For a couple of months now, I have been planning how to make my husband a surprise DQ Blizzard cake for his birthday – and in his favorite flavor, chocolate with Reese’s peanut buttercups. I was inspired by Cake Style’s Starbucks cake (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2mP13jMOMY) and watched the tutorial a bunch of times. I didn’t want to make it quite as big as her cake, however. I decided to make a cake that was 6″ diameters at the top and tapered down.

My first task was to find a reputable person to make my edible image. I decided on the seller Edible Party Images on Etsy. Before I even ordered, I messaged them and explained exactly what I wanted to do to see if they understood. I had issues in the past with another seller who didn’t make my custom image correct at all. They seemed to know what I meant, so I ordered a 7.5″ x 10″ and asked for two logos in a couple of difference sizes.

The only other thing I had to do ahead of time was make the illusion of the famous Dairy Queen red spoon peeking out of the top of the Blizzard. I got some red fondant, mixed it with Tylose, then rolled it out sort of thick. Then I put my skewer on the fondant and folded over. Next, I cut it in the appropriate shape and sealed the sides.I let it dry for about a week, so that it would be nice and stiff.

For the cake, I baked 1.5 batches of Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake. I baked them up in 3 6″ tins. Then I split them so I would have 6 layers total. I left the top layer domed so it could look like the ice cream.

When that was done, I tested to see if everything was going to work.

From there, I made a big batch of buttercream. I made about 3 cups into peanut butter by adding some Natural Jif until I was satisfied. To make what would look like ice cream, I added some cocoa powder to about a cup of buttercream. Then I swirled some peanut butter icing in, making it a chocolate AND PB icing. It’s so delicious!

I also prepared my 8″ cake board.

In between the layers, I knew I wanted Reese’s minis. I chopped the entire 8 ounce bag up for the cake.

From there, I slowly built up the cake. I put blue on the outside, which was completely unnecessary because I was going to carve the sides of the cake.

After the first three layers were done, I added some dowel rods for support since the cake is going to be so tall.

Eek, it looked scary at this point, but it was now ready to carve. I also put in a center dowel rod at some point:

All the yummy cake scraps from carving.

Below is how it looked after carving with my serrated knife. I simply and carefully tapered it toward the bottom, careful not to over do it.

It’s important to put it back into the fridge at this point so your buttercream gets stiff and doesn’t budge as you put the icing on the outside.

Next, I put on a thick layer of blue icing.

Then I smoothed it out. After this, put it back into the refrigerator to stiffen up.

While it was resting in the fridge, I cut the logo with my X-Acto knife and made the rim with my extruder.

I used the half moon shape for the rim. I feel like the rim really brought it together to make a realistic cake.

Next, I added the chocolate buttercream and made it look nice and messy, like a real Blizzard. Then I cut my miniature Reese’s peanut buttercups and half and stuck them into the chocolate. Next, I put my “spoon” in the cake. After chilling the edible image in the freezer for about ten minutes, I carefully peeled it and placed it on the cake.

My kids couldn’t believe this cake! My husband loves it and didn’t guess what it was for a while into the process what exactly I was making. When I took my photos, my kids got into the action. They had a lot of fun taking pictures with the cake. I don’t normally let my kids so close to my fancy cakes, but this was for ourselves, so I let them have some fun.

Well, there you have it! That’s how you make a Dairy Queen Blizzard cake. I hope that you enjoyed my tutorial. As usual, if you have any questions, just ask me here, on Facebook, or even on Instagram (@NicholesCustomCakes).

Finally, here it is cut! It was delicious. 

Nichole