I'm not wishing away the winter - I'm still hoping for a good dollop of snow at some point - but I am thinking about summer. This year is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and it coincides with my little girls birthday. Which means I'm plotting a little garden party for family and a few of the neighbours. If the weather is good, we'll put up the gazebo. I'll start making bunting for it soon. To make my life easier, I'm thinking about what I need to buy and do nice and early. And that includes trying out recipes.
I wanted to make these ice cream cone cupcakes last year, but didn't get around to it. At the weekend The Girl and I got creative and tried them out.
I'm certainly not an expert, and there is room for improvement, but here are a few things that I've found out from both the internet and making them myself.
Firstly. Don't fill the cones too much. I thought this was ok, but in fact there was too much cake mix in some of them.
Secondly, make sure you but an extra pack or two of the cones, in case most of them look as if they've been trodden on (thanks Sainsbury's!)
Keep the cones upright in a muffin pan by covering with silver foil, then piercing a hole in each cake space,and pushing the cones through. It's not perfect, but it keeps them pretty upright. Keep an eye on the cakes, they take a little longer to bake this way than in paper cases. 
I am still amazed at how the cake mix spreads and fills the entire centre of the cone. 
Top tip is to pierce the end of each cone when you take them out of the oven to let any steam escape. This helps the cones stay crispy.Once cooled, decorate. I used Betty Crocker icing, half as it came, half coloured pink. Then covered in sprinkles.
I did push choccy flakes in some, but didn't like how it looked. I prefer them just with sprinkles. Love this idea. So easy to do, the hardest part of it is getting the icing to look like ice cream. Definitely one for this summer.
The recipe I used came from [Baking Mad.com]