Two Bite Delight

Caution: Objects are smaller than they appear.

It's been about a month since I've made an appearance at the Thursday Night Potluck Club due to a series of weeks of bad weather, cancellation, switch of locations, and homework. I was happy to meet back up with the group so I put a little extra effort into what I had planned to take last night. Rather than waiting until the last minutes and stopping by Publix on my way to Potluck I decided to make cupcakes in ice cream cones. I figured that would be better than using cupcake wrappers because the whole treat is edible and therefore mess to clean up at Stacy and James' house. I got my supplies--- Cake mix, eggs, butter, container of frosting and a box of cones at the grocery that afternoon and went to work mixing cake batter when I got home. Next step: open ice cream cone box and have eyes pop out at the teensy-tinyness of the cones I bought. Obviously I didn't happen to see the words "actual size" written in 4 point font on the front of the box when making my selection. These were the smallest cones I'd ever seen. They were Stuart Little sized. They were perfectly Honey, I Skrunk the Kids scaled. They were all I had so I had to used them.

The one box of cake mix made 60 cones which amazed me. Lined up cooling on the kitchen counter, my roommate said they looked like a small army. I had to agree. It did look like a mass of little soldiers in formation for inspection. Color: golden with a hint of brown around the edges. Shape: slighly rounded over the top of the cone. Smell: delicious. Size: PERFECT! Inspector No. 1 (me) gave them two thumbs up! Time to frost the little buggers...

I had a bottle of red sugar sprinkles in the pantry so I added a little decoration to the cutie patooties which made them perky, but very Valentine-ish. Good thing the weekly potluck is full of international students. They don't care so much about the aesthetics of cupcakes.

Can I tell you how much I like the size of these two bite delights? They are perfect! First, you get a lot of bang for your buck out of one box of cones and cake mix. Second, they are great for parties where there might be several desserts and people want "tasters" rather than a whole piece of cake. Third, they are super quick and easy to frost and decorate. Fourth, they have the "cute" factor. Fifth, there's way less guilt associated with eatting one or two of these than with a "regular" size cupcake or dessert. The list goes on!

One of my 2" tall USB flash drives towers over the mini cupcakes; they are that small.

Hints for making your own:

• I used the "Disney Magic Selections Kid's Mini Cones." (See image below)
• Using a heaping tablespoon of cake batter, fill each cone up to the "ring" about in the middle of the cone. That's about 1/2" from the top of the cone. If you fill it too much the cake will bubble over and create a funny shaped glob on top.
• I used a muffin pan with 12 large muffin wells (holes? cups?) and put three cones in each well for a total of 36 batter filled cones baking at one time.
• It took my oven 16 minutes at 350 degrees to bake one muffin pan of cones.
• When the cakes are done and you take them out of the oven, take them out of the muffin wells immediately (Careful! They are HOT!) and let them cool. Most of the cakes will have bubbled up and fused together at the top but they will come apart with no problem if you separate them immediately.
• The cones may be a little soft or squishy at first when you take them from the oven, but they will harden up a bit as they cool. If they are totally spongey stick a toothpick in the cake because it might need more baking time.
• Use a cake pan (like a 9 x 13 pan that's a couple inches deep) to transport the cones. I placed a layer of foil over the top of the pan and tightly wrapped the pan edges on all sides to create a "tight" surface over the pan. I then used a sharp knife to make "X" slits every few inches apart. After that I placed one cone in each X hole. Worked like a charm! They were all still standing and unscathed by the time I got to my destination.