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Do you remember last fall I was so excited to bake for our first preschool bakesale?

Then came one of those freakish fall heat waves we have in southern California, and by 5 minutes into the bake sale my chocolate-dipped pretzel rods had melted into a sticky mess.  Didn’t sell a single one.  I should have taken a photo for you but I was too sad.  Picture that horror movie The House of Wax and just imagine everyone covered in chocolate and sprinkles.

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Me and baking don’t naturally go together. I still confuse baking soda with baking powder.  But I’m determined to figure it out.  And it’s a fun activity to do with my daughter, who is suddenly an amazingly helpful person when there is a possiblity of spoon licking in her near future.

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So for the spring bake sale, we went with “Cupcake Cones.”  They look like ice cream cones, but the ice cream is actually a frosted cupcake, so no melting!

HOW TO MAKE CUPCAKE CONES

You need 24 flat-bottomed ice cream cones, but buy extra because some are aways broken.  (And the broken ones have no calories.)

Then open up a box of cake mix, which produces about 24 cupcakes baked in muffin tins.  Prepared the batter as instructed on the box, which usually involves water, eggs and oil.  Don’t do like I did and forget to add the eggs until after you’ve already put the batter in the muffin tins, because that will really slow you down.

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You can use any flavor cake mix – we went with Devil’s Food because duh.

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The cones go right on top of the cupcake batter and survive very nicely in the oven.  Bake however long the box says, roughly 18 minutes, and you can check to see when a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

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While they bake, the cupcakes magically fill the insides of the cones and leave you with an ice cream scoopish dome on top.

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Let them cool 30 minutes, because impatience gets you broken bits.  Either way you can cover your mistakes with icing.

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I opted for a a four-pack of food coloring and mixed one whole can of vanilla frosting with each color (out of sheer laziness), but we definitely had some leftovers.  I think 3 cans divided would have sufficed.

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Then you can decorate with sprinkles or any topping you like.

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A few cones fell under the weight of my baking hubris.

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But most turned out great.

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Except I had a momentary, “How the hell am I supposed to get these into the car?” freakout.

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Our brilliant babysitter cut cone-shaped holes in a cardboard box.  You can also buy a cone stand if you are that organized.

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I felt a swell of mom-petitive pride when our cupcake cones arrived safely to the bake sale and did not melt.

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My pride took a hit when another mom showed up with cupcake cones made from scratch, topped with buttercream frosting swirled from piping bags.  Again, I did not take a picture.  Must manage my emotions better for the sake of the blog.

I know there was at least one very happy customer.

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Here’s the recipe in review.  There are tons of varieties on the internet, but this one I adapted from Betty Crocker is very easy:

Ingredients:

Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

1              box cake mix, any flavor
24+        flat-bottom ice cream cones
3             containers frosting (any flavor)
any #      food coloring of your choice

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
Make cake batter as directed on box. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (two-thirds full). Place ice cream cone upside down on batter in each cup.
Bake 16 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean (cones may tilt on batter). Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Remove paper baking cups. Generously frost cake with frosting, and decorate as desired. Store loosely covered.

Happy Baking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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