping bag was quite messy. But heck, messy is fun!

If your cake extends above the cone's outer rim, use a serrated knife to trim away the excess.

Pipe a little swirl of frosting on your trimmed cone cake.

Unwrap a mini cupcake, invert it, and smoosh it down on the frosting. This is kinda my favourite part. Or maybe I just like the word smoosh.

Smoosh smoosh smoosh!

It was very hard to get pics of the next step, so use the magic of imagination here. What you want to do is hold the cone in your off-hand, and wielding the piping bag in your writing hand, simply pipe a generous swirl of frosting along the outer rim of the cone cake, twisting up around the mini cupcake and culminating in a final swirl on top.

Hmm, what else?

Sprinkles!! Oh, how I love sprinkles. Especially rainbow jimmies. The best.

Mmm... if I have more excuses to make tasty fake-out treats like this, maybe this summer won't be too bad.

Hubby ate one of these on the bus on his way to work. At 10:30 PM. On a cool night. I really wish I could have been there. I hope there were double-takes.

In any case, these are super-fun to make, and messy as heck to eat, and a total party from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Ho boy, Father's Day is coming up fast, isn't it? No idea what I'm gonna do for my Dad this year. If I think of something, I'll let y'all know.

Until next time!