May 21, 2012

Snow Cones

Snowcone Cupcakes

These snow cones won’t melt. Nope. They’re not icy… but they are frosted.

They’re snow cone cupcakes and they were a lot of fun to make.

I decorated them in red, white, and blue so you can see how cute they can be for Memorial Day or the Fourth.

When I made them, I wanted more than just the tops to resemble snow cones though. I wanted the cupcake to be tri-colored too. But not the usual layered look you see from bottom to top.

No. These should be layered vertically to match the frosted tops, right?

Snowcone Cupcake

Yes and Yay!

To be honest, I’m glad it actually worked so well. I wasn’t sure when I first started thinking about it, but they came out just like I had hoped.

And they’re an added little surprise when you bite into them.

Cake Batter

Divide the cake batter equally and then tint a third blue and another third red.

The plain batter is good to go.

Snowcone Cupcake Batter

Now the fun part. Spoon each color of batter into a decorating bag and tie the end with a twist tie. For this to work well, you need the colors to fill the baking cups at the same time.

I taped the bags together so I could hold them as one unit. The photo on the right is no good. Taping them at the top causes the tips to separate and you’ll make a mess trying to fill the baking cups this way. Trust me. : )

Instead tape the bottoms so the ends are closer together. Lay the bags on a flat surface and tape them so they are in a row. This will give you a lot more control when you pipe.

Prepare baking cups… Take a deep breath … and cut the ends off the decorator bags at the same time. Try to hold the bags at the top so you can apply even pressure to all three and slowly fill each baking cup with batter. Move the tips of the bags back and forth as you apply pressure so they fill evenly with batter.

Then bake!

Snowcone Cupcake

And voila – vertically tri-colored cupcakes. Yippee!

All you have to do now is decorate.

Snowcone Cupcake

I baked these in candy cups and then frosted and decorated them in sections. Middle first – dipped in sugar crystals. Then blue with blue sugar crystals and then the red. I like sugar crystals for this project instead of sanding sugar because the size of the crystals are bigger and look a little more icy, but you can use either. And technically, if your frosting is tinted the right color, you could just sprinkle the entire tops with white crystals.

Sprinkles

Once frosted and covered in crystals, use a toothpick to manipulate the frosting and make sure the rim of the paper cup shows. This will help pull off the look.

Red, white and blue cupcakes

Snow Cone Cupcakes

Red white and blue cupcakes
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 egg whites
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2/3 cup salted butter, softened
Three bowls
Red and blue liquid food coloring
Three piping bags
Twist ties
Candy cup baking papers (see note below)

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Sift flour, sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and then mix together on low.
  • In another bowl, stir egg whites, milk and vanilla together.
  • Add butter to the flour mixture and mix together. As it starts to combine, slowly pour the milk mixture in and mix until completely combined.
  • Divide batter evenly into three bowls. Add about 40 drops of red food color to one bowl and stir together until completely blended. Repeat with the blue food color and a second bowl, leaving the last bowl white.
  • Stand decorator bags in tall glasses for support and spoon batter into bags. Tie off the ends of the bags with twist ties. (Note: Three bags will hold about half of the batter, so you’ll need to repeat for the full amount.)
  • Lay the bags side by side and tape around the bottoms of the three bags to make it easier to hold them together in a row.
  • Cut the end of the bags off and slowly pipe batter into paper candy cups using a back and forth motion. Use your fingers to apply more pressure to the center bag if necessary.
  • Fill cups a little more than halfway. Bake for about 16 minutes or until done.
  • Remove and cool. Makes about 16 cupcakes.
  • Note: You can bake these in candy cups or regular baking cups. If you use candy cups, make sure you find the ones that aren’t wax coated on the inside. Here are some I found online that are meant for baking in. Most of the ones I’ve seen in stores have the coating on the inside. And if they are hard to find, you can also just bake them in regular baking cups and place them in the candy cup before you decorate.

Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
4 teaspoons milk
food coloring
Red, white and blue sugar crystals
Small plastic spoons

  • Beat butter and vanilla together.
  • Add sugar slowly and beat until combined.
  • Scrape down the sides and add milk. Mix until smooth and creamy. You can also add a couple of drops cherry oil for extra snow cone flavor
  • Divide the frosting into three bowls and tint two of the bowls with a few drops of red and blue food color so when you cover in sugar crystals, there isn’t any white frosting showing through.
  • Makes enough to frost about 8 cupcakes with high domes of frosting. Double for this cupcake recipe unless you don’t plan on frosting your cupcakes this high.

To Decorate

  • Pipe white frosting down the center of the cupcake, lining up somewhat with the white cake section. Then use a knife to pull the frosting down towards the edge of the cup. Make sure to leave the white rim of the cupcake paper showing completely. You can wipe off excess frosting if necessary.
  • Sprinkle white sugar crystals on the frosting, letting the excess fall into a bowl underneath. You can then gently press the cupcake down into the fallen crystals to fill any uncoated areas.
  • For the red side, just use a knife to apply the frosting. Pull downward with the edge of the knife so the frosting meets at the base of the cup. Again, make sure to keep the rim of the cup free of frosting.
  • Sprinkle with red sugar crystals over a separate bowl, and press red section into the bowl of crystals to fill any gaps. Repeat with the blue frosting and blue sugar crystals.
  • When the cupcakes are coated with sprinkles you can easily, reshape the dome if necessary by gently pressing down any areas that look uneven.
  • Finally, sprinkle more white sugar crystals over the entire cupcake to give it an even icier look and insert a small spoon right in the top.

Snowcone Cupcakes

Serve with little plastic spoons for full effect and see who you can fool!

Categories: Cupcakes, Patriotic
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