Mini Carrot Cake Ice Cream Cone

Try to make this mini carrot cake ice cream cone, it’s a real carrot cone filled with cinnamon ice cream and cream cheese frosting, all in the shape of a cone.

So this is a mini carrot cake ice cream cone. A twist on the carrot cake flavors of carrot, cinnamon and a cream cheese frosting, all served like a miniature ice cream cone. Before you attempt to do this be warned. Things melt easily and this recipe and instructions is by no means perfected, a real work in progress.

How the idea came up

A few weeks ago I bought a carrot pencil peeler, you can read all about it here. Since then I’ve been using it from time to time. The children especially likes to use it when helping out in the kitchen. So as I cooked and nibbled on some carrots I noticed that the cone shape of the carrot would be perfect to use as an ice cream cone.

But how, raw carrots is not something that is known for pairing great with ice cream. So I started thinking.

Well the only thing sweet I could think of where carrots is used was carrot cake. So what flavors defines carrot cake? It’s not really carrot is it? It’s more like a moist cinnamon sponge cake with frosting. But this will taste like carrot. And look cooler.

So the idea was this. Somehow cook the carrot just a little bit and add some sweetness to it. This will remove the raw feel of the carrot. But it can’t be cooked too much because then the cone won’t hold up.

Instead of a cinnamon sponge cake use ice cream. I had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer and I buy a few bags of cinnamon for every christmas which I then forget so the kitchen is packed with that.

For the frosting simply make a cream cheese and vanilla cream. Simple.

So here is the recipe for the mini carrot cake ice cream cone. Like I mentioned I only tried this once so you might have to adjust as you go.

Mini carrot cake ice cream cone recipe

Serves 4 as snacks

The cones
1 carrot
0.5 cups / 1.2 dl sugar
1 cup / 2.5 dl water
1 vanilla pod
2 strips of lemon peel

Wash or peel the carrot, I did both versions. As long as there’s no dirt on it choose yourself. Then sharpen the carrot to create the cones.

Combine sugar, water, vanilla and lemon peel in a pot and bring to a boil. Set aside and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Add the carrots and leave in the sugar syrup for about 15 minutes. Remove and let the carrots drop off on some paper.

Hopefully you’ll get the same result as me, a crunchy but slightly cooked carrot with a mild lemon and vanilla flavor.

Cinnamon ice cream
1 cup / 2.5 dl vanilla ice cream
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Add the ice cream and cinnamon to a bowl. Mix together with a spoon. Put back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Cream cheese frosting
4 tbsp cream cheese
1 tsp icing sugar
½ vanilla pod

Split and scrape out the seeds of the vanilla pod, combine the seeds with the cream cheese and sugar. Transfer the frosting to a small piping bag.

Assembly

Twist the cones slightly so they are as close to a cone shape as they can be. Add a little bit of frosting in the bottom of the cone. Then add a small scoop of ice cream and some frosting on top. Dust with some more cinnamon. Eat in the next ten seconds or so because this one melts fast.

So is this really a good idea?

I think so, the flavors work like magic. But the technique isn’t really there. First of all, how do you even serve this. Well you’ll need something that can hold a carrot cone. In my photos I used a building bracket that got left over from a house project, that worked for now but if you want to serve these for more than one you will need something better.

Either a bigger serving thing where you can place a few more carrot cake cones. That can easily be constructed with some sheet metal so maybe I revisit that sometime soon.

Also, the ice cream should be made from scratch and be colder. This way it won’t melt as fast. I also think that there isn’t enough contrast between the ice cream and the frosting. So it should be made with a darker ice cream.

If you decide to try this please let me know how things went and if you made anything to improve the result. Thanks!