Flavor of Summer Cupcake: Ice Cream Cupcakes

I'm taking part in a cupcake challenge over at Hoosier Homemade.  After a summer of eating, the last thing I need to be doing is making four more (summer themed) batches of cupcakes, but that never stopped me before, and that won't stop me now.  Week 1 is the 'Flavor of Summer.'  I initially thought of a citrus-ish cupcake.  I have a recipe I love for a Margarita Cupcake.  That recipe is here.  I thought about lemonaide,  watermelon, cherry, or a strawberry cupcake. I've been working on a strawberry filled cupcake (here),  but  really my summer is more about the flavor of ice cream.  I forget about ice cream the other 9 months of the year, but for three months....it's a necessary part of my life.  With an average temperature of 100 on a daily basis, things that need to be stored in the freezer before eating are always a good idea for cooling down.    I've made a banana split cupcake, a chocolate sundae cupcake, and I've baked cupcakes in cones, I could have used one of these old recipes,  but I fell in love with the ice cream cups at World Market (6 for $2), and the old recipes are great, but they just wouldn't do.

I saw this really cool, and EASY idea for a delicious cake batter in an old book I had where you use melted ice cream with a boxed cake mix to create a really creamy, rich cupcake.  I had to try this out. 
Ingredients for the Cupcakes:  1 white boxed cake mix, 2 c. of melted ice cream of your choice (if you use a more expensive ice cream like Ben and Jerry, 1 pint should make 2 c., but some of the more affordable ice creams have more air in them, so measure again once the ice cream melts, you will probably need more than a pint if you 'more affordable' brands), 3 eggs.  P.s.  The ice cream has enough 'stuff' that prevent you from needing any additional oil etc the original recipe calls for on the bake list of supplies.
Instructions:  Mix dry mix from boxed cake mix, melted ice cream (I used Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, and it was really good b/c you can taste the chocolate chunks, and cherries in the cupcakes after they bake), and eggs using a beater (2-3 minutes until mixed and creamy). 
Fill muffin cups.  Usually I fill my cupcake liners at least 3/4 of the way through, but let me just warn (myself in the future, or you) that this cake REALLY puffs up, and this is completely unnecessary.  1/2 of the way filled should be fine, you should easily get 24 cupcakes out of this mix.  Overfilling looks like this: 

This isn't so bad, but....I needed them to fit in my cups like this.  I baked the cupcakes about 20 minutes at 350 (until they started to look gold along the edges). 

I then slipped these down into the ice cream cups. 

Next, I tried out a few icing recipes, included a whipped marshmallow icing, but I found my favorite combination in this case was a whipped, canned vanilla or chocolate icing.  Good news, it's easy to throw a canned icing on a cupcake, bad news....it took me a batch of bad marshmallow icing to figure that out.  I'm over it. 

I gave them a smooth icing layer. 

Then I added some sprinkles to match my containers.  It sooths my soul when things match. 

And then, because I believe in telling the whole story, I ate one. 

...or two.  I can't remember.  Or rather, I refuse to remember.  The end...of the chapter.  And now....3 more cupcakes to go....it's a rough life, but somebody has to live it. 

Linking To:

Blessed with Grace

Hoosier Homemade

The Girl Creative

Tip Junkie

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TatortotsandJello

Under the Table and Dreaming