I made the decision that I'm tired of pinning amazing cupcake designs on Pinterest, and it's time for me to get off my butt and make them!  So, I'm going to try to make one cupcake design a month.  First up....sno-cones!

I've had this cupcake design on my monthly favorite lists TWICE!  These adorable sno-cone cupcakes come to you from the amazing Bakerella, better known for pioneering the cake pop movement.  With some extra time over the three-day Labor Day weekend, I figured I'd have a go at replicating them.

For the cake, I took a little shortcut and just used a box mix.  Let's face it, often times they come out tasting better and moister.  If you look at the instructions on this link (I'm not going to replicate them here), Bakerella fills three decorating bags with each of the three colored batters, then tapes them together at the tip. By the way, decorating bags are a baker's best friend. Buy them in bulk!! Well, as suggested, as I held my trio of bags near my tray with cupcake liners, I took a deep breath and snipped the ends...let's just say that it was a lot messier than I expected.  Perhaps because the box mix made a thinner batter making them flow faster?  I took the bag trio and just painted vertical stripes back and forth in each of the liners the best that I could.  Unfortunately I couldn't control the flow from one liner to the next, so some of the edges ended up with batter on them.  I was pleasantly surprised that when they came out of the oven, they didn't look so bad.  And on the inside, they pretty much held to their designated areas! Quite honestly, the messiness kind of makes them more authentic, like the syrup making its way through the ice.  Oh, a side note, the liners I purchased are by Wilton and are available in 12-packs at Michael's.

Next, I had the time consuming task of frosting the cooled cupcakes.  First, unlike the suggestion by Bakerella, I put all three colors in decorator bags.  Too late, I realized that I didn't buy the larger sugar crystals for blue and red, but I think it turned out ok.  And of course they tasted delicious!