Ice Cream Ship Cake for a Kid’s Beach Theme Party

In the previous post on how to plan a beach party for your child’s birthday, I mentioned that an ice cream ship cake would be ideal for this party.

Here’s the instructions to make the ice cream ship shown on the image. You will need about 3 – 4 days to make this cake as the different shapes have to be frozen separately as well as after each step in putting them together.

Firstly you will have to make moulds for the body of the ship. You will need 2 empty cardboard boxes (from foil, plastic food wrap or waxed paper).

Separate the lids from the boxes and undo one end of one box. Clip or staple two side pieces together to join at a point at the folds to form the body of the ship. Repeat with other box. Line both boxes with aluminium foil. To make the ice cream ship:

Ingredients:

2 liter carton vanilla ice cream
red food colouring (or colouring of choice)
purple food colouring (or colouring of choice)
assorted sweets (see image)
85g packet blue or green jelly crystals
shoelace licorice

To make:

1. Place half softened ice cream and a few drops red food colouring in a bowl. Use a potato masher to break down the ice cream until just beginning to melt and the colour is even. spoon mixture into mould for body of the ship, smooth top, cover with aluminium foil and freeze overnight or until firm.

2. Tint two thirds of the remaining ice cream with a few drops of purple food colouring, again break down with a potato masher, and spoon the mixture into the other box to two thirds of its length, fill the remaining space with the rest of the untinted ice cream, smooth top, cover with aluminium foil and freeze overnight until firm.

3. Loosen edges, turn body of ship out from mould on to a long chilled plate, return to freezer, freeze until firm. Turn the other ice cream shape out from the mould on to a chilled tray. Cut two 2.5cm (1in) rounds from one end of the plain ice cream.

4. Cut away a 2.5 cm (1 in) slice from side of remaining piece, (to remove stains from the tinted ice cream), straighten edges, round off corners at one end with a small knife. Cut away a 1cm (½ in) slice from side of the purple ice cream and round off the corners. Return all the pieces to the freezer and freeze again until firm.

5. Place white ice cream on top of the purple ice cream then, with a long knife or spatula, slide the two layers on top of the body of the ship. Place one of the two cutout rounds on top of the ship, the other one at the back, as shown in the image. Return the cake to the freezer and freeze until firm.

6. Decorate with assorted sweets (as shown), by pressing sweets firmly into the ice cream; return to freezer and freeze until firm.

7. Make up jelly according to directions on packet, when set, chop up. Just before serving the ice cream, spoon the jelly around ship and decorate with an anchor made from shoelace licorice.

Image and article source: Children’s Birthday Cake Book

Have fun when planning your kid’s birthday party