Do you smile and get giddy like a 2-year old when you see a cupcake that is disguised as an ice cream cone?  If you don’t, you may want to check for a pulse, because I probably could have named this post ‘happiness in a cone’.  I first made ice cream cone cupcakes back when I was a teen summer camp counsellor looking after pre-school aged kids.  The utter joy the campers got from helping to create these and gobbling them up was priceless.  As wise and mature teenaged counsellors, we made sure to serve these to the kidlets right before we sent them home with mom and dad so we got to experience the joy, and parents got to deal with the resulting sugar high afterwards *insert evil laughter*.

What’s in it? This simple recipe involves gluten-free cake mix from Pamela’s Products, egg-replacer from Ener-G, homemade frosting, and gluten-free cones from Let’s Do.  These cones look just like it’s gluten-filled original except the texture is slightly little less crunchy but still delicious.  These cupcakes would be perfect for a birthday party for kids of any age – I actually made these for my own birthday which happens to be next week.  You can do just about any combination you would do for a normal cupcake – the options are endless.  This version happens to be gluten/nut/egg/dairy-free – so almost allergen-free but still super yummy.  A rare combo indeed.

Specialty Bakeware Not Required: Now I’m not normally one to acquire too much specialty bakeware, as living in a condo means very limited storage, but I couldn’t resist this ice cream cone baker that was on sale.  You don’t need it to make this, you just need some tin foil and a muffin pan – there’s a great tutorial here.

Test one first…  I recommend doing one test cupcake before doing the entire batch.  The cone only needs to be about 2/3 full with cake batter (using a small ice cream scoop or one tablespoon at a time), however, different cake recipes rise differently.  Once you’ve tested one cone, you can fill the rest of the cones with the right amount of batter.  Too much batter will result in overflow, look messy, and messy up your oven too.  Once these cuties are baked, poke a small hole in the bottom of each cone with a fork to allow the steam to come out so the cones don’t get soggy. 

MMmmm Fudgy Frosting… Most people will agree that the best part of a cupcake is the frosting.  This fudgy frosting is dairy-free thanks to chocolate chips from Enjoy Life and coconut oil. This recipe is adapted from Elena’s Pantry – a great gluten-free resource.  The instant espresso powder gives the frosting a more deeply chocolate-y tasting.  The heart-healthy coconut oil allows me to enjoy my birthday cupcakes guilt-free, especially since birthday calories don’t count, right?  I chose an unscented coconut oil so the chocolate flavor wouldn’t compete with coconut, but if you wanted a choco-coconut frosting, scented coconut oil would be perfect.

For garnish, I recommend some white chocolate shavings (contains dairy) or shredded coconut to pretty these up even more.  I considered putting some sprinkles but all the ones I found had wax or shellac as an ingredient so I passed.

I plan to make these cupcake ice cream cones every year for my birthday from now until infinity, so that I always feel like a kid no matter how much older I get.  I hope you enjoy these for your next celebration.