I scream, you scream, we all scream for ….a GIANT Ice Cream Sundae Cupcake Cake! Today I’m going to show you how to make the most adorable and easy summertime dessert!
Yessss….nothing says summertime like ice cream and ice cream themed parties! A few years ago, we made a CUTE ice cream cone cupcake tutorial which is linked at the bottom of this post. Today, we’re back with more ice cream cupcake cuteness!!
This ice cream sundae pull-apart cupcake cake design is SO much fun and so simple to create! Kids will love helping to assemble and decorate this cupcake cake, and will love pulling it apart even more!
Let’s get started…
First, we started out with cupcakes and an 8″ round cake layer.
Next, I made the “ice cream bowl”! There is more than one way to carve a bowl shape from cake, and it is the easiest thing in the world. However, the method I’m demonstrating will give you a nice wide “bowl” without a lot of leftovers…
I started by slicing my 8″ round cake layer in half.
I took one of those cake halves and cut it into three pieces as you see below. (I sliced each side away at the point where the cake begins to curve.)
You can see our first half of cake is on the left in the photo below. As much as they may call your name, don’t eat those small corner pieces! We’ll use them later!
Now, for the other half of the cake layer…
I sliced that one down the center.
Next, I pieced everything together. The two little end pieces from our first half of cake became the small base of our bowl. The middle section of our first half of cake became the middle section of the bowl.
The second half of cake, which we split down the center, became each side of our bowl.
(It all makes sense when you look at the picture!)
Next, I cleaned up the top edge by slicing away a few uneven pieces.
I frosted our bowl on it’s own cake cardboard using a crusting buttercream tinted with a very small amount of Americolor Teal.
Once the frosting had crusted, I smoothed over it with a Viva paper towel (optional), & chilled in the freezer for about 5 minutes to firm up the icing. Firming up the icing was helpful for the next step, which was to cut the cake cardboard down to size using an xacto knife.
*The bowl doesn’t have to have a cake board of it’s own, but it made it easier for me to frost, smooth & then move the cake to the final cake base when ready.
I moved our completed, frosted bowl to our final cake base, using frosting as our glue.
Now for the fun part– adding cupcakes & piping our scoops of ice cream!!
For the ice cream, I used our crusting buttercream tinted with small amounts of Americolor Electric Green & Deep pink. I filled disposable piping bags with the buttercream and snipped away the end to create a medium size opening (which would be approximately the size of a Wilton 12 tip or so.)
You can pipe a dot of buttercream on the bottom of the outer cupcakes to help keep them “glued” to the board.
Embellish with sprinkles, mini chips and frosting to resemble hot fudge. Since we just needed a small amount, our “hot fudge” was actually just a store-bought chocolate frosting from the grocery store. (shhhhh…) ;0)
After adding my scoops, I decided that I wanted a little less bowl showing, and more ice cream. So, to do this without having to carve away any of our cake, I decided to pipe one more row of scoops along the top edge of the bowl. I piped a line of blue as my guide for how low I wanted to bring the scoops.
Using a piping tip 5, I also embellished our bowl with some outlines, a small bead border, & polka dots!
Here’s a nice side view! We also added a few extras. You can’t have a sundae without a cherry on top! I created ours with a ball of pink fondant.
The stem for the cherry is white paper covered floral wire (22 gauge) which was painted with a paint of pink coloring gel mixed with a little vodka. We also added a couple of pirouette cookies & an oversized plastic spoon wedged into the side between two cupcakes (it was “serving spoon” size.)
And we are finished!! I just love how it came out. Such a happy display, and the design couldn’t be easier to put together! If you try it, we’d love to see!
Looking for more Ice Cream Fun? Make sure to check out this cute tutorial for Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes! Another adorable, SIMPLE cupcake design!
Thanks for stopping by! See you next time ;0)
Oh that is too cute! I’m going to make it for the children in my preschool class, they will love it! :-)
Thanks Angelique, so happy to hear it!
This is so cute! I can’t wait to make it! How do you get that beautiful blue color?
Love this cake – so pretty and happy. I will try this one for my granddaughters birthday coming up soon.
Very nice! Looks awesome, and it’s a fabulous idea. Love it!
Absolutely adorable!!
This is so cute! Would be perfect for a birthday for a little one!
I love it Melissa! What an adorable idea. Kudos to you!
Thanks so much for your comments!!
Oh my!! What a wonderfull idea for a kids birthday party :)
Melissa, this is the cutest!!! Once again you amaze me, girl. Pinning for safe keeping.
Thanks, I am going to make this as something extra for the children T baby shower. Of course, the cake I am am making is from Melissa also.
Thank you!!! xoxo
My son’s class is having an end-of-year celebration tomorrow. I had planned to bring simple vanilla cupcakes but when I saw this tutorial I had to give it a shot. I just finished making the sundae and WOW!!! I love it!!! The kids are going to have a blast when they see this tomorrow. Thank you for such an awesome tutorial. I am so happy to be a member!!!
Mrs. Vee, I am so glad that you made it!!
Was the 8″ pan a 2 or 3″ high?
Hi Colleen, it was an 8inch round two inch deep pan.
I love you for making this! So cute and fun. It looks so friendly to make. I’m going to make this for my daughter’s 4th Birthday in July. Cannot wait. Thank you! Best one I’ve seen & beats spending hundreds on someone to bake one.
What a cute idea! Can you tell me what size board did the final cupcake cake rest on? Do you mind if I borrow your idea as our cake club inspiration?
Hi Susan- Glad you are planning to make this! I must have forgotten to list the cake cardboard size. It must have been 13 x19– I would use 3 boards stacked together and wrapped just be on the safe side.