Ice Cream Dessert Table

"I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream!" I can't remember if that was a commercial or something that I saw on TV as I child, but this song always pops into my head whenever I indulge in an ice cream treat. (and upon Googling, I've found from Wikipedia that it was a catchy novelty song released way back in the 1920s!) Anyway, having never done desserts in this theme before, I was quite excited to make all sorts of ice cream-themed goodies: cake pops, cookies, cupcakes & macarons.

"spilled" ice cream cone cake pops

For the cake pops, I wanted them to look like upside down "spilled" ice cream. First I had to prepare the "mini" cones. At the supermarket here, there are only regular sugar cones & those flat bottom wafer cones available, all in regular sizes. Mini cones are only available at specialty stores and they cost over a dollar each! So, I bought regular sugar cones, and sawed them in half with a steak knife! Mini cones, done. (Plus, my kids got to eat all the scraps with their ice cream desserts after dinner). I decorated the cones by dipping the edges in melted white chocolate and then rolling them in a bowl of sanding sugar. 

mini cones dipped in coloured sanding sugar

The cake pop part is pretty much the same as regular cake pops. Roll round cake balls, freeze, and dip in melted chocolate coloured using candy oil or powdered colouring. The only difference is that since there isn't any lollipop stick to hold them from while dipping in the chocolate, you have to stab each cake ball with a toothpick. Also, normally, you'd shake the excess chocolate off before placing the cake ball on a sheet of parchment paper to fully harden. 

don't cry over spilled (frozen) milk!

In this case, for the "spilled ice cream" effect, after dipping, don't completely shake off the excess chocolate. Just place the cake ball on the parchment when there's still some excess chocolate on it, so that it'll pool on the parchment paper.  Don't forget to pull out the toothpick. You can smear the chocolate that drips off in different directions using a toothpick or a teaspoon, to create more interesting "spills". Then, place the mini cone upside down on top of the cake ball & decorate with sprinkles before the chocolate fully sets. 

care for a scoop?

For the cookies, of course I made ice cream cones as well. I don't have an ice cream cone cookie cutter, so I combined a few cutters to make the shape that I wanted. I used a small raindrop shaped cookie cutter for the cone, a round cutter for the ice cream scoop, and the back of a piping tip for the cherry on top. 

ice cream cone sugar cookies

I used royal icing to decorate the cookies, making sure that each neighbouring section was dry before piping on the next, so that the icing didn't flow together and dry in one layer, starting with the cone and ending with the cherry. I sprinkled rainbow nonpareils on the top of the coloured "fudge sauce" layer before the icing dried hard. Once the cookies were dry, I went back in and drew the criss-cross waffle pattern on the cones using a brown edible ink marker. 

grab one before they melt!

For the cupcakes, the are red velvet and chocolate cupcakes, baked in polka-dotted blue and pink soufflé cases. I thought about baking them in wafer cones and making ice cream cone cupcakes, but then all the other desserts were already ice cream cones, so I wanted the cupcakes to look like little ice cream sundaes instead. 

vanilla "soft-serve" cupcakes with rainbow fudge sauce

For the frosting, I piped on a rose swirl of vanilla "soft serve" with white Swiss meringue buttercream, using a 1M piping tip. And then for the fudge sauce, I used a large round piping nozzle to pipe on different colours of buttercream. To finish off each cupcake sundae, I sprinkled them with rainbow nonpareils, added a red crispy m&m on top for the cherry & stuck in a striped chocolate wafer roll. They look so cute and colourful!

ice cream sundae cupcakes

colourful view from the top!

Finally, for the macarons, I made four different colours, filing them with dark chocolate ganache & lemon curd with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. 

lemon meringue & dark chocolate ganache macarons

pastel rainbow macarons

To tie them into the ice cream theme, immediately after piping, I sprinkled the shells with rainbow nonpareils before the shells dried. I really wanted to stick a waffle wedge into the end of the macaron to mimic an ice cream cone, but I just couldn't find where to buy ready-made waffles wedges. 

rainbow sprinkled macarons to tie them into the ice cream theme

All of these colourful ice cream desserts were arranged onto an ice cream parlour-themed dessert table, styled by One and Only Gallery. The party was a joint first birthday celebrations for a a pair of twins! The table looks extra fancy with the gold table cloth! 

Ice Cream Parlour Dessert Table

I would love to see this theme again, set up in a real ice cream cart with an awning, and with a person standing behind it dressed in a white shirt with a red bowtie and a white soda jerk hat. It would be the perfect ice cream parlour setting!  Anyway, I really had so much fun making all these ice cream desserts. Can't wait to do this theme again. Happy 1st birthday to Leron & Levinia!

Happy 1st Birthday, Lavinia & Leron!