We All Scream for Ice….Cake!

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” Does anyone else remember chanting that as a child?

One of my favorite memories of summertime was the trips we made down to the local Dairy Queen for chocolate dipped ice cream cones. They were so tasty on a hot summer day but they had one big problem, they almost always melted and dripped all over the place before you could even get half done. As a kid I didn’t care, it was great to be covered in chocolate and sticky, melted ice cream. Now that I’m a mom, my outlook has changed a bit.

This summer I decided to create my own chocolate dipped cones. The main difference with mine and DQ’s is that mine don’t drip all over the place. Oh, and one other little thing, mine are made of cake. Here is how to make my Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream Cone Cakes.

1. Gather your supplies.

You will need a muffin tin, heavy duty foil, flat bottomed ice cream cones, scissors, a decorating bag, a coupler, 1-2 bags of dark cocoa candy melts (I used 1 ½ bags for 12 cones), cake batter, and buttecream icing. (Batter and icing not shown in picture.)

2. Prepare your cones.

The most difficult part of baking cake in ice cream cones is getting your cones to stay upright. I had tried several failed attempts until I came up with this method. Cover a muffin tin with a sheet of heavy duty foil. Press down around the muffin openings so that you make an outline of them with your finger. Take your scissors and pierce an “x” shaped slit in the center of each opening. Carefully pull the slit open with your fingers until it is just open enough that you have to gently press your cone into the opening to get it into place. If you did it right you should end up with a snug hold on the cone.

3. Fill your cones.

Fill your ice cream cones with cake batter like you would a cupcake. I like to use a muffin scoop so that I get the same amount of batter in each one. You want the batter to stop just below the ridges inside the cupcake.

4. Bake and cool.

Place your cakes in a preheated oven and bake at the same temperature your recipe calls for with cupcakes. Use the cupcake baking time on your recipe as a guide for length of time but keep checking on them and don’t remove until a toothpick stuck in the center of a cone comes out clean.

One thing I discovered is that, if possible, don’t use cones that have pieces missing from the tops of them because once the batter rises to the level of the gap, it pours down the side.

When cooling the cupcakes I removed them from the muffin tin and carefully placed them on a cooling rack so that the heat from the tin wouldn’t get trapped under the foil and cause condensation to soften the cone bases.

5. Ice cakes.

Once the cakes and the tin were cooled completely I returned the cakes back to the tin to hold them sturdy while decorating.

You want to give your cakes the look of a swirled, soft serve ice cream cone. To do this, place your buttercream icing in a decorating bag fitted with a coupler. Pipe your icing in a circular motion over the top of the cake, building it up until it is the desired height.

6. Freeze cakes and melt chocolate.

Stick the pan of iced cakes in the freezer for about an hour to firm up your icing.

About 10 minutes before it is time to remove the cakes from the freezer you can melt your candy melts. I use a chocolate melting pot when I melt any kind of chocolate but this can also be done using a double boiler or in slow increments in the microwave. Be careful, though, chocolate is very heat sensitive and it doesn’t take much to overheat and ruin your whole batch of chocolate. You basically want it just warm to the touch.

Pour the melted chocolate into a narrow container that is wide enough and tall enough to fit the top of your cone, but not much more. I have tea cups that are the perfect size for this.

7. Dip cakes.

Now comes the fun part. Remove your cones from the freezer. You will notice that your icing has firmed up. Hold a cone by its bottom and turn it upside down as you stick the icing top into the chocolate. Make sure the chocolate comes up high enough to cover all the icing and attach to the top of the cone.

Lift it out of the chocolate and let it drip into the cup for a few seconds. Once the dripping stops, slowly turn it upright and place back into the muffin tin to set up.

Be sure to store your cakes in the muffin tin until it is time to serve them. They are very top heavy and fall over really easy.

After all your cones have been covered you can pour the remaining chocolate into a thin layer on a sheet of wax paper. Once it is set up you can break it into pieces and store in a sealable plastic bag for the next time you need melted chocolate.

8. Enjoy!

The final step in making a Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream Cake is to eat it!

I promise you that kids of all ages will love them; just ask my oldest kid, my husband.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering what they look like on the inside, here is a peek:

I hope your Ice Cream Cakes turn out just as great and I wish everyone a fun and safe Fourth of July.

Until next time, God bless America and Sweet Dreams.