cupcake ice cream cones.

Today I shall just do a short commentary on these cupcake ice cream cones and let the pictures do the rest of the talking. I guess Wordless Wednesday came a little late.

These are really just about the novelty factor. The cupcakes themselves were great- they are based on a vanilla cupcake recipe I've been wanting to try for a while. (I always seem to have an endless list of vanilla cupcake recipes to try.) The seven minute frosting, white, fluffy and piled high on each cupcake cone was chosen for its ability to hold at room temperature and aesthetic appeal. Plus, it isn't too heavy so you can eat more of it at one shot compared to buttercreams, which is definitely a bonus because you have to pipe a mountain of it to achieve that soft serve look. The downside is that it gets a little sweet after a while.

Also, after you get through half of the cone- the mark where you would have already finished your cupcake- you are left with an empty shell, i.e. just the cone itself. If I had thought about it earlier, I would have filled the bottom with some candies or maybe frosting.

I had great fun making these though! Especially when I get to the part where I get to do some major sprinkle spamming. I used three kinds of sprinkles here, can you spot them all? Just be careful not to let these topple over!

Cupcake Ice Cream Cones
recipe for cupcakes adapted from here, frosting recipe adapted from here
makes 10

For the vanilla oreo cupcakes:
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp cake flour
1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cubed and softened
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oreos, crushed into small chunks

For the frosting:
1/2 cup sugar + 2 tsp sugar
2/9 cup water
2 tsp light corn syrup
2 egg whites

For assembly:
10 ice cream cones
Sprinkles etc, for garnishing

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare small cupcake liners.

Whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Beat in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Stir in the egg. Stir in half the milk, beating until the batter is smooth. Stir in the rest of the milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the oreo chunks.

Divide batter amongst the cupcake liners, filling them only halfway. Bake for about 12 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out mostly clean. Cool before trimming the tops such the cupcakes would have a level surface. Eat the excess cake.

Make the frosting: Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir to combine. Heat the syrup until it reaches between 230F without stirring. Meanwhile, start whipping the egg whites. When the egg whites have reached soft peaks, sprinkle in the remaining 2 tsp sugar and continue beating to combine.

Once the syrup reaches around 230F, stream in the syrup while still beating the egg whites. When all the syrup has been poured in, continue whisking the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks and have cooled down. At this point, tint the frosting if desired and use immediately.

Assembly: Slot a cupcake in each ice cream cone. You may have to squish the cupcake in a bit. Fill piping bag with a large round tip and pipe a spiral of frosting on each cupcake. Finish with sprinkles.