DIY Tutorial: Sparkling SURPRISE Carrot Cupcakes
In a few days, Peter Cottontail will be hoppin’ down the bunny trail… so we better have some carrots ready for him! But not just any carrots. Really, how many boring carrots can one bunny eat? I say we go for sparkling carrots with a surprise inside!
Hi, it’s Carrie Sellman from Half Baked, the cake blog for sweet inspiration. I’m happy to be back at HWTM today, sharing a different kind of carrot recipe – just in time for EASTER! Sure to make your little egg-hunters squeal with delight, these carrots are actually cupcakes!! Cake batter is baked inside an ice cream cone, topped with icing and then coated in orange candy and oodles of sprinkles. Edible grass provides the finishing touch on top. Just look inside!
SPARKLING CARROT CUPCAKES – A DIY TUTORIAL
by Carrie Sellman
makes 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:
- Ice Cream Cones (12)
- Chocolate Cake Batter (made from mix or from scratch)
- Buttercream Icing (store bought or homemade)
- Orange Candy Melts (2 packs)
- Orange Sprinkles (2 jars)
- Green Edible Candy Grass
Step by Step Instructions:
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place an oven-safe wire rack on top. Stand ice cream cones upright in slots of wire rack. Cones must fit snuggly or they will fall over when baking. Some batter may leak out the bottom of cone while baking (but that’s why we’re lining our baking sheet with parchment).
2. Fill each cone 2/3 of the way full with cake batter. Bake approximately 15 minutes at 350 degrees, until toothpick comes out almost clean. Let cool completely.
3. Top each cone with a small mound of icing. Return to wire tray and place in freezer for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, melt orange candy coating in a tall microwave-safe container. Heat in microwave for 30 seconds at 50% power. Stir. Repeat until candy is completely melted.
5. Dip chilled cone into melted orange candy, holding the pointed end of cone with your fingers (icing goes down). Cover as much as possible. Pull up and out of candy coating slowly.
6. Before candy coating hardens, hold cone over a bowl and coat with orange sprinkles. Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle until all areas are covered. Let excess sprinkles fall into bowl so you can reuse.
7. Set cone onto parchment paper, icing side down, until hard. This is a good time to touch up any areas you missed, especially the tip. They firm up quickly and will actually be quite solid once set. Do not worry if they are a little wonky or knobby. Real carrots aren’t perfect either!
8. Using a toothpick, make a small hole in the top center of the carrot. Insert a few pieces of edible grass and trim to desired length.
ENJOY!
*****
STYLING IDEAS:
- Stand carrots upright in a popcorn cone holder. I attached a white wooden fence to my popcorn holder for an extra little touch. Spoon crushed Oreo crumbs around the carrots to look like dirt.
- Bake extra cake batter in a loaf pan. Cover this cake with icing and crushed Oreo crumbs. Use this as your ‘display stand’ by inserting carrots into cake.
- Simply lay carrots on a plate covered with crushed Oreos or extra edible grass.
- Place carrots in individual cellophane bags and tie with a green ribbon to create favor or portable treat.
Happy Easter!
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I think this is the coolest idea ever, thankyou for sharing :).
What is edible grass?
Edible grass is sold with the Easter candy at Wal-Mart. It has a flavor a lot like the little wafer cookies & comes in several different colors.
If you still have some leftover girlscout cookies (Thin Mints) available, grind those up instead of oreos! Also consider using sour punch straws (the sour apple flavor) for the ‘faux grass’ effect as well!
Merci beaucoup, pour cet excellent tuto!! c’est un rendu très etonnant et amusant !! Thank you very much for this excellent tutorial !! It ‘s a very funny and amazing result !!
okay, just how much orange candy melt do you need, because it looks like one cone used up quite a lot of it!!
Two packs of candy melts will cover about 12 cones. I used three packs but have a lot left over!
This is so amazing, what a great idea! It looks fantastic!
Great tutorial. So creative. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic idea! love it!
Hi Ellen, good to hear from you If you make 1.5 portion of this repice and devide into 2.5 oz dough for one bun I think you will have 3 dozen .Have a great day, and happy baking !
so cute! but what kind of candies are used?
Thanks De! I used Wilton Orange Candy Melts, available at most craft stores in the cake/candy making section. They are sold in bags and you will need two (to three) bags for this project.
What a creative idea! I loved how you used a cooling rack to bake the cupcakes. This is one carrot garden that would be hard not to dig into. Thanks for sharing!
OMG these are the absolute cutest. So creative and colorful. I love it!!!
This idea is absolutely adorable! I’m thinking about making it this weekend with carrot cake and cream cheese frosting instead of the chocolate cake.
How did the carrot cake turn out? This is what I want to try for this Easter. Did the cone and candy interfere with the carrot cake taste? Mary
OMG!!! I’m a full time mom and Program Controls Manager. Then there’s the other side of me that’s always been the full time baker. SO, I fell in love with this wonderful dessert idea for my Easter Sunday Dessert Table. Last night after getting the kids in bed and getting through eating quick late dinner I decided that it wasn’t too late to bake. NOT!! It was 12:30am. I must have been delireous to decide to try and make this. But really, I always do this to myself.
Anyway, I did it! Used my cake recipe from scratch (all organic ingredients) instead of the out of the box cake. And let me telll you I think the only thing that killed me was being able to keep the cones standing straight up. It’s not that easy. Plus you have to try not to break any. After the first 15 min in the oven I removed them and had to have my hubby clean the oven for me; while I stood them up straight again. I had to put them in an additional 10 minutes. No worries ladies, this is because it wasn’t Betty Crocker or anything of the sort. I have a special chocolate recipe of my own and the batter is thicker than if you do a box cake mix. In any case I made 24 beautiful cake cones, and left the icing and coating for EITHER tonight or Saturday. These babies are traveling out of town…
So glad to hear you tried this Mariana! Your note helps reiterate an important line from Step #1….
Cones must fit snugly (into wire rack) or they will fall over when baking!
This is also why the parchment lined baking sheet is so important. Hope they travel well and that you enjoy!
These are adorable! I would have never thought to make cupcakes in that kind of ice cream cone!
If you can’t find a wire rack that will hold your ice cream cones upright tightly…
Bake your cake in a regular pan, crumble once cooled and then mix together with icing (the way you would to create a cake ball / cake pop). Then pack this cake mixture into your ice cream cone. This lets you skip baking the cake in the ice cream cones. Creating more of a carrot cake pop!
great idea!
Simply Genius! Gotta try these :)
could these be done with orange tinted icing instead of the melts or would it be too runny? I’ve used the candy melts in the past and thought they were so gross tasting, I hate to use them again :(. They sure LOOK fantastic though!!
The candy melts are MUCH firmer than regular frosting, but I understand what you mean about the flavor. Just use a good frosting, but be prepared for a mess when eating! ;) maybe leave the bottom-most part unfrosted, for less messy eating. :)
Anyone try putting these in “Dirt” cake? Im curious if the cone would get soggy in the pudding or if the chocolate coating would protect it?
I love this idea, it is so cute! I don’t have that cake rack and my oven is not the best for baking so I doubt if the cones would work out for me. Thanks for the alternative idea Carrie! Think I might try it with a carrot cake mix and cream cheese frosting. Thanks for the cute tutorial!
While this a a very cool idea I was not impressed with making them. As the cones heated up the bottoms (tip) became soft and the cones bent over and fell. they were snug in the cooling rack but the heat made them bend.
I had much better luck just putting a regular cake ball (truffle) in the cone and finishing the directions as listed.
What’s popcorn come holder??
I meant cone holder? Where do u get or buy or how do u make??
Wow!!! These are great!!!!
It all looks so delicious and creative ~ magical ~thanks, namaste, ^_^
I found it so much easier to dip the tip end first, sprinkle, harden, and then dip the other side! Way less messy and looked better too!
What a cute idea!
I had issued making these…the cupcake and baking part was ok. Tipped batter all over the oven, but it turned out. it was when you go to dip them in white chocolate (colored orange). This turned for the worse and became a huge waste. They were frozen but once you dip the first frozen, iced, cupcake cone, it ruined the chocolate with debris from it. Also, the timing before they harden to get on the sprinkles and grass has to be just right or something?!…. so cute but not easy to make!
Thank you so much for the idea. I made these tonight. Granted they need some work but my family is happy. Thanks again!!!
This was a fantastic idea!!…. For someone else :( I had it in my mind that I am going to make these for Easter. I am a baker and love to bake any chance I can get. I followed the directions to a T and even used the exact same cookies cooling rack that you are using in your pictures. I even took foil and wrapped through the cones to use as little “walls” so they wouldn’t fall over. Needless to say 5 minutes into baking I checked on them and every single one of them were laying over to the side. I stood them back up and tried again. Again they went over to the side. I kept baking and fixing. Needless to say after 15 minutes the batter was still not even remotely cooked and I had a messy oven and flopped over cones. I threw the whole thing out. It’s a cute idea and I’m sure someone with more time and patience on there side could really pull this off, but it wasn’t for me. :(
I tried dipping the cones as specified into the orange chocolate melts, but didn’t end up with a smooth anything. It was all clumpy. They didn’t look anything like carrots, but more like a pointed hat for witch. (which I will be trying for halloween, lol). Love the idea, but even with patience the orange chocolate melts don’t get as runny as the dark chocolate. I used the Wilton chocolate melts. Please advise if you used different chocolate that melts a lot better.
Mariana, next time try mixing in a teaspoon or 2 of vegetable oil to the candy melts after you have melted them. It will make the candy thinner and more fluid. At cake supply stores, there is a product called Paramount Crystals that is made to thin out candy. All it is, is hardened shortening flakes but it works great!
Forgot to mention I ended up modifying the idea. I ended up making these look like the regular icecream cone with the swirl icecream. Except this was dark chocolate cake with Pastry Cream Icing. They were very cute and tasty. Not a waste. Just more practice required on the dipping part or better quality chocolate.
I’m sorry to hear that some of you had trouble with the baking step! If you want to try this tutorial but are concerned your cones will fall over, perhaps making these as ‘cake pops’ will work better for you (see my comment #15 for basic steps).
The key to dipping the cones successfully is using a tall container where your cone fits down in all the way. The orange candy melts are somewhat thick. Push your cone down in and cover as much as you can. Pull out slowly so that you have a nice, smooth coating. (See photos above.)
Hope this helps those who try this in the future!
Wo-ow, super clever! I can’t wait to try this!!
Aren’t these cute!!!
You are amazing!
me encanta, me gustaria que la pusierais en español.
How cute is that!
It is a good idea for children!
I love this idea! I want to make apsome hi hat cake in sugar cones, (I have me them in reg cones) but I’m a little scare these sugar cones will fall al over the place inside the oven yikes!
I need to eat those! to cute! Love that carrot shape!
so doing this.
Jennifer Montana… kinda purfic no???
or should i go with more of a floral thingy
I like this idea.
gracias amigos por sus geniales ideas estan excelentes , son unicos se les agradece, atentamentelila.-
guenisimoooo, son conos de helados…me encantoooo espero que los sigan compartiendoooo. muchisimas gracias.-
the carrot cone cakes are the neatest, I plan to make them for the up coming easter(2013) thank you!
WOW, this looks absolutely wonderful, just perfect for children and me. :-)
You could probably turn over a disposable roasting pan & poke holes in it big enough to hold the cones so they won’t fall over. I’m going to try it.
Amazing idea Carrie!!!
Fun idea! I love that you used the word: WONKY!
The place I buy my candy melts has 2 different size bags…so what is the OZ on each bag??
I can’t wait to make these for my grandkids!!! and my adult friends too!! gonna use a loaf pan to bake a small cake to stand them in!! Love this!!!!
How cute, thank you so much for sharing this. I’m going to make these for my grandkids which will make me # 1 grandma to them lol. Thanks.
Pam
This is way harder than you make it sound. I tried to make this for my baby’s first birthday and it was a huge mess, disaster. The chocolate has to be slightly cooled or it won’t set properly on the cones and it will just slide right off…super annoying when you have spent a ton of money on all the things needed for this and then it doesn’t work out in the end!
Can these be left out a room temperature once the icing has hardened?
Do you think I could lay them on their side and display them on a platter lined with crushed Oreos?
These are absolutely adorable and so creative! Thanks for posting!
Sharing on my blog!
http://www.practicalbonnvivant.com
These are fabulous! Thanks so much for posting! I’ll be sharing you and your art on my blog!
http://www.practicalbonvivant.com
do the orange candy melts taste like oranges, the fruit? these are ADORABLE, but I’m not a huge fan of chocolate & fruit flavor combinations…
I made these for my daughter’s first birthday. I’m glad I did a test run a week before though! My wire rack wouldn’t hold the cones upright no matter what I tried, so I cut a dozen inch-wide holes in cardboard and covered with foil. Not only did it hold the cones perfectly, the foil caught any drips, so the 9×13 pan I put the cardboard on stayed clean!
I’m not sure how you ended up only using two bags of the candy melts, I went through 5 1/2, and had a heck of a time keeping it at the right temperature. (Maybe I just need more practice)
I bought a large plastic flower pot and set a plate in it and filled it with crushed oreos. HUGE hit at the party!
I’m so glad I came across this cute recipe let me just say I was a hit at my daughters school with all the office people and teachers! This was such a fun thing to do that I’m so doing it again for Easter dinner for all the family. Great idea thank you for sharing this!
Just wondering, but will this work with the other kind of ice cream cones? the ones that aren’t waffle cones.
It is probably too late for you to answer this, but if you see it, can you tell me where you found the popcorn cone holder? Thank you! I am doing a Peter Rabbit theme for my son’s second birthday and I would love to have these carrots!! Such a neat idea!
Hi, what size were the orange sprinkles jars? Thanks !
Cute and perfect for kids. Thanks for sharing.
will the cone become soft after baking if stored in freezer
did anyone make the night before and refrigerate? if so how did they turn out??
i could not get the cones to stand up no matter what I did (day before Easter) if I can salvage them atleast this ideas has inspired a different direction but kind of like this.
What did you use for the holder as I fond it so neat and would you be able to show a demo?? xx
great idea!
Adorable! How do you dip the cone with the frosting on? I would think the frosting won’t keep its shape.
WOW! Carrie! Great idea!!
cute idea but doesnt turn out so well. i could not get the cones to stand (apparently) sturdy enough as they ALL fell. Big mess.
How far in advance could I make these? Planning on making some for my son’s barnyard/farm themed birthday party. Trying to knock out some of the prep work.
Love it. Such a cute idea… very original
LOOKS LIKE FUN, THE KIDS WILL LOVE IT!!!!!!
I MAKE MY OWN…Just get a bag of coconut, put in some green food coloring and shake it up…viola!! Green edible grass.