These Neapolitan Cupcake Cones are the perfect ice cream cone treat you need. Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry cupcake baked inside an ice-cream cone decorated with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry buttercream. Just like Neapolitan Ice Cream only in cupcake form!

These cupcake cones are three flavours of cupcake baked into one, and trust me they are utterly delicious! They are perfect if you can’t decide which flavour you want. The vanilla cupcake is similar to my Velvety Vanilla Cupcakes and the chocolate layer is similar to my Chocolate Overload Cupcakes both, however, are just in smaller quantities and are separated by a strawberry cupcake too.

If you have subscribed to my monthly newsletter then you will recognise these Neapolitan Cupcake Cones. This month my newsletter theme was Ice Cream as National Ice Cream Day falls on the 19^{th of} July. If you would like to subscribe to my monthly newsletter then you can pop your email address in the pop-up.

My newsletter will be going through a few changes in the coming weeks/months so now is the perfect time to sign up. Each month is themed and is packed full with a recipe before it goes live on my blog, themed baking products, baking news, a roundup of all my recent recipes as well as all the latest news from my website.

Ice Cream Cones

I made a similar cupcake cone to these a few years ago and loved them. It is such a simply idea baking the cupcake inside the cone but it is so effective.

It did take me a while to decide what flavour of ice cream (cupcakes) to make. My personal favourite flavour of ice cream is vanilla but I thought that was a bit boring. So eventually I decided on Neapolitan. I mean when you can’t decide what flavour of ice cream you want then Neapolitan is perfect.

If you haven’t had Neapolitan Ice Cream before it is vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream in the same tub, and boy have you been missing out!

For these Neapolitan cupcake cones, first off I would say that you need to use flat bottomed cones otherwise you won’t be able to bake them in the oven. I made one cupcake mix and then split it into three bowls. I then added cocoa powder to one to get the chocolate flavour, strawberry flavouring and pink food colouring to get the strawberry flavour and vanilla extract to the vanilla flavour.

No-Bake Summer Berry Cheesecake

Strawberry & Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate & Strawberry Cake

Now, getting them into the ice cream cones, I found, was the hardest part. I put the ice cream cones onto a lined baking sheet and began filling them. This big can be a bit fiddly and a bit of a guessing game. I was worried I would put too much chocolate cake into the cones and there would be no room for the other flavours.

Just remember this when you are filling your cones. I used chocolate first then vanilla and finally strawberry on top but really you could do any order you wanted. I started putting a spoonful of each into the cone and if I had any left I would top the cones up. Then I would move onto the next flavour and then the final flavour.

I then carefully had to move them into the oven. And trust me this was the tricky part. I opened the oven and then moved as slowly as I possibly could to ensure that they didn’t topple over. Thankfully! I managed to get them into the oven without any falling over.

If you have an easier way to get the ice cream cones to the oven then please let me know!

I bake them in the oven for around 17 minutes and then take them out and check them. If you can hear the cupcakes bubbling then they need a bit longer. The same if you insert a skewer into the cupcake and it comes out with mixture on it. I pop them back into the oven and check them every 2-3 minutes until they are ready.

Buttercream

While the Neapolitan cupcakes are cooling I make the buttercream. Again, I make one batch of buttercream and split it into three bowls. To the chocolate one I add cocoa powder, to the strawberry I add strawberry flavouring and pink food colouring and to the vanilla, I add vanilla extract.

Next, I lay out a piece of cling film, it might also be called plastic wrap, food wrap or saran wrap. I then spread the chocolate buttercream onto it in a line, next to it I add the vanilla and then the strawberry. Next, roll the wrap into the perfect circle and twist either side so the buttercream can’t escape. I cut the end of one side of the cling film and place the wrapped buttercream into a piping bag with a 1M Piping Tip. And voila, the perfect three-toned buttercream.

Baking Equipment

To make these cupcake cones you don’t need to have all of this equipment, but this is the equipment that I use. Don’t worry, you don’t need to run out to the shops and spend a lot of money getting it but if you are wanting to bake more often then I would recommend picking it up.

Scales – Scales are so so important. I mean how else would you know if you have put the right amount of ingredients into the bowl? I know in some countries they use cups but to be honest I have no idea how those work or how to convert it. For example, flour and sugar weight different amounts so 1 cup of flour will weigh a lot less compared with 1 cup of sugar. I will just stick with my trusteed scales so I know I have the correct amount of each.

Spatula – Okay, I know I keep wittering on about a spatula but trust me they are fab! I have a collection of about 10+ spatulas of all different sizes and colours. I even have little mini ones! Spatulas make it so much easier to get any extra mixture from around the side of the bowl compared with a wooden spoon.

Mixing Bowls – I know this seems a bit obvious but trust me I have heard of people trying to use a saucepan instead. Honestly. The. Horror! I can’t say I was surprised when all the ingredients wouldn’t fit but hey ho! So yes, you can get plastic ones fairly cheaply online and they will last forever!

Baking Tray – For this recipe, I used a flat baking tray instead of a muffin tray. But actually now that I think about it this could work if you stand the cones up in the little holes in the tray. I don’t think it would guarantee that they won’t fall over, but it might prevent them knocking all the rest over.

Piping Tip – As always I used my Wilton 1M Piping Tip, because I love the swirl. If you read my newsletter I included in their some ice cream piping tips, so the buttercream resembles a Mr Whippy, you can check them out here!

Piping Bags – I use large savoy piping bags. They are quite huge but you can fit all your buttercream into them.

Ingredients

Self-Raising Flour – I use a supermarket own brand of self-raising flour and this is the base of your cupcakes. I often get asked the difference between self-raising flour and plain flour. The only difference really is that self-raising flour contains baking powder and plain flour doesn’t. So why, I hear you ask, do I then add baking powder to my cupcakes? Well, because of the other ingredients in the cupcakes I am always worried there won’t be enough rise in the self-raising flour so I always add a little bit extra just to ensure my cupcakes rise.

Caster Sugar – I use Silver Spoon. The caster sugar in this cupcake provides sweetness.

Baking powder – I use Dr Oetker Baking Powder. I use baking powder to give the cupcakes a bit more of a rise when they are baking.

Unsalted Butter – In the main body of the cupcakes you can use Stork or another baking butter because it makes the cupcakes light and fluffy. However, you must use unsalted butter for the buttercream. Stork is too soft and will just make your buttercream super runny and not pipeable.

Cocoa Powder – I use a supermarket own brand cocoa powder.

Strawberry Flavouring – I used a supermarket own-brand strawberry flavouring.

Pink Food Colouring – I use Pro Gel. I would recommend using a gel food colouring rather than a liquid. Just because the gel food colouring you only need a tiny amount to get a lovely bright colour. Whereas with liquid food colouring you often need to use quite a lot and it can leave a funny taste.

Vanilla Extract – I use Dr Oetker.

Icing Sugar – I use Silver Spoon.

Alternatives

You could bake these into normal cupcakes just use cupcake liners instead of cones. They should bake for the same length of time just always check they are cooked through before removing them from the oven.

You could really make any flavour of cupcake. Such as all chocolate, all vanilla or all strawberry, or you could make something completely different.

You can switch the caster sugar for light brown sugar if to give your cupcakes a more toffee flavour. I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you are making Neapolitan cupcakes, because strawberry flavouring/toffee flavouring sponge would be a bit weird.

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5 from 7 votes