Ice Cream Sundae Cupcake Recipe

Here is a really cute and fun cupcake idea for the kiddos.  My girls absolutely loved these cupcakes and I think they are perfect for parties.

The girls and I were in a fancy bakery awhile back and they had a really gorgeous, decadent cake that had icing on the cake that looked like melting chocolate and then a big cherry in the center.  The cake looked just like an ice cream sundae to me and I have had it in my head for months to try and replicate that with cupcakes.

My big girl just turned 7 last week and it was the perfect chance to make these adorable little cupcakes.  They were so easy and a huge hit!

Here is what I did:

I started with a box cupcake mix in vanilla (her favorite- any variety you like is fine).

I baked the cupcakes in standard white liners and then popped them in cups later – I think these would look fantastic in dark brown liners too.

Next I made my favorite buttercream frosting recipe – for this cupcake with the chocolate sauce I didn’t personally like the cream cheese frosting as much.  If you decide to make these, you might want to go with a basic vanilla buttercream- here is a good one.

I quickly frosted the cupcakes.  I actually couldn’t find the tip I wanted to use so I just snipped the end of a Ziploc and used that to frost.

Once the cupcakes were frosted, I made a small batch of this homemade magic shell sauce.  I prefer this to a chocolate sauce from the store but I think you can easily use a Hershey’s Chocolate sauce or something like that if you prefer.  I tried to drizzle the chocolate sauce in a way that was similar to how chocolate sauce looks on ice cream.   Oh if you do make the homemade sauce be sure to give it a few minutes to cool before drizzling it on.

Next add fun sprinkles- I used plain old Betty Crocker multicolored sprinkles.  Last but not least you need either a cherry for the top or I used a gumball to look like a cherry.  I wanted a super bright red candy and after cruising the aisles of Target I spotted a Market Pantry bag of gumballs for $2.00 and I think the red looks fantastic.

And then I popped the cupcakes into these little cups which hid the messy drips from drizzling the chocolate sauce.  And that was it!  Very simple actually and the presentation is so whimsical.

Fun right? If you have any little mini spoons to serve these with that would be even cuter.

I hope your kiddos like this idea and let me know if you decide to try these.  I’d love to hear what flavors you use for your cupcakes.

And if you like this recipe you might also like these:

Starbucks Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (oh my goodness this is SO good!)