Orange Ice Cream Cupcakes

A simple ice cream cupcake is just cake on the bottom, ice cream on the top, and some frosting.

1. Use any cake recipe you like. Just fill your cupcake liners half as full as you normally would. You don't want the cake to come to the top because you want to leave lots of room for ice cream. Bake as normal, although you may need to cut baking times a bit since there is less cake.
2. When the cupcakes are done baking, let them come to room temperature and stick them in the freezer. I froze mine right in the cupcake tins to make it easy.
3. Remove the cupcakes from the freezer and use a spatula to cover the cupcake with ice cream. I worked with ice cream that was out of the freezer for just a couple of minutes. It was still hard but not so hard that I couldn't spread it.
4. Return the cupcakes to the freezer and wait for the ice cream to get hard again.
5. After the ice cream is hard again, you can further smooth the tops by dipping your spatula in hot water and running it over the top of the cupcakes.
6. Frost the cupcakes with your favorite frosting - I think a cream cheese frosting works best. You can also frost the cupcakes with ice cream. The words "Ice" and "Cream" in the photo above were frosted with ice cream. I found this to be REALLY hard. As I tried to pipe the ice cream, it would melt and as soon as it melted it wouldn't hold any shape. If anyone knows a good way to do this, please write about it!

My Ice Cream Cupcake Recipe - The Gluten-Free Orange Cake



For the cake part of my ice cream cupcakes, I used a gluten-free orange cake. Ice cream cupcakes can make a great gluten-free dessert if made with a flourless cake.

The orange cake was a hit, but only with people who like pulp. It was very pulpy.

I got the recipe from Allrecipes. Here it is, with my comments:

Makes about 36 ice cream cupcakes

• 2 whole oranges with peel (I used Valencia oranges. The commenters on allrecipes stated that it didn't work well with navel oranges because the peel is too thick.)
• 6 eggs
• 1 pinch saffron powder (optional)
• 1 1/4 C white sugar
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t finely chopped candied orange peel (optional - I didn't use this)
• 1 1/4 C finely ground almonds (almond meal)

1. Place the oranges in a large saucepan, and add enough water to cover. (This instruction confused me. Since the oranges float, they never get covered. Just fill the saucepan about 3/4 full.)
2. Bring to a boil, and boil for 2 hours over medium heat. Check occasionally to make sure they do not boil dry.
3. Allow the oranges to cool, then cut them open and remove the seeds.
4. Process in a blender or food processor to a coarse pulp.
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
6. In a large bowl, whip eggs and sugar together using an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 10 minutes. Use a whisk attachment if available.
7. Mix in baking powder, and saffron if using.
8. Stir in the pureed oranges.
9. Gently fold in almond meal, and candied orange peel if using.
10. Fill cupcake liners about halfway. These don't rise much so they will be just over halfway full when done, perfect for topping with ice cream.
11. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

My Ice Cream Cupcake Recipe - The Ice Creams I Topped the Cupcakes With


I topped the ice cream cupcakes with three different ice creams. I'm sure many of you will make your own ice cream. I was lazy and did not. I did the next best thing though and got some ice creams that used the same ingredients I would use if I made them myself.
Sibby's Vanilla - I had never heard of Sibby's before this cupcake. They use only organic and fair trade ingredients. It's good stuff! The vanilla was my favorite flavor out of the three I used. The combo of vanilla and orange made the ice cream cupcakes taste like a creamsicle.

Pomegranate with Dark Chocolate Chips - This ice cream contains POM pomegranate juice in it. It was also a nice mix with the orange. It made it taste a bit like a Shirley Temple.

La Loos's Goat Milk Black Mission Fig - This one probably went the least well with the orange cupcakes and the big chunks of fig made it hard to spread, but I was looking for an excuse to buy this tasty ice cream. I love figs!

My Ice Cream Cupcake Recipe - The Frosting I Used to Pipe the Word "Cupcakes"

As noted above, "Ice" and "Cream" were piped with ice cream. "Cupcakes" was piped with coffee frosting.

Why coffee?

Because I thought it was vanilla bean buttercream. I thought that I had stashed some extra vanilla bean buttercream frosting in the freezer, and when I took it out to defrost it I even saw the beans. It turns out that the beans were coffee beans. It was extra coffee frosting from the eggnog latte cupcakes.

This was a lose for Bride and Groom 2.0 who don't like coffee, but a win for me! I let the frosting fully defrost before piping it on and freezing it again.

I loved the taste of frozen coffee frosting. It tasted like coffee ice cream! I admit it wasn't the best flavor pairing with the orange cake and fig ice cream, but it worked for me!

Important note: This frosting has been in the freezer for 3 months and tastes just as good as the day I made it. If you ever have extra frosting - freeze it!