On Tuesday, my mom celebrated a birthday and my dad came back from a two week trip to Vietnam. To celebrate this double whammy, I decided to make ice cream cupcakes, as inspired by Joy the Baker. These tasty treats were easy to make and provided a nice reprieve from the heat that Oklahoma has been bombarded with lately.

All that is really required for these cupcakes are a cake base and some ice cream. I went with a chocolate cake base because I wanted an excuse to try out another chocolate cake recipe. I'm still on the search for the perfect recipe, but more about my quest tomorrow. The ice cream I used for most of the cupcakes was standard vanilla, but I did make a special strawberry one for the birthday girl. I topped it all off with a simple chocolate ganache because people can never have too much chocolate. Right?

If you want to make ice cream cupcakes of your own (why wouldn't you?), head on over to Joy the Baker for a fantastic tutorial. I would provide my own step-by-step instructions here, but my cupcakes came out much messier than hers.

Enjoy!