Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Easy ice cream cone cupcakes - Kid friendly!

You know you want me. Funfetti Cake, vanilla buttercream, sprinkles.... Come on, take a bite.



This cupcake is nothing but fun. There is no fancy recipe. No complicated fillings. Your kids can make these.... mine did. Well, my kids and a couple kids I claim as mine.

This is seriously so easy there isn't even a recipe. The kids picked out confetti sprinkled cake mix, so we mixed it up according to the directions on the package. Set the cupcakes in muffin tins and scoop batter into them. Inside the cone there is a place where the bottom cylindrical part stops and the curvy top part begins. That's your batter line. Bake them about 20 minutes and let them cool. The cake puffs up all pretty and ice creamish. If a little drips over, don't worry about it. The kids thought it looked more ice creamish. Yes, ice creamish is a word.

We made vanilla buttercream from this recipe, but you could certainly use the stuff from the can. For that yummy birthday cake flavor, make your own. My pretty 14 year old niece made the buttercream this time, and it came out perfectly.

Vanilla Buttercream

1 C butter, softened
4 C powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar, alternating with a Tbsp of milk if needed to get a smooth consistency. The frosting should hold a soft peak if you pull a spoon of it up out of the bowl.

To get the ice cream cone look, you really need to pipe the frosting. I had the girls use a pastry bag with a star tip, but you can cut the corner off a ziploc bag and squeeze it on that way. If you want swirly colors in the frosting like we did with the blue, just take a portion (about 1/3) of the frosting and mix in some food coloring. When you fill the pastry (or ziploc) bag, fill one side of it with the colored frosting, then fill the remainder with the white. It mixes up when you squeeze it out! Throw some sprinkles on top and you're done.

The kids had fun decorating these, and they had fun eating them. There is a time for fancy cupcakes, and there is a time to let the kids dig their hands in and do something fun with cooking.  The next cupcakes I make, I'll do grown-up style, but these... these were for the kids!


YUM!

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