Banana Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Another birthday, another "cake" to make.  I was given free reign this time around.  I wanted fruit to be involved, but I had limited time and couldn't whip up the mousse cake I would have preferred.  So instead, I went for creativity over complexity.  Or at least that's what I thought.

So I found the how-to on cupcake cones at the blog House of Hepworths.  She describes this fantastic holder cut from a foil pan, which appeals to my crafty senses.  Well, I might have gone a bit overboard.  I bought a deep roasting pan, since the cake takes like 90 minutes to cook through (it's a sloooooow cake recipe) and therefore I didn't have three hours to spare by the time I rolled home at 10pm (That's right, I got suckered into post-work drinks and forgot about my ambitious cake-making plans).

Well, let me warn you:  Do not use a roasting pan to get 18 holes in for your cones.  The cones don't rest on the cookie sheet below and the pan is left to support their weight.  It will sink in the middle as it heats up.  The batter will spill out into the great big lake of batter in the middle of your aluminum holders.  The cheap ice cream cones will then get soaked with batter, soften up and holes will form in the sides further allowing more batter to pour out.  It's not pretty.  At all.

It was so distressing that I forgot to photograph the massive oven disaster.  I was too busy in how-can-I-fix-this mode.

So how did I fix it?  I removed all of the cones and placed them upright in a high-sided baking pan.  I topped off the batter with my extra (thank goodness for the double batter recipe!), and then placed them back into over at 350F.  The majority were still a little lop-sided, prone to leaking or a little crusty, but overall they TASTED fine. Right?  And I could cover up the tops with the delicious frosting.



Lesson?  Well, this is amazing cake.  This is amazing cream cheese frosting.  This should not be wasted in a styrofoamy ice cream cone.  Just bake the cake by itself.  And if you want to do the cone thing, use a half dozen loaf pans that will hold 3 cones each.  It's tedious, but if you have a giant oven, lots of time, or just stick with the traditional box mix cake, you should be fine.

Banana Cake in Ice Cream Cones with Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe circulating the web a million times over with one source at allrecipes.com


Batter (this makes twice as much batter as you need for 24 cones, so plan on make a little loaf too):
3 bananas, mashed, ripe
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
**
cinnamon & sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250°.
2. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla.
5. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.


6. In a 9 x 13" baking pan, place as many upright ice cream cones in the pan as possible.  Pour batter into  each of the ice cream cone cups to apprximately 1/2 inch from the top of the cone.  There will be approximately 1/2 of the batter left after 18 cones.  Save it or pour it into a loaf pan for a cake on the side.
7. Bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven.
8. For the frosting, in an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
9. Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag without a tip, just the plastic tip-attachment piece (or a wide open round tip), and create soft serve-like swirls on top of your cake-cones.  Dust with cinnamon sugar (or I used the cinnamon dolce topping from Starbucks).