How to Make Packaged Snow Cones

Made of crushed ice and fruit flavored syrup, snow cones made their way to fame through their popularity at fair grounds and ball games. Go no further than your closest convenience store and you can enjoy a snow cone any time of the year, even in January, if the mood strikes. Making your own snow cones is a great project to do with kids, and you can even package your own to sell at summer yard sales or as fund raisers at the next little league baseball game.

Things You'll Need

• Ice
• Kool-aid packets
• Sugar
• Water
• Light corn syrup
• Snow cone cups
• Packaging plastic
• Scissors
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon for stirring

Instructions

1. Prepare your snow cone syrup. Use plenty of corn syrup; it's better to have left-over syrup than not enough. Pour the whole bottle of corn syrup into a bowl and add Kool-aid and sugar to taste. Adding the sugar slowly while stirring keeps it from clumping.

2. Thin the mixture with water. Add enough water to make the syrup easily poured, aim for a texture that resembles pancake syrup.

3. Crush the ice. You want the ice to be crushed nearly to a slushy point, with pieces the size of BB gun pellets or smaller.

4. Pack the ice into the cones, forming a dome shape on the top of the cup. For packaging, place the cones back in the freezer to allow them to freeze into shape before adding the syrup.

5. Remove the cones from the freezer once they have had time to freeze into their new cone and dome shape, then pour the syrup onto the cones.

6. Pour the syrup slowly, making sure you spread the syrup evenly over the crushed ice dome. Stop pouring when the dome is covered and has changed to the color of the syrup. Don't add too much syrup. Three or four tablespoons should be enough for a small cone the size of a coffee cup.

7. Put the syrup-covered cones back into the freezer as you continue covering the remaining cones, this will help the syrup to freeze into the cone, and to spread into the bottom of the cup. Trying to package the cones while the syrup is still runny is hard and messy, so let the syrup freeze first.

8. Cut the packaging plastic into the dimensions needed to cover the snow cone dome and the cup. Remove the cones from the freezer and begin wrapping them in the plastic. Rewrap and re-cut if the snow cone isn't completely covered.

Tips & Warnings

• You can buy crushed ice and pre-mixed syrup to save time. Wear an apron or old clothes so you won't stain your good clothes.

• Don't keep left-over syrup for more than a couple of days. The sugar in the mixture will clump and can grow mold.