Dairy Free Chocolate, Strawberry, and Vanilla Ice Cream Cupcakes
It’s that time of year again. When the suns shows it’s bright face for long hours and the temperature starts rising. That means it’s time for Ice Cream. Now I know some people enjoy ice cream year round. Heck, think of the lines you see at JP Licks or at Graeters during the winter. It’s somewhat crazy. To me summertime means ice cream time.
As many of you know, I’m lactose intolerant. This makes ice cream time (I mean summertime) very hard on me. Before I found out I was LI, I was a regular ice cream eater. My dad loves ice cream too and I think that’s where I got it from.
I will admit that there are some dairy free ice creams out there, but in all honesty, they’re just not the same. They lack the smooth creaminess of a great ice cream. So sometimes I splurge a little and eat ice cream during the summer. My stomach reminds me how bad of an idea it was, but it’s always worth it.
When I saw the announcement about the Ice Cream Cupcake Blogging event again this year (check out the ice cream cupcakes I made last year), I knew I wanted to do at least one dairy free version. I went with a classic flavor combo – chocolate + vanilla + strawberry. YUM!
I used my favorite vegan chocolate cupcake recipe for these guys. I made the full sized. Then I used the cone method to remove a large cone from the cupcakes. I put a small scoop of Tofutti vanilla ice cream into each cupcake and then dropped in a frozen strawberry. I threw the cupcakes back into the freezer for a while to let them set while I made some strawberry cream cheese frosting (I just added about 1/2 cup of strawberries to a classic cream cheese frosting).
I wanted to have it be more like a glaze, so I thinned it out quite a bit. Looking back, I think thick cream cheese frosting would have done better on these cupcakes. I’d also use fresh strawberries in the cupcakes because the frozen ones were hard! After a quick zap in the microwave, they were perfect!
I am submitting these cupcakes into the blogging event hosted by Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious. Be sure to check back to vote for their reader’s choice cupcakes. Voting will be the first week in June.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Jen, I totally love your blog. You always ahve the BEST treats! I LOVE the picture with all the cookies resting on the m&ms. GREAT idea! 🙂
Looks beautiful as always!
perfect use of pink! So interesting about how the cookies reacted to the way you rolled them! Thanks for the heads up!
Your cookies look great and that’s a good tip about getting them to look their best too. My kids and all their friends love these cookies. I’ve made them a few times since I first posted them and they never last long.
thanks for the link!
~ Michelle
Those are beautiful and perfect for such a great cause
What an adorable picture! Also helps that they are for a great cause! 🙂
M&Ms are my favorite treat and I love that during this month everything is PINK! The cookies look fantastic.
I am bummed I missed your Power of Pink contest as I was utilizing October to raise awareness around breast cancer too! I made some cookies and have a post on my site: http://katskitchenplace.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-is-breast-cancer-awareness.html
I like the chocolate cookie base of your cookies! Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to checking back and seeing all what people make towards your challenge 🙂
A chocolate cookie topped with chocolate candies? What could be better? Perhaps a tall, ice cold glass of milk to go with them! They look divine. I’m wondering if you might skip the rolling and flattening by creating a wide log of dough (without M&Ms), slicing to the thickness desired, then pressing candies on top? Seems like the dough might be fairly easy to shape into a log. A quick pop into the fridge before slicing would help firm it up. Just a thought! I can’t wait to try them.
Best,
Casey
http://www.tastestopping.wordpress.com
P.S. Not sure if I’ve invited you before, but I’d love to publish any of your photos that FoodGawker and TasteSpotting decline! Thanks. 😀
I love the dark chocolate and pink M&M contrast. What fantastic cookies:)
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I just made your recipe for these cookies yesterday and took them to church. The kids went nuts and they’ve never turned out as pretty as they did this time. Thanks for the helpful tips because my m&m cookies have never turned out prettier! 9 minutes was also perfect timing as well.
Both pretty and I’m sure delicious! I love how you showed the comparison between batches to give better suggestions for prettier cookies. The final batch are definitely the prettiest of the bunch. I love that the pink pops w/the chocolate cookie.