I am SOOO excited about this month’s baking corner!! I’m pretty sure this is my favorite dessert I’ve made to date, and can’t wait to share it with you! Today I bring you Ice Cream Cupcakes, just in time for summer! Perfect, yes? I found the recipe on Pinterest a while ago, and I knew immediately this was something I would make one day, I just needed the perfect occasion…and seriously, what better occasion than my husband’s birthday??
Now in the past, I’ve taken up endeavors that involved 7 layer ice cream cakes…yes, 7 layers. Like I mentioned last month, I tend to go all out. Haha, or just get carried away! I always like to try to “top” what I made the previous year, so my cakes just kind of grew and grew. True story: for my mom’s birthday cake one year I made a 10-ish layer cake that had to be cut with a jig-saw. Haha! That was quite the cake! But I digress.
This year I decided to try something different, and a little more crowd pleasing, so cupcakes it became! On to the baking!!
When I make big desserts like this I do try to have at least 2 flavors that are completely different to provide options! I knew Devil’s food cake and Mint Chocolate Chip was a no brainer, and at the store I had a last minute epiphany and grabbed the birthday cake ice cream and confetti cake. Best.decision.ever! Haha. The ingredients:
- Cake Mix
- Pudding Mix (cook and serve)
- Oil, eggs, and water (as directed on the cake mixes)
- Your favorite ice cream flavors!
- Frosting
- Sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, or any other fun topping!
-And fun cupcake papers!
I made the chocolate/mint chip cupcakes first. Helpful hint to get really moist cake? Mix in a box of pudding mix! Seriously, you won’t regret it! But make sure you get the cook and serve kind, not the instant. (You can see in my ingredient picture I bought the wrong kind of vanilla pudding! Whoops). Before you get started, make sure your ice cream is set out to soften. It will be SO much easier to work with when it’s soft.
So, mix up the cake as directed on the box, and then put a scoop of batter into the cupcake pan. I did about a tablespoon in each chocolate upcake, and it was WAY too much cake for my liking…I would rather have more ice cream than cake, but that’s just a personal preference. :) For the confetti cake, I ended up putting about ½-3/4 of a tablespoon in, and it was perfect!
I should add, I made 30 cupcakes each, and had enough batter left over – with no more cupcake trays – for a couple of small cakes that I eventually just frosted. I also ran out of the birthday cake ice cream after 24 cupcakes, but was fine for all 30 of the chocolate! Probably because they had more cake.
Bake the cupcakes for about 10 minutes and then let cool. You can see in the picture on the right how high the chocolate cupcakes filled up…and these were my smallest.
After the cupcakes have cooled, and the ice cream has softened, just scoop the ice cream into each cupcake! I scooped the ice cream with a spoon but used my fingers to kind of move it around how I wanted it (to those that ate the cupcakes, I promise I washed my hands!). I just found that a little easier. I piled my ice cream as high as I could!
Then stick in the freezer (still in the cupcake pan so they hold their shape) and let freeze! Because we have a side-by-side freezer, my regular cupcake tins couldn’t fit, so I had to buy these smaller ones…but they worked perfectly! If I had had more room in the freezer I totally would have made more. :) Let them freeze for an hour or so, and then you can frost them! Again, totally a personal choice. :)
I’m normally a complete chocolate girl, but I loved the look of the vanilla icing with mini chocolate chips, so that’s what I did for the mint chip cupcakes! And then confetti cake frosting with sprinkles! Because sprinkles make everything that much better.
After I frosted them, I stuck them back in the freezer until it was time to serve them! They were a huge hit, and they actually tasted good AND looked pretty, definitely a new accomplishment in my baking world. :)
YUM!!!
I will definitely be making these again!! I’m already dreaming of other combinations I’d like to try:
- Devil’s food cake and rocky road ice cream, topped with mini marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, and hot fudge
- Devil’s food cake with chocolate peanut butter ice cream, topped with chunks of Reese’s
- White cake with peach ice cream, topped with fresh peaches! (Who am I kidding, that one’s for my husband) :)
The possibilities are endless! What are your ideas? What sounds good to you??
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by Karen Allen
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I say cut it! Your long hair is beautiful, but it’s always fun to switch things up. I surely don’t regret cutting mine. And as Rick pointed out, it can really help with head and neck pain – I was starting to get a lot of pain and tension in my neck when my hair got long, and that went away when I cut my hair short.
1: I LOVED Forgotten garden, and of course I loved As Sure As the Dawn. 2: I really like your long hair, but if you get irritated by it more than you love it…maybe cut it? :-)
Personally, I like the long hair…it is a good look for you, and more mature. Of course, you know that Becky had long hair like that and ended up cutting it to ease pain in her head & neck from the weight of the hair, so who knows? At least you have hair ( I’m not jealous, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not)
You know my vote before I give it: NOOOOOOOOOO on chop! (But you are gorgeous, whatever you do!)