Ice Cream Sculpting


A beloved snack of all ages, ice cream works wonders in consoling an adult who’s feeling down or pacifying a kid who won’t stop crying. But with netizens’ creativity, even the traditionally mood-lifting dessert can turn nightmarish.

Japanese netizens who found the smileyfaced ice cream cup called “Panapp” bland, decided to sculpt it to align with their personal tastes. It’s no big deal to have different preferences from the norm, but things get a little concerning when a kid-friendly food item turns into a horrifying creation.


I-Scream


We’re pretty sure that Glico, a Japanese food processing company responsible for creating Pocky and Pretz, did not commission ice-cream art back when it first launched the Panapp ice cream in 1978. 

The ice cream is infused with either chocolate or fruit sauce that typically comes in the form of a smiley face, and netizens have used this ingredient to their artistic advantage.

Panapp ice cream sculpting - apple and grape sauce flavours
Panapp ice cream filled with apple-flavoured and grape-flavoured sauce respectively.
Image adapted from: @eaotil.litoae and @yakkun_Sang

One netizen, who wanted a switch from the good ol’ cheery face, went viral for skilfully sculpting a demonic face out of the innocent-looking dessert. According to him, he turned off the air-conditioning to reduce wind speed and delay the ice cream’s melting – all for the sake of crafting the masterpiece. Dedication indeed.

Panapp ice cream sculpting - netizen sculpt demonic face
Image credit: @38beem

Another netizen purposefully made a mess of the melted sauce to project a bloodied crying face. Just imagining seeing this face in the wee hours. Ugh.

Panapp ice cream sculpting - netizen sculpt bleeding face
Image adapted from: @___A____O___


Recognised by the ice cream manufacturer


Acknowledging Japanese netizens’ bountiful creativity, Glico termed the craft “Panapp Art” and held a Panapp Art event in 2016, where participants could make artwork out of the Panapp ice cream together with their family members.

Yūki Kanaya (金谷祐樹), the artist behind the demonic-faced ice cream, was also invited to the event. There, he gave guidance to participants on how to shape their ice cream.

Panapp ice cream sculpting - Panapp art event venue
Image adapted from: Glico

Once satisfied with their works, participants could collate photos of them on a unique application created for the event. While the application is no longer available for download, you can view some examples of the short video collages via the Panapp Art official website.

Panapp ice cream sculpting - Panapp art event mobile application
Application specifically designed for the Panapp Art event in 2016.
Image credit: Glico


Sculpting your own ice cream


To get started on your icecreamsculpting journey, you can get the smileyfaced Panapp ice cream in boxes of 6 via Amazon. You never know when an ice-cream-sculpting competition might be coming up, so might as well start practising now. And if your “artwork” doesn’t turn out quite the way you expected, you can just finish up the dessert and nothing goes to waste. 

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Cover image adapted from: @38beem

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