Fake Ice Cream for Food Photography

Working with ice cream in food photography is a race against the clock. You have minutes before your subject starts withering away into a milky mess. There are ways to slow down the inevitable melting of your beautifully styled ice cream shot, but one foolproof way is to make a quick batch of fake ice cream! Thanks to a tip from one of our favorite food photographers/educators Joanie Simon, we discovered this easy recipe for fake ice cream that lasts at least a couple of days and can be reshaped more than once with an ice cream scoop.

With just two simple (and edible!) ingredients, you can whip up a batch of ultra-realistic fake ice cream that can be colored with food coloring or textured with mix-ins to match the flavor you’re going for.

To make fake ice cream, you’ll need:

1. A stand mixer or food processor

2. Store-bought canned frosting (any flavor depending on the type of ice cream you’re trying to match)

3. Powdered sugar

Mix your frosting (and any food coloring) on a low speed just to get a smooth consistency, then slowly add powdered sugar (and mix-ins like crumbled cookies or nuts) until you get to the right consistency.

Generally, one can for every 2.5 cups of powdered sugar will get you five standard-sized scoops at the consistency shown here. You can scale up or down depending on how many scoops you need.

Dab some heavy cream with a tiny paintbrush just along the edges for an even more realistic, slightly melted look. Easy peasy!

Side note:

If you’re shooting a specific brand of ice cream for a client, this hack won’t work for you. You’ll have to show the actual product! But with the right prep, you can buy yourself some extra time with a couple key steps:

• Pre-scoop as many balls of ice cream as you can, then put them back in the freezer for as long as possible before your shoot (24 hours is ideal).

• Style the whole scene first, using a non-melting stand in, like a balled up paper towel, before putting your real ice cream in the shot.

• Experiment (carefully!) with dry ice. We’ve yet to use it on a shoot, so not much helpful advice to offer here, but it is an option.