Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes

This recipe is one of my own creation. I was having a friendly bake-off competition with my friends and the theme was "Invent your own dessert". I had been trying to come up with ideas for the competition and I decided to ask my brother if he had any ideas, he mentioned ice cream and thats when it hit me: an ice cream cupcake! Now this isn't your typical ice cream cake, since there's no actual ice cream in it, and this was the real challenge. How do I create a cupcake that brings to mind a real sundae? This is what I came up with, and although it's not perfect, I think it turned out pretty well :)

Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes

For the cake:

Use your favorite vanilla or chocolate cupcake recipe, I really like Amy Sedaris's Vanilla Cupcake Recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/amy-sedariss-vanilla-cupcakes-181181. When I made these I actually ended up experimenting and mixing chocolate into 1/2 of the batter and marbling the cake. Anything is possible with these! Maybe even try a strawberry cupcake, chocolate chip, or whatever your favorite ice cream flavor is!

For the frosting:

I used a fluffy marshmallow frosting on mine in an attempt to mirror marshmallow sauce on a sundae. 

White Mountain Frosting (from Pillsbury's Best of the Bake Off Collection)

1. Combine 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup water, and 1 tablespoon light corn syrup in a saucepan

2. Cook over low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cover pan for 2-3 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until it reaches 240 degrees fahrenheit (firm soft-ball stage)

3. In another bowl, beat 2 egg whites with 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar until stiff but not dry.

4. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites in a slow, steady stream, beating constantly. Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; continue beating until the frosting reaches spreadable consistency. Use immediately. 

Assembly:

Ingredients:

1 batch of cupcakes of your choice frosted with White Mountain Frosting

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Hershey's chocolate syrup

1 banana, chopped into small pieces

Maraschino cherries

1. Sprinkle the nuts and bananas over the top of the cupcakes, making sure that they stick

2. Drizzle chocolate syrup over the tops of the cupcakes.

3. Place a maraschino cherry on the top of each cupcake to complete the 'sundae'. 

Play around with your own variations to find your perfect cupcake sundae!