Saturday, October 2, 2010

Ice Cream Cupcakes



For my daughter's 3rd birthday I decided to make ice cream cupcakes.  Do you remember these from when you were little?  The thought of them brings me back to the days when all you had to worry about was what you were going to have for lunch!  Anyways, since she is getting to an age of independance, where she wants to do everything herself I thought these would be perfect for her party!


Things you will need:
Cake Mix
Ice Cream Cups (with a flat bottom)
Applesauce

After much research I decided to replace the 1/3 cup vegetable oil that was needed for the cake mix with just about 1/3 cup of apple sauce.  I used Mott's All Natural (no sugar added).  I mixed the cake mix according to the directions on the box, with the applesauce substitue.

I remember my mom making the ice cream cupcakes standing up in the over but when I went to Betty Crocker and SHE suggested that you invert the ice cream cone upside down. So I did a test and here is my scientific experiment for you to review!


Betty's Way

Next, I prepared 3 ice cream cone cupcakes Betty's way.  This called for placing cupcake liner in a muffin  baking pan.  I took an ice cream scoop and filled the liner about 2/3 of the way full.  Place the ice cream cone gently on top.  Don't push the cake batter up into the cone (like I did on 2 of them) because it will make a not-so-pretty cake mark on the rim of your cone.  Just gently place the cone on top.


Sara's Way


Place an ice cream cone in the muffin tin.  Using the ice cream scoop, fill the cone about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. 
 

 I baked these for about 18 minutes (iniitally set the timer for 15 minutes) and keep adding time until I could stick with a toothpick and it came out clean.


The RESULTS

Appearance
When grading these on appearance I will have to say my way produced a cleaner finished product.  In my cones I filled them about 2/3 of the way full, next time I will add a little more batter to each cone so that it will rise to the top of the cone.  Betty's way left the top of the ice cream cone with a harden brown crust (similar to what you would see on the bottom of a cup cake.  From some of the reviews on her site people commented that the cones were top heavy due to the way these were cooked but I didn't find that at all.  I found them to be about the same as my way.  However when I removed the cupcake liner from Betty's way some of the cake actually came off too, making it a difficult surface to apply the icing.


Betty's Way

 Sara's Way

Taste & Texture
With an unanimous vote, my way won again.  These cupcakes were far more moist and delicate, as opposed to Betty's way where the cupcakes were tougher at the top due to the harden crust-like finish.

The Verdict

It looks like I might have a one up on good ol' Betty Crocker!  But you know, my testers and I may just have been a little biased so you try your own experiement and let me know which way you prefer!



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