Salted Fluffer Cupcake Cones

If you read my recent post on my Ice Cream adventures in New York, you will remember my visit to the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop there. Disneyboi and I traipsed through near rivers on the pavements and roads to reach the shop. I had seen the shop a few times on the Food Network and read about it in magazines.

I think I am right in saying that they started off with a Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, which went around the streets of Manhattan. They then opened a shop and recently another. They make delicious frozen confections – with wacky names and delicious flavours. These include a Bea Arthur (ice cream, dulce de leche, nilla wafers), Mermaid (ice cream, key lime curd, graham crackers and whipped cream), Cococone (vanilla ice cream and toasted curried coconut) to name but a few. The one treat I had read about and saw on TV however was the Salty Pimp. This is a wafer cone filled with soft-serve vanilla ice cream, swirled with dulce de leche caramel, sea salt grinded over the top of this,  the ice cream is dunked in chocolate which sets hard. When you bite in, the chocolate cracks, you taste the cold ice cream, the warm caramel and salty overtones. Delicious!!

This inspired me to create a cupcake using the Salty Pimp as my inspiration. I later contacted the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop to ask if I could use the name, but as I suspected it is copyrighted. So my homage to the Salty Pimp is called a 'Salted Fluffer Cupcake Cone'. I use flat bottomed ice cream cones, bake vanilla cupcakes in the cones, then when cooled I make marshmallow frosting. I pipe this on top, as high as I can, drizzle with caramel and grind sea salt over the top. Lastly I dunk them in chocolate which I then let set hard before devouring them. Here’s how to make them...

Yield: Approx 15 cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients:

Ice-Cream Cone Cups

100 or so chocolate chips

200 grams unsalted butter, softened

225 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 medium eggs

250 grams self-rising flour

120 ml milk

Marshmallow Frosting Ingredients:

250 grams granulated sugar

3 large egg whites

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Store bought caramel sauce or dulce de leche (I used Carnation caramel)

Sea Salt

Chocolate Topping:

500 grams plain chocolate

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180^oC. Lay out 15 cones onto a baking sheet, no need to line, and sprinkle a few choc chips into the bottom of each one. Sift the flour and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat through. Next add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined. Continue to beat until the mixture appears slightly thickened. Add one third of the flour and stir to combine then add one half of the milk. Mix this through and repeat with the flour and milk, finishing with the last third of flour. Spoon the batter into each cone, two-thirds full. Bake in the oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Allow to cool completely.

Make the marshmallow frosting, only when the cupcakes are cool. Place the sugar, water, egg whites, cream of tartar and salt into a bowl, over a pan of simmering water (don’t the let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). With an electric whisk, beat the contents of the bowl at high speed for 5 minutes. It will puff up and go marshmallowy. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, then beat for another 2 minutes. Transfer this frosting to a piping bag, fitted with a ½ inch star shaped tip and pipe onto the top of each cupcake cone, as high as you can. Place the piped cones into the fridge and allow to chill for at least half an hour. 

Remove and drizzle with the caramel, then grind sea salt over the top of each one. The amount of salt is purely to taste. Place back into the fridge and chill for an hour.

After the hour prepare the chocolate topping. Place the broken up chocolate into a bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, or in a microwave. When melted, add the vegetable oil and stir until thoroughly combined. Cool for about 5 to 10 minutes (the oil keeps it malleable). Place this into a tall narrow cup (wide enough for the cupcakes). Take each cupcake cone and carefully dunk the marshmallow topping into the chocolate, allowing any excess to drain off. This can be tricky with the cones upside down, but you get better as you go along. Again, place the cones into the fridge, this time until the chocolate has hardened, about 20 minutes to half an hour.

There you have Salted Fluffer Cupcake Cones. These are delicious and great fun to eat at the same time. The bonus of the moist vanilla cupcakes is that you get to eat their case too! And the chocolate chips at the bottom add a little ‘bite’. The topping is hard on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside with the great flavours of vanilla, caramel and salt.

I just hope the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop approves of my homage!

I am also entering this cupcake creation into a cupcake competition being run by Rangecookers.co.uk. This is to win a Select 90 dual fuel range cooker. Pop over and have a look at the competition page. Why not enter your own creation too?!