Curious George Ice Cream & DIY Edible Eyes

We recently ordered Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop from my son's book club at school.  Curious George visits the new ice cream shop in town.  Of course, his curiosity gets him in trouble when he starts making his own ice cream creations.  Fortunately, he also brings in lots of new business for the place!  We read this book six times in a row!

(Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise would also be a great book to go along with this treat!)


I made some monkey ice cream cones to go along with the book.  They're made from chocolate ice cream, vanilla wafers, food coloring, and edible eyes.

I actually have a stash of edible eyes now, which I love!  If you make your own, you can make them any size and they're a lot cheaper than buying them.  They aren't quite as perfect, but I actually like them better that way.

I started with a tutorial from Instructables, but then of course, I made them even easier.  I'm terrible at following directions. 

Start with a small batch of royal icing.  I used Wilton's Meringue Powder and this recipe scaled to 16 servings because I thought it was safer than using uncooked egg whites.  Pipe small dots of icing onto sheets of wax paper and let harden.

Can you tell I'm not a perfectionist?  My husband would've had those things evenly spaced and lined up in neat little rows.

If you're doing larger eyes, make sure you space them far enough apart as they'll spread a little.

I let them dry overnight.  (This was the hardest part because my 3 year old kept begging to eat them.) I used a dot of black food coloring for the pupil.  I actually used a cotton swab to stamp it on there.

That's it!  They stick slightly to the wax paper so instead of pulling them all off, I cut the waxed paper to fit inside airtight containers so they'll stay put.  These will last a very long time if they don't come into contact with grease or moisture.

If you decide to make some, I'd love to hear how it goes and what you use them for!