Ice Cream Sundae Cake Tutorial

This ice cream sundae cake tutorial will let you create a fun cake for any birthday no matter what the age. It's simple easy and fun to create and eat. The realism of an ice cream ice will have every one wondering how  you did it.

I made this cake recently for a customers. A lovely lady who spends time to plan her family's birthday cakes, but when she ordered her cake she said - "Veena I need a cake for my birthday, do what ever you like. Surprise me.. "

Well this is what I thought of; a nice summer cake that will bring pleasant memories.

Also, I was asked by the lovely Terri of the Cake Decorating Corner to make a Guest Cake Tutorial for her website this summer. So this seemed perfect as well. I do hope you will like this tutorial.

You can find the original tutorial here on Cake Decorating Corner. And of course - for you my blog fans - it's always here on my blog too.!

Step by step instructions

You will need:

• One 6” round cake – 2 “tall
• One 7” round cake – 2” tall
• Filling and frosting of your choice
• Fondant - Ivory for the cone and different colors of your choice for the scoops
• Modelling chocolate
• 12 “round cake board + ribbon
• About 4 to 5 cups Rice Krispies (depending on how firmly you mold them)
• About 2 to 3 cups of mini Marshmallows
• Vegetable shortening
• Sprinkles, Cornstarch.

Basic cake

1. Bake the cakes and cool completely.
2. Cut the domes off and save the domes for later.
3. Stack your cakes with filling / frosting. Start with the 6” on the bottom and the 7” on the top.
4. Cut the spare cake domes into triangles and add the triangles evenly spaced around the edges; about 5 or 6 spaces.
5. Use frosting to stick the piece to the cake.
6. Alternatively,  you can use Modelling Chocolate instead of  spare cake.
7. Chill the cake at this point so it will be easy to frost without the layers and trimmings getting displaced.
8. I used Buttercream on the inside and Ganache on the outside of the cake.
9. A waffle is not always perfectly shaped so don't worry much about it.

 

Making the fondant waffle cone wrap

1. Measure the height and the top circumference of the cake (the bottom is narrower)
2. Moisten the sides of your cake.
3. Roll some ivory fondant into a long strip. (I used Magic Colors Skin tone here)
4. Emboss a diamond pattern making sure you do not cut the fondant – just emboss.
5. Then cut the strip to your measure – The height should be about ½ inch taller than the cake.
   my cake was 4 ½ inch tall so the waffle strip was 5 inches
6. To avoid stretching the Fondant, dust with a bit of cornstarch so it won’t stick. Then roll it onto your rolling pin.
7. Wrap the fondant around the cake by simply unrolling the rolling pin around your cake.
8. Use some spare Ivory to make a Waffle cracker on the top.

Embossing and dusting the fondant waffle cone

1. There are many different waffle cones available in the market these days so you won’t be wrong it you left the diamond impression just as is.
2. I used a Dresden tool to double the diamond impression. Which means that I made parallel lines to the existing lines. ( I hope that makes sense)
3. Next it’s time to dust the waffle cone. I used some petal dusts. Here I used some Brown, Yellow, gold and white dusts. Use cornstarch to lighten the colors. Give it a light dusting.
4. I used light brown and gold into the lines.
5. Then dusted the entire surface with cornstarch and a tiny bit of brown, yellow mixed.

The chocolate edge on the waffle cone 

1. Roll some brown or colored modelling chocolate into a long strip about 1 inch thick.
2. Make one edge straight and the other a bit wavy
3. Moisten the top edges of the waffle cone.
4. Dust the modeling chocolate strip with cornstarch and roll it into a jelly roll.
5. Hold it on the top edge and unroll keeping the wavy edge outwards and the straight edge inwards.
6. You can sprinkle some sprinkles on it at the end once the cake is almost done.

Making the Rice Krispy for the ice cream Scoop

1. Add Marshmallows into a greased bowl.
2. Microwave for about a minute.
3. Add the Rice Krispy and stir well.
4. Let rest aside to cool for a few minutes to an hour so they are not too hot to handle.
5. Roll them into four balls – I made three balls the same size and the top a tad bigger than the rest. I did not press them too firmly either.
6. Set these aside to set.

Covering the top of the cake

1. Roll some marbled Pink and white sugar paste. (This is Magic Color Baby Pink and Magic White)
2. Use a plate or cake circle large as the top of your cake and cut a circle.
3. Moisten the top of your cake and place the disc on.
4. Smooth any excess on the sides of the cake. 

Let’s make the ice cream scoops

1. Roll some fondant circles in four different colors about ¼ inch thick for your scoops.
   Here I have used pink, yellow, Blue and white for color contrast. (I'm using Magic Colors here too)
2. And roll some thick long sausages with the same colors as shown in the picture.
3. Dust them with some cornstarch or powder sugar so they are not sticky.
4. Leave them to dry off for about 10 to 15 mins. I live in a high humidity area so I left it for almost 35 mins.
5. Brush the rice Krispy treats with some veg shorting. Notice my Rice Krispy are not smooth. The bumpy texture adds to the realism.
6. Wrap each ball of rice Krispy with the rolled disc, cut off any excess at the bottom.
7. Next wrap the rolled sausage around it. Use water to help adhere.
8. Use a fork to seal the sausage to the disc then use a circular motion to distress the fondant.
9. Jut pulling with the fork in the same direction all around.
10. To fill the gaps in the top surface of the cake I balled the leftover dried pink fondant into a ball and distressed it the same way as before.

Making the fruit

Making the strawberries –
( Magic Color Extra red and Magic Color moss green)

1. Roll some bright red fondant into a smooth ball with no cracks then into a teardrop shape.
2. Flatten just the top gently.
3. Take a cocktail stick and make small tiny random holes- many of them.
4. Depending on the size of your strawberry – either use the smallest daisy cutter or the smallest calyx cutter to make the green stalk.
5. Let dry for a few minutes to an hour.
6. Dust the strawberries with some cocoa powder. The cocoa powder will settle inside those tiny holes you just made.
7. Then dust with cornstarch to take off any excess cocoa powder.

Making the blueberries:
(Magic Color Navy Blue)

Tint the gumpaste with a dark navy blue color.
If you do not have navy blue – Royal blue with a touch of black should give you Navy Blue.

Roll small pea size smooth balls with no cracks

• Use a tiny blossom cutter to make the head. U can also use a small star cutter but I think the blossom looks better.
• Place the blossom cutter on the ball then press slightly so it give it that blueberry shape.
• Mark a dot in the center with a pointed tool.
• Let dry for a few minutes – then dust with cocoa powder and white petal dust.
• Blueberries have white patches so don’t be afraid to let those patches be obvious.
• Due to the very high humidity this week I skipped the dusting; so the dust would not smudge the fruit. But if you can you should – they add to the realism.

Assemble the ice cream scoops – the fun part

1. I place the three similar size scoops on the top of the cake so they sit comfortably.
2. I used the spare pink fondant distressed as ice cream to fill the gaps around the outer circumference.
3. Next I added the top larger scoop making sure it sits supported and won’t move during transportation. If needed you can add Royal Icing as glue or skewers.
   My top scoop sat very comfortably on the three below.
4. Use the left over modelling chocolate to create the chocolate dripping.
5. I did this free hand by just rolling into a ball then pulling in different directions into a drip shape. If you rub your fingers on the surface you will get a nice shiny look to modeling chocolate
6. Place the fruit strategically so you hide any gaps between the scoops.
7. Lastly – take a one tablespoon cornstarch mixed with one tablespoon cooled boiled water. Brush this all over the chocolate drips and fruit to give it that glossy look. I also added a smear on the scoops so the sprinkles would stick. (not too much)
8. Next sprinkle in some sprinkles – try not to be too heavy handed with the sprinkles – if you change your mind they are had to take off!!
9. Decorate the board with the spare fondant.

Well, I do hope you find this tutorial useful. If you do use the tutorial share your project with me on my Facebook page. I love seeing my tutorials in use.