Ice cream cone cupcakes.

I know these babies have been popular in the USA for a while now, but here in the UK they’re still a bit of a novelty. With our church hosting a Light Party (alternative to Halloween) this afternoon, I figured the kids would love a bit of a treat. Here’s how to make these incredibly simple cone cupcakes:

Firstly buy the short ice cream cones which have a flat bottom so they’ll stand up. Make your cake batter and then cover a cupcake tray with tin foil. Push the cones through the foil (this works best of you puncture the foil worth a knife first). The foil will give them some stability and so them falling over in the oven.

Then fill the cones with the cake batter up to the first line of the cone. As you can see from the pictures I was a little over enthusiastic with the batter and overfilled them which caused a few of them to spill over the sides during the baking process.

Bake in a preheated oven at about 160oC for about 20 minutes or until a skewer comes clean. You’ll end up with something like this:

Now for the icing. I made white  buttercream but wanted it to be a bit more colourful so in the piping bag I drew a line of red, purple, green and blue food colorings before carefully adding the white buttercream trying not to smudge the colours.

Then, from the outside of the cupcake, start a swirl working inwards to create the affect of a ‘Mr Whippy’ ice cream.

Everyone knows an ice cream isn’t complete without some adornment so I used peppermint straws as makeshift flakes.

I had some left over buttercream so iced a few regular cupcakes with a rose style. For this start at the centre of the cake and swirl outwards.

Well that’s all for today folks. I’ve got a party to go to! Here’s all this mornings baking ready to go…

Which army are you fighting for?

It will come as no surprise to you that we don’t celebrate Halloween at home or in our church. Whatever its historical roots, these days there is no denying that it has evolved into a celebration of all things dark and evil, and I for one do not buy into the “oh, it’s just harmless fun” mentality.

The Word clearly states in Ephesians 6:12 that, “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen (spiritual) world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

Whether intentional or not, when we buy into the Halloween ‘celebrations’ we’re buying into something much greater, far more powerful and darker than just costumes, scary faced pumpkins and trick or treating.  However melodramatic it sounds, there’s no getting away from the biblical truth that there is a constant battle in the spiritual realm between good and evil, between God and the devil, and by buying into Halloween you’re stating, inadvertently or not, which army you’re fighting for.  That should make you think. You can’t be on both teams, you can’t pledge your allegiance to both rulers, you can’t fight for both sides.

There is enough darkness in this world already. As Christians we’re called to be salt and light, to add the God flavour in this otherwise tasteless world, and to shine light, goodness and the love of Jesus in dark places. Which army will you be fighting for this Halloween?