Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Children of the 80's, remember these lovelies?  It's not just me is it?  They were a favorite of mine as a child and I'm trying to bring them back.  My kids adore them.  They love "trick food" where you think you're getting one thing, but really it's something else.  You just use a regular cake mix and divide it evenly between 24 ice cream cones instead of cupcake papers.  I set my  cones up in a cupcake pan so they're easier to move around and then bake as I would normal cupcakes.  It's OK if some of the cake spills out over the edge while it's baking.  That just looks like melting ice cream.  You don't even need fancy cake decorating tools to do the frosting.  I use a zip-loc bag with the corner cut off.  Canned frosting works great (you'll need two cans to make them look really good) , but I like this buttercream frosting recipe I found here.  It's fluffy, super-sweet and delicious and it is a beautiful pure white.  One batch makes more than plenty to do a batch of these cupcakes.

Vanilla Buttercream

• 1 1/4 cups shortening (do NOT use butter flavored!)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp clear butter flavor
• 2 lbs confectioner's sugar

1. Beat the shortening with an electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Add the salt, milk, vanilla, and butter flavor. Beat until mixed. The mixture will be sort of watery at this point, so it's ok if it's not completely homogeneous.
3. Add the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. Mix well after each addition.
4. Once all of the sugar has been added, keep on mixing for about 5-7 minutes until your icing is nice and fluffy!
5. Icing will keep in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

So fun for a birthday party!!

P.S.  You also need to know how to eat them. : D   For maximum enjoyment, you have to break the bottom of the cone off and use it to scrape off half of the frosting.  That way you get a better frosting to cake ratio all the way down.  Enjoy!