This Instructable will show you how to make these 100% edible tea cups with mini tea flavored cupcakes inside of them.
The recipe I used is for Chai Tea Cupcakes with Cinnamon Butter Cream Frosting, but you may choose any flavor to use or even experiment and fill them with a chocolate mousse or pudding and top with marshmallows to imitate hot cocoa! Have fun with it and make it your own, hope you enjoy!

Step 1: Supplies!

NOTE:The recipe for the frosting and cake will yield 55-57 mini cupcakes.
The supplies I am showing you will make 24 tea cups. So you will have to double the tea cup supplies if you want more than 24 tea cups for all the mini cupcakes you bake. Or just make regular mini cupcakes with it like I did as the 3rd grade class I was baking them for only consisted of 20 kids. Or you can also use the rest of the batter to make regular sized cupcakes after you baked the 24 mini cupcakes needed. It's up to you!

Ingredients for Chai Tea Cupcakes:
1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix
3 Eggs
1/2 Cup of Canola Oil
1 Cup of Strong Brewed Chai Tea (I absolutely love Tazo's Chai so I used that!)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Butter Cream Frosting:
1lb Butter, Softened
2-2 1/2 Cups Confectionery or Powdered Sugar
2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

Ingredients for Making Edible Tea Cups:
1 Package of Ice Cream Cups (24)
1 Package of Vanilla/Golden Creme Sandwich Cookies
2 Packages of CandiQuik Melts or 2lbs of any other Melts you would prefer to use.
Food Coloring

Step 2: Brew Some Tea!

Put on a pot of water and bring it to a boil.
Grab a liquid measuring cup and place two tea bags inside of it.
When the water has reached a boil, take the pot off the burner and pour 1 1/2 Cups of hot water into the measuring cup with the tea bags.
Let this set for about 10 minutes or so. You want a really strong brewed cup of tea for this.

Note: You only need 1 Cup of Tea, but I poured 1 1/2 Cups of water in to account for any water that may get soaked up by the bags. Better to be safe than sorry!

Step 3: Mixing the Cupcake Batter!

Grab a large bowl and combine your cake mix, oil, and eggs.
Slowly stir in the finished tea until you get a smooth, uniform batter.
Preheat your oven, 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 4: Bake Your Cupcakes!

Line a Mini Cupcake tin with cupcake papers. Use something plain as the design won't matter, they get peeled off for the final product anyway.
Fill each paper about 2/3 of the way. Leave room for them to expand!
Stick them into the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes, then take them out to cool.
Repeat this either until all the batter is used!

Step 5: Cutting the Cone!

Take one of the ice cream cups and a knife.
Carefully place the knife where the cup, meets the cone and gently "saw" the bottom cone part off.
Clean up any rough edges and set aside for now.

Step 6: Making the Cookie Bases!

Grab your package of creme cookies and open them up.
Gently twist them in half.
Keep only the halves with frosting on them for this project. Put the rest in a baggie to eat some other time. Maybe with some tea!

Step 7: Forming the Cup!

Take the ice cream cup from earlier and the frosted cookie half and stick them together. The frosting will act as a sort of glue and keep the cone attached to the cookie base. Thus a cup is formed!

Step 8: Making the Coating!

Prepare your package of melts according to their label.
Add in any food coloring if necessary and mix it well.

Step 9: Coating the Cups!

So for this step, I experimented with a few methods to see what would look best.
In the first picture, I tried just spooning the melts on to coat the cups. This was not a good method. It didn't come out even at all or had drips.
In the next two photos, I rolled the cups in the melts and got a much better smooth and even coating.
In the fourth photo, I tried brushing on the melts and this worked well too. There was much more control.

I recommend you experiment as well and get a feel for what you prefer. My best results came from rolling the cups in the melts or using a brush to apply them.

Be sure to have a tray or cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil or parchment paper to set these on when they are finished. Then stick them in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to cool and harden.

Step 10: Making the Handles!

On a second cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil or parchment paper, take the left over melts and put them in a frosting bag.
Pipe out 30-35 thick "C" shaped handles. The extra the better. Then you can pick out the best looking handels or have room for error if you break one!
Set this sheet in the refrigerator to chill and harder for 10-15 minutes as well.
Be sure to keep the bag of melts you used to pipe the handles for later. Don't worry if there isn't much left at this point, you don't need too much more.

Step 11: Applying the Handles!

Now that the cups and handles are chilled, take them out of the refrigerator.
Take your remaining melts in the frosting bag and stick it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to melt them again.
Pipe out 2 little dots on the cup as shown in the picture.
Take a handle and place it on the dots, pressing down gently for a few seconds until it sticks on it's own.
Move the completed cup into the refrigerator to cool again.
Repeat this till all cups have handles and let them set in the refrigerator for another 10 minutes.

Step 12: Frosting!

While your cups are chilling in the refrigerator, you can prepare the butter cream frosting.

In a large bowl, use a blender to cream together 1 Cup of Confectioner's/Powdered Sugar and the 1 lb of Butter.
After reaching a smooth consistency, add in another 1 Cup of Confectioner's/Powdered Sugar and the 2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon. Use the blender to combine these ingredients as well.
Make sure all ingredients are mixed well, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
For those with a sweeter tooth, you can add the extra 1/2 Cup of Confectioner's/Powdered Sugar as you please!

Step 13: Filling Your Edible Tea Cup!

Bag your frosting into a frosting bag with a frosting tip of your choice.
Grab one of your mini cupcakes and unwrap it.
Take out one of your edible tea cups from the refrigerator and stick the unwrapped mini cupcake inside.
Pipe frosting on top of the cupcake.

Step 14: Final Product!

Your Tea Cup-Cakes are now complete! If you piped out thick handles as directed, you should have no problem being able to lift the cups, as the mini cupcake really isn't that heavy!
If you do not intend to serve them right away, then find an air tight container to store them in and keep them in the refrigerator until they are needed.
Refrigeration is important as chocolate and vanilla melts along with butter cream do have a tendency to....well melt! If that happens, you'll have pretty sad looking, but probably still delicious tea cup-cakes!