Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.

Summer!

Things I'm excited about, in no particular order: 

Sunny weather. New flip-flops. Blue skies. 

Fresh berries.

True Blood, season four.

Beaches. The ocean. Sand in my toes.

Barbeques. Block parties. Fireworks!

Camping. Hiking. S'mores. 

Fairs. Ferris wheels. Funnel cakes and fried Oreos.

... more hiking. 

Midnight releases of Harry Potter and Breaking Dawn. At least seventeen times.

And these cupcakes. 

Cutest

cupcakes

ever.

I've never been so excited to bake a cupcake or to share a recipe with you.... but then I've never baked anything inside an ice cream cone either.

... note to self: find more things than can be baked inside ice cream cones.

Looking at this now... it's obvious they should've been dipped in or drizzled with some kind of dark chocolate fudge sauce. Swimsuit season, what? It's not officially summer. Until then... fudge sauce. Lots and lots of fudge sauce. 

Also: Walmart ice cream cones tastes like paper. And they break. Easily. Fun fact for you. Ask me how I know.

Just in case you're not totally convinced by their cuteness,   I'll break this down for you. 

Rich chocolate cupcakes (confession: cake mix. Triple chocolate fudge cake mix. I don't normally like using boxed mixes, but sometimes it's 10 PM & you want to bake cupcakes. It happens, right?) Crispy cones. Thick swirls of buttercream frosting looking like vanilla soft-serve.

Oh and sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles.

What better way to celebrate the unofficial start to summer then with a fistful of sugar and cake?

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Printable Recipe

24 flat-bottom ice cream cones
1 batch of cupcakes (either homemade or from a boxed mix)
1 batch of your favorite frosting (I used my favorite vanilla buttercream)
Sprinkles!

Preheat oven according to recipe or boxed cake mix. Place an ice cream cone standing up in each of the wells of a 24-cup muffin pan.

Prepare cupcake batter according to directions and spoon into ice cream cones, filling them 2/3 of the way full.

Bake according to directions, for about 20-23 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. 

When cupcakes have cooled, prepare your frosting and pipe on top in big generous swirls (I used a Wilton #1M tip for these cupcakes). Decorate with...

Source: Adapted from Betty Crocker.