Before I begin, let me say that my participation in this insanely adorable endeavor was purely as a sous chef; these creatures are my friend Erin’s creation from top to bottom. But even though I cannot take credit for them, they clearly need to be blogged about.
They are cupcakes. Made in ice cream cones. With unicorn horns. AND EYELASHES.
I mean.
When Erin told me that she was planning to make these for her daughter’s fifth birthday party based off of a Pinterest post she found somewhere, my initial reaction was “You cannot make cupcakes in ice cream cones; I don’t care what Pinterest says.” And she was with me on this – we simply couldn’t imagine how either the cupcakes or the cones (or both) wouldn’t end up soggy or burned (or both). And yet.
Best part: Because Erin and I are both on board with corner-cutting whenever and wherever possible, these turned out to be way easier to make than they look.
What You Need:
- White fondant (for the horns)
- Edible gold dust
- Cake ice cream cones
- Funfetti cake mix (or the cake mix of your choice)
- Food decorating pens
- Icing (we used Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip for the first layer and Betty Crocker Vanilla with a few drops of red food coloring added for the second)
- Sprinkles in the color of your choice
What You Do:
1. To make the horns, lightly dust a clean, dry surface with powdered sugar. Smoosh up your fondant until it softens and becomes malleable, then roll out logs approximately 6″ long. Fold each log in half, and twist to make the horns. Place the horns on parchment paper, dust them with edible gold dust, and set them aside for the time being.
2. Prepare the cupcake batter according to package directions. Pour the batter into the cones, but remember: it will expand and poof up, so leave the top part of the cone (the part that sort of protrudes) empty.
3. Set the cones in a cupcake pan (just to make your life easier; this’ll help keep them from falling over) and bake according to package directions. Note: Erin did a test batch, and found that she needed to turn down the heat slightly from what the package specified to keep the tops from getting too brown.
Awwwwww
4. Once the cupcake-cones have cooled, use your decorator pens to draw little faces on the cones (bonus points for hearts).
5. Pour the sprinkles into a bowl, and fill a pipette with your first frosting (we used Rainbow Chip for this, so we had to make sure to use a pipette with a big enough opening to let the chips through). Do you have to use a pipette for this step? Nope; you’re going to end up covering the icing in sprinkles. But I personally think pipettes make the frosting process way easier.
6. Dip that first layer of icing into your bowl of sprinkles.
7. Using a pipette (this time you do really need one), make a little icing rosette using your second type of icing (we used vanilla with a couple of drops of red food coloring to turn it that perfect unicorn-y shade of pink).
8. Throw that horn on top…
And ta da.
Too. Cute.
