Today was the first time I used the frosting based recipe to make scoopable ice cream. I have always used it for soft served ice cream.
Prior to today, I have always made the shortening based ice cream.
The frosting based ice cream is easier to make and I think easier to get the barking to work. But, it dries out really fast, which kind of defeats the purpose of having so much extra time using fake ice cream over real ice cream.
Don’t get me wrong, it still buys you time, but not a lot, within 10 minutes or so, it starts to dry out. You could probably get 20 minutes out of it before it looks obviously dry.
If you’re covering it with lots of syrup, nuts and whipped cream, it shouldn’t matter.
The shortening based ice cream doesn’t dry out very fast. You can get literally a couple of hours out of it before it starts to look bad.
It is harder to mix and harder to get the consistency right, though.
I think for a commercial food shoot, I would choose the shortening based recipe, but for editorial photos, I think the frosting based recipe will work for most people better.
Now, I have other tricks to make it look more real. If you notice, there is some ‘wetness’ on the ice cream. Just making the ice cream isn’t the only thing to do to get that realistic look!
I will do a video, where I will show you how to make it and style it for camera. Sorry for the cliff hanger. 🙂
Look for that soon!
- 6 cans white frosting
- 3 bags powdered sugar
- karo syrup optional
- nuts, food coloring, fruit optional
- 1 C shortening
- 1 C karo syrup
- 2 lbs powdered sugar or more to get the consistency right
- nuts optional
- Frosting Based-With a mixer, (I use a heavy duty mixer or a paddle mixer on my drill, because it's gets too hard to stir by hand) scoop all 6 cans of frosting into a bucket or LARGE bowl, slowly add powdered sugar, a half of a bag at a time until completely mixed. Keep testing the consistency by dragging an ice cream scoop through it until it seems right to you. If, for some reason you get it too thick, don't fret! Slowly mix in Karo syrup until it's the right consistency. Add food coloring, fruit, chocolate, nuts, or whatever you need to make the flavor of ice cream you desire. You can also use this recipe for soft ice cream, it requires about half of the powdered sugar.
- Shortening Based- With a mixer, (I use a heavy duty mixer or a paddle mixer on my drill, because it's gets too hard to stir by hand) scoop all of the shortening into a bucket or LARGE bowl, slowly add powdered sugar, 1/2 C at a time until completely mixed. Keep testing the consistency by dragging an ice cream scoop through it until it seems right to you. I seem to always need to add more powdered sugar to get it right. If, for some reason you get it too thick, don't fret! Slowly mix in Karo syrup until it's the right consistency. Add food coloring, fruit, chocolate, nuts, or whatever you need to make the flavor of ice cream you desire.
Kelly
This looks fun! I want to create fake ice cream to decorate my tiered tray. How long will it last? Also, how did you make the chocolate syrup?
Suzy
Hi! The fake ice cream (if covered) will last months. But once you put it out in the air, to shoot or whatever you’re using it for, it will start to dry out. It will still look good for an hour or two, but then you will start to see some cracks. I didn’t make the chocolate syrup, I just bought it. 🙂 Let me know if you have any other questions!
Micheile
Hi! What a great post! I’m looking forward to trying this 🙂 I was wondering what the measurements are for the ingredients because cans and bags in other countries don’t always make sense. I’m thinking like the US Betty Crooker sized cans? Maybe they vary in size? A bag of powered sugar is how much?
It looks so amazing 😊 thank you 😊
Suzy Eaton
Hi! Yes, the betty crocker sized frostings are perfect, and the bagged powdered sugar is about 6 1/2 cups, or 907 grams. 😉 I hope that helps!