ice cream cupcakes

I had an idea to make ice cream cupcakes for Emily's birthday. Last year she enjoyed the ice cream birthday cake I made, and wanted it again. I thought it would be fun to try and make smaller ice cream cakes and came up with the idea of ice cream cupcakes.

OK, so they look a bit like homemade choc tops, but they were still well enjoyed at the birthday party.

Here's how they were made. I used both vanilla and chocolate store-bought ice cream.

STEP 1: Soften the vanilla ice cream. Place in your mixer and beat. While mixing add mini marshmallows and meringues. You need to work quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt too much.

STEP 2: Fill the ice cream cones with this mixture to the top of the cone. I like to add a "surprise" to these, so added a chocolate coated finger biscuit at this stage. Place in the freezer. I left these for 24 hours before I moved to the next stage.

STEP 3: Repeat step 1 with the chocolate ice cream, adding the meringues and marshmallows. This ice cream may need to be frozen slightly before moving onto the scooping stage. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop up the ice cream.

And place the scoop of ice cream over the top of the ice cream cone.

You will have little ice cream cupcakes like below. These need to be returned to the freezer again for about 24 hours, to make sure they are really frozen before the next step.

STEP 4: Melt chocolate. I used dark chocolate. Stand your ice cream cupcakes over a wire rack with a tray underneath (this step gets a little messy). Drizzle the melted chocolate over the ice cream cones and sprinkle with 100's and 1000's (this is a good job for an assistant if one is eagerly standing by).

 

You do need to return these to the freezer as soon as possible, as the ice cream does start to melt. I worked on about 6 ice cream cones at a time, then returned those to the freezer before starting on the next batch.

That's it. Ice cream cupcakes.

A couple of things to point out about these. Firstly they are not the type of "cake" to be made at the last minute. They do take a few days putting them together and freezing in between. Secondly, they are top-heavy and were difficult to arrange nicely. I placed them in a big bowl and handed them out from there.

I'd like to find the little plastic bowls used in the gelato stores if I were making these again, and use those instead of the ice cream cones. I think the gelato bowls would look similar to the patty papers used for cupcakes.

They were very nice and enjoyed by everyone at the party, and were something a little different from the traditional birthday cakes I usually make.

Thanks for visiting. Hope you're having a good weekend.

Cheers

Fiona x