Sometimes the best ideas are really the combination of two great ideas. When we served these chocolate-covered ice cream cupcakes in the store, someone called them “brilliant.” I don’t know that they were brilliant, but they were delightful. We took fudgy chocolate cupcakes and put a scoop of peanut butter fudge ice cream on each. Then we dipped the cupcakes in chocolate ganache. So here’s the evolution of that idea.
Idea #1. Chocolate Covered Cupcakes
This is where it all began: the cupcake and some ganache. Chocolate covered cupcakes are one of my favorite things, especially when the chocolate is ganache.
Ganache is a combination of chocolate, butter, and cream. It’s easy to make. If you use good quality chocolate, it’s absolutely scrumptious. Here’s the recipe: How to Make Ganache.
To make chocolate-coated cupcakes, simply dip frosted cupcakes in chocolate ganache. That’s right, dip frosting and all. Use a small bowl and dip each cupcake, upside down, so that the tops of the cupcakes are covered. It’s really easy to do. Just let the ganache cool until it is just a liquid, not so warm that it will melt the frosting. You can fill your cupcakes with ice cream or Bavarian cream before dipping if you desire.
Idea #2. Brownies in an Ice Cream Cone
Next came the idea to bake brownies in an ice cream cone for a new twist on the brownie sundae.
Bake cupcakes or brownies in ice cream cones. Then put ice cream on top. Very cool. To make these, wrap the base of the ice cream cones in aluminum foil so they don’t bake too quickly. Stand them up a muffin tin so they don’t tip over. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop batter into each. Bake them for about 20 minutes or until done. After they have cooled, put a scoop of ice cream in each cone. Simple enough.
The New Idea: Chocolate-Covered Ice Cream Cupcakes
It wasn’t long before the two previous ideas were married together. The ganache topped cupcake was exquisite and so was the ice cream on top of the brownie, so why not try ice cream on top of the cupcake and then covered in ganache?
We make ice cream filled cupcakes but had never tried putting a scoop of ice cream on top of the cupcakes. It sounds like a good idea, but we were afraid that the ice cream would fall off into the ganache and make a mess.
Not to worry. We scooped the ice cream onto the cupcakes. The ice cream melted a little on the cupcakes and so we hurried them to the freezer. When the ice cream froze hard, it was glued to the top of the cupcakes. Then we just inverted the cupcakes in the ganache. The ganache was just a little too warm and ice cream melted a bit but we put them back in the freezer for an hour and all was well. This is worth doing when you want to absolutely delight your family.
(Updated from October 31, 2014)
