Ice Cream Cone Cakes

Sonya's son Josh came over last night, so I made him a little treat. As I was making it, I realized that it's a pretty cool idea for birthday parties or a get together focused around kids....so I am sharing.

Ingredients

• Cake - box or scratch - any flavor - whatever floats your boat
• One box of standard ice cream cones - the kind that are flat on the bottom
• One - Two batches of butter cream icing (any kind of icing would probably work)*
• Icing colors (regular food coloring is fine)
• Jimmies or other ice cream type sprinkles
• Small Circle cutter - if you don't have one, a shot glass would probably work. That is about the right size.

Bake the cake and set aside to cool.

Make the icing and divide into 3 separate bowls.

Color each bowl of icing a different color.

Set up ice cream cones on a flat tray or baking sheet.

Insert a dollop of icing into the bottom of the ice cream cone. If you make 3 colors, use same color in 4 cones, then switch to another color until all cones have a dollop of icing in the bottom.

Use the cutter or shot glass to cut cake into small circles that can be inserted into cones. Push down on cake to make it stay in the cone. Put cake in all 12 cones.

Next put another dollop of icing in each cone, alternating colors so you ultimately end up with a cone with all 3 colors in it.

Do a second circle of cake in each cone and cover with icing - this should put you at the top of the cone.

Finally top with one more circle of cake on each cone, then use a piping bag and tip (Easy Accent Decorator from Pampered Chef works great) to add final layer of icing in the shape of a soft serve ice cream cone. Remember to alternate colors so you end up with 4 cones in each color.

Be sure to refrigerate so icing doesn't slide off, but before you pick up your baking sheet and head to the fridge...be forewarned. Use one of the cupcake carriers or a deep Tupperware container where you can stand them up against each other and the walls of the container because they WILL fall over.  Josh got to eat one, and I have 4 left that didn't bit the dust as I tried to transfer them to the fridge. Lesson learned.

Very quick and easy to put together in my opinion and Josh loved it. He wanted more, but I think after all of that icing he would have been up all night!

* - I say 1 - 2 because I made two batches and had quite a bit leftover. Probably enough to do 6 more cones. I'm not sure 1 would have been enough, but I also might have put more in each cone than was really necessary.

Sushi Cake

Sue and I have been friends for 35 years so of course I wanted to make her a cake for her birthday but I struggled to come up with an idea for her cake, so I started thinking about what we have done together the last few times we met up and every time we shopped, we drank, and we ate Sushi!

So the sushi cake was born. It turns out that on her birthday, her nieces Julia and Jennifer were flying into Atlanta from Maine. Sue, her husband Mike, and their boys, Travis and Matthew were headed to pick them up, and then were going to Myrtle Beach straight from the airport.

This presented a fantastic opportunity to deliver the cake and surprise her with it. Atlanta is a 4 hour drive, but they have to drive through Columbia to get to the beach....and Columbia is only 1.5 hours away.

I contacted Mike and Jen secretly to organize the surprise. We planned to meet up off an exit and surprise Sue with the cake.
To get started, I created some California rolls with fondant. I used my potato ricer to create rice out of fondant.

Funnily enough I saw a professional make a sushi cake on television afterward and she used white chocolate sprinkles to mimic rice and mine was so much better looking!

I also made some shrimp sashimi over rice, wrapped with a piece of black fondant to look like the nori.


Next I used gum paste to create a bowl that would be solid enough to hold a liquid that looks like soy sauce.
Once the bowl was dry, I added food coloring gel for soy sauce.

I added a little pile of wasabi out of fondant, and used my petal cutter to make some super thin pieces of ginger.

I used gum paste to make chop sticks and couldn't forget the little piece of fake grass to keep everything separate!

During our last sushi outing, Sue introduced me to edamamme, which I now cannot get enough of, so I had to make that too.

Once I put it all together, I used edible markers to write happy birthday on the chopsticks, and I dug out my old college textbook and wrote it in Japanese characters on the other one.


Once I was finished with the cake, I took the afternoon off and drove to Columbia. I found a Lowe's Home Improvement right off the exit we had agreed upon. I parked where I could see them get off the highway and enter Lowe's.

Jen kept texting me to let me know where they were and how long it would be until they arrived. It was very hot, so I sat in the car, with the dog, with the A/C on high, listening to a book on CD....for about an hour and half.

Suddenly my phone rang and it was Sue. I thought for sure that they messed up and told her the surprise or she figured it out. It was very funny....but she just called to chat. I asked where they were and she said they were getting off an exit so that Mike could use the bathroom. She asked me if I thought Lowe's had good bathrooms! Of course, I said yes, I think they have great bathrooms and they should definitely go there. Then Mike couldn't see me, so he grabbed the phone from Sue and asked me where I was parked, which really got her confused, and then she saw my car.

I took the cake box out of the car and let her open it and she was very surprised and all the hard work was worth it....until I tried to leave and my car wouldn't start. Mike had to jump my battery before we could go. It was hilarious. I had to drive home without stopping so that my battery would charge...but even with all of that, it was still worth it. I hadn't seen Jen since she was about 4 or 5 when we played Barbies during Tricia's yard sale...and I'd never met Julia. Cindy was pregnant with her when I moved to Charlotte....so it was good to see them and Travis. Matthew was konked out in the back of the van....but I'll see him in a couple of weeks when he comes to visit.

Thanks again to Mike and Jen. I couldn't have done it without you and I truly think she was pleased.

Gum Paste Roses - Check

I tried a few different tools before I got there, but I have finally figured out the gum paste roses. Without a lot of time to spare. Here are some photos.

Funeral Cookies

Sue called on Wednesday morning to let me know that her cousin's daughter, who lives in Charlotte, has passed away after a 2 year battle with cancer. She is planning to drive up on Friday for the funeral on Saturday and needs a place to stay.

Wednesday night Sue called to see if it would be okay if her sister Cindy could also stay, as she is planning to fly down from Maine, and oh by the way, she's flying into Charlotte, so I needed to pick her up at the airport. Oh and one more thing, her cousin Justin is also coming and he doesn't want to stay at the hotel with his mother, so he's going to stay with us and I need to pick him up at the airport too.

On Thursday morning Sue called again to let me know that Cindy is no longer flying, she is driving and their

sister Kit is also coming.

On Thursday afternoon, Kit called and said that their sister Tricia is also coming...oh and wait, her future daughter-in-law Sasha is coming too.

On Thursday evening they set off for North Carolina, from Maine.

I set about trying to figure out where I was going to put 6 additional people in my 2 bedroom apartment. Oh and I just happened to be dog sitting that weekend, so 7 people and 2 dogs.

I have known these people for 35 years and hadn't seen most of them for about 11 years but it was as if we all were kids again, having weddings in the basement, camping, teasing Tricia, talking over each other, trying on each others clothes.

The reason for their all being there was so sad it's almost unbearable to think about, but I had such a great time. I really don't want to go so long in between visits ever again.

Anyway, while they were all at the funeral on Saturday, I
had some time on my hands, so I tried a new technique for decorating sugar cookies with color flow icing.

So time consuming, but the finished product was so cute I had to share.