Here is the recipe ingredients:

2 1/4 cups confectionary sugar
6 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of vanilla
1 3/4 cups of heavy cream
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
2 lbs. ricotta cheese, drained
1/2 bag mini chocolate chips

Bring milk to a boil over low heat. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla. Mix sugar and cornstarch in bowl and combine. Add to milk and stir for 20-30 minutes until you have a thick carmelly custard. Let cool. Add cream cheese and beat. Add ricotta that has been draining and beat until creamy. Fold in chocolate chips and refrigerate several hours or over night. Pipe in cannoli shells. More detailed below:

2 1/4 cups of confectionary sugar.

Add the 6 tablespoons of cornstarch to the 2 cups of sugar and mix in bowl. Set aside.

1 tablespoon of vanilla. Yes, 1 tablespoon, you are reading this correctly.

Using a strainer, put your 2 pounds of riccotta cheese inside bowl to drain off excess water. You can even do this the night before. Just cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Only use whole milk riccotta.

1 8 oz package softened cream cheese.

1 3/4 cups of heavy cream.

Using a 4 quart sauce pan, heat the 1 3/4 cups of heavy cream to a light boil. Make sure you see the little bubbles. We don’t know why, but the large pan makes a difference.

Add vanilla to boiling milk. Then add sugar/cornstarch. Bring to boil over low heat.

Stirring constantly for 20-30 minutes, being careful to completely touch the bottom of your pan with each wisk so not to burn. The sugar will be very hot and lightly bubbling the entire time.

After cooling slightly, your sugar mixture should look like this. Very close to a soft caramel or thick custard.
You can put in another bowl if you want it to cool quicker.

add 1 8oz pkg of cream cheese to sugar mixture.

Mix sugar mixture and cream cheese until smooth.

Now add the drained 2 lbs of riccotta cheese.

Beat the riccotta, cream cheese and sugar mixture until creamy.

Using only half the bag of the mini’s. This is much easier to fit thru a piping tip.

Add half the bag of mini chocolate chips and fold into the cheese mixture.

After adding chocolate chips, the consistency is like instant pudding. Put in the refrigerator for a few hours to overnight.

The consistency now is that of a thick ice cream, perfect for piping.

Using a large #825 tip, fill bag with cannoli cream.

Fill each shell, piping one side then the other. **We bought our shells from Uncle Guisseppe Grocery store which makes them homemade for 2.99 for 12 mini’s (if anyone is interested in making their own, we have a recipe; just let us know)

Dust with confectionary sugar and arrange on platter.

This is a pillow cake for a 50th birthday. The shoe is made of fondant/gumpaste and completely edible. We two-toned the fondant with purple on the bottom and biege on top with white royal accents. 10 inch and 6 inch tiers are of yellow cake and filled with chocolate mousse and oreo cookie crumbs. The pans were the newest in the Wilton line and simply great to use. We were so impressed that we can’t wait till we need to make another. Here is a brief showcasing of what we did and we hope this helps with a lot of the questions you might have through our trial and error.

These are the 3 sizes for the Wilton Pillow pan. 14inch, 10inch and 6 inch. We used the 10 and the 6 to make our cake. The Wilton directions for baking are not correct on the pans however. We used 5 cake mixes or around 14 cups for two 10 inch pans and 6 cups for the two 6 inch pans. If you decide to purchase these pans (which we highly recommend) don’t forget to get the 40 or 50% off coupon for Michaels Crafts. The pans are a pricey 44.99 in NY but with the coupon, we only paid 22.00 and it was well worth it!

Next, we covered 3 round 12 inch boards (that were glue gunned together) with lavender foil. We taped the back with clear shipping tape and then glue gunned lace around the edge for a clean finish. This will be the base for our cake.

Next, line with wax paper in order to keep neat and clean.

Now here is the tricky, but not so tricky part. After you bake the cake, take a long knife or cake leveler and cut the cake in the pan using the pan as a guide. Turn the cake out to cool on a rack. At this point you shoud have a perfect, flat surface for your cake. We did this two times for the 10 inch and the 6 inch in order to get the full pillow effect. After the cake was cool and had sat for an hour or so, we piped a dam of buttercream around the inside of the cake and then put in our mousse and oreo filling. We topped it with the other half of the pillow. Start by dirty icing from the middle up. When this is done, put in the fridge for 20 minutes (while you start your other tier). When the buttercream has hardened enough that its not sticky, take a cake board put on top and flip it over. Now we iced that with buttercream until the whole cake was now covered with buttercream. At this point the patience comes in. Put in the fridge to sit for a few hours to over night so that its good and set.

Take cake out of fridge and using a hot knife, we went over cake to make sure it was as smooth as possible. We did this on only the top half of the pillow. You don’t want the get the bottom half wet or sticky. You only want the fondant to stick to the top half. Roll your fondant and drape on top of the cake. You will find that it drapes perfectly because of the shape of the cake and doesn’t require a lot of smoothing.

Aftering laying the fondant on the top, we took a ruler and measured how far we wanted the fondant to go down to and then we scored around the whole cake to make sure it was even.

We found it much easier to cut with a scissors than a knife. Just lift slightly so not to pull and stretch out of shape and cut where you had scored it.

When the fondant is attached and we were happy with it, we then put a foil wrapped mini board on top of the fondant. This is actuallly the bottom of the cake. We flipped it over, again used the hot knife to smooth any bumps and we were ready for the top half of the pillow to get its cover.

This is the Wilton impression mat that we used. It works great, but make sure that your fondant is not sticky or you will never get it off the mat. We make sugar holders with brand new nylons or panty hose filled and then tied on top. Its great for getting sugar on the fondant but not over whelming it with sugar. If you think your fondant may stick, just tap the mat and the fondant with the sugar holder and it should come right out.

We rolled the fondant first to about the size we needed, we then put the rolled fondant on the impression mat and slowly rolled the fondant on the mat. By only going one way (we went towards ourselves) you get the impression without it doubling or smearing.

Place the impressed fondant on top of the cake and let drape. Do not press hard on the fondant or you will lose your impression. The fondant drapes perfectly to the shape of the pillow, so don’t worry that you need to smooth it much. Repeat the same as the bottom fondant, but this time you are lining it up with the fondant that you put on the bottom. Don’t worry if your line is not perfect. You will be putting some type of roping or border there and it will cover it.

Now for the pretty stuff! The impression mat does that, makes an impression. So, what we did was take some slightly thinned (not too thin or it will drip down the sides) royal icing and with a #2 tip, filled in all the flowers and hearts to give it more dimension.

Roll a few balls of fondant to get ready for the border. We chose the pearl border. So not to have to cut around all those pearls we found that if you take one of the balls, roll a thin log, and then push into each hole (pulling slightly as you go) making sure that it doesn’t go over the top that it pulls right out perfectly. We used a lot of sugar (which you can see our work area is full of sugar :) in the mold to make sure that it wouldn’t stick. Don’t pull up with the fondant, but turn it over and pull down slowly when you take the pearls out.

We then glued our pearls with royal icing around the perimeter of the pillow, covering the seam where the two fondants meet.

Next we used a garlic press to make the tassles for the ends of the pillow. You would be amazed by the fact that you can just keep putting more fondant in the press and it keeps making longer strings. Make it as long as you like and cut to the lengths that you need, To make the top just make equal size little rectangles and score the surface slightly. Take strings and push together on top and attach to rectangle. Apply to pillow with royal icing.
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We cut out a “price tag” , punched hole and use one of the garlic press fondant strings to wrap around the heel of the shoe. It was a good way to put the happy birthday 50 on the cake without drawing too much attention to the age factor :)

This is our first attempt at an iconic character. We were pretty happy with the results!We couldn’t find any help on line, so this is how we made our goofy. We hope it can help!

First always make your colors in estimated sizes so that you have it ready when you need it. Stopping to make a color can really slow up your progress and take up a lot of time. Just keep in ziploc as you work.

Make 3 balls out of the blue. This will end up the body and the two legs.

Roll the large ball into a tear drop shape and put in drying tray to harden as you go on to the next step.

Make the orange ball into a tear drop shape and put on top of the blue tear drop. Use a little gumpaste glue, but not to much or it will slide all over the place.

Cut a rectangle shape the width of your figure where the two colors meet. Fold in half lengthwise, then use your ball tool to indent the middle of the strip. Use your gumpaste glue (little bit again) and place around the waist. Repeat this step for the neck and wrists.

Roll black fondant/gumpaste ball the size you would need for the head. Set aside for a few to dry a little. Put a toothpick or piece of spagetti into the top of the orange tear drop. This will be to hold Goofys head on.

Put a small piece of fondant around the toothpick to cover for his neck.

Use the modeling stick side, roll in the top 1/3 where you would like to put the eyes. This is your guideline for the mouth also.

Use ball tool to make indent for eye socket. As you push in, pull up slightly to make it longer.

Roll 2 small white balls into oval log shape and flatten slightly. Use ball tool to flatten more once you put them on the sockets. Use a very little paste if necessary and push gently to attach.

Make small brown ball, cut in half then flatten to look like 1/2 moon. Place on top of white eye socket with little paste, this is Goofys eye lids.

Take a small piece of black fondant and roll into a rope long enough to make a “M” around goofys eyes.

Take 2 small balls and roll into little logs and flatten. Put this under the eyelids. Take 2 small white pieces of fondant (you can use a #2 or 3 tip) and cut out highlites for his eyes.

Now for the mouth. Cut the ball in half and shape in to an almost boomerang or rounded triangle shape. Indent slightly to form inside of mouth. Place and stretch across width of face on the bottom. Using your large side of your viening tool push in and up to form a slight cheek and jaw line.

With the other half shape the boomerang/rounded triangle again but this time use your modeling stick to indent the middle to define Goofys muzzle. Place over the bottom mouth piece.

To form the nose, roll a small piece of black fondant into the very popular tear drop shape and glue to the top of the muzzle where the triangle comes to a point.

Next you need Goofys teeth. Take 2 small balls of white, flatten and make into a “chicklet” shape. Glue them inside the muzzle.

Roll a piece of black fondant very thin. Put little holes into Goofys muzzle. Two, close to the eyes, on each side and a few in the front on the muzzle. The two on each side, close to the eyes, are where you will place your very thin “hairs” carefully manuver with your brush or toothpick and place in the holes that you made. This could take a few tries. If you let the little hairs dry a little so that they don’t bend it is a little easier.

To make his vest, just cut your square and then 2 strips. Attach to the front, but make sure it is not to long or wide. The back is a triangle that you would just blend in around to the front. https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdimg/m264md2.jpg!

After your vest is in place, repeat the earlier rectangle/fold process and wrap arount the neck to make his collar. Now on to the arms.

Using the orange roll 2 logs, slightly bigger on top and tappered to the bottom. Cut a slant on the top inside of the arm to make it easier to glue to the body. At the end of the arm put you rectangle/fold cuffs around and secure with glue. Take 2 little piecies of black fondant and glue to the under part of the arm under the cuffs. This is Goofys arm that we will be attaching his hands to.

You can now place Goofys head on toothpick/spagetti. Take 2 pieces of black fondant and make 2 tear drops. Stretch the teardrops thinner on top tappering down to bottom to create ears and glue on to sides of Goofys head.

To make Goofys hat, roll 2 green balls. First ball take your ball tool to create a hole in the ball. Then shape into a kind of pot. The second ball roll slightly to a tube shape then take your balling tool back and roll on top to create indent. Glue tube into pot shape. Make black band and glue where the two shapes meet.

For the legs, roll 2 logs. Gently tapper down half way making the thigh thick on top until the knee. Put in molding cup and make the bend of the knee come over the cup. Make your cuffs for the pants with the rectangle fold over method and place on the bottom of both legs. Make sure that the top of the thigh has enough of an angle to be able to glue the legs to the body later.

To make the shoes, roll 2 logs. Round edges. Place down and using balling tool make hole indent in each shoe. Slightly shape the front and tapper the back to give a shoe shape. Roll a rope and place around the hole of the shoe. Put a piece of black fondant inside hole for his leg. For the shoe bottom put little indents around the hole sole of the shoe. Make 2 little squares for the heel. Glue the shoe to the inside of the pant leg.

To make the hands, roll 2 balls of white fodant. Flatten front part of ball. Cut 3 lines and on the 4th finger cut in half. Gently roll each finger and thumb to round shape. Roll rope and attach to back of hand. Glue to inside of cuff.

Take a small piece of fondant make little rope and flatten end. Make 3 cuts for hair and glue to Goofys head just below hat.

I hope you find this simple tutorial helpful.

For my sugar cookie dough I use this recipe:

BLUE RIBBON SUGAR COOKIES

Preparation time: 45 min Baking time: 7 min
Yield: 6 dozen cookies

• 1 cup Butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 375°F. Combine butter, powdered sugar and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour, cream of tartar and baking soda. Beat until dough forms a ball.

Bake 7-9 minutes.

Recipe Tip
If cookies spread too much, chill dough about 1 hour.

After making my dough,

I started with the large square cutter that comes with the set of 3 from Wilton and cut out these shapes from my sugar cookie dough.

Then I used a Chalice cutter

Turned it upside down and used this small end to cut out my “hoops” from the remaining dough.

I then made my royal icing using Wilton’s recipe:
Wilton’s Royal Icing

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar
• 6 tablespoons warm water
  Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

Instructions

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

• For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

When using large countertop mixer or for stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

Thinned Royal Icing: To thin for pouring, add 1 teaspoon water per cup of royal icing. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Add 1/2 teaspoon water at a time until you reach proper consistency.

When the cookies were cooled I outlined the square with white Royal Icing using a number 2 tip. Then I flooded it with thinned white royal and added the “hoop” cookie piece to the wet icing.

I then added the trim to the hoop using stiff royal icing and a #2 tip.

Next I finished the net

Then added a #2 tip square of red on the back board

And finished it off with a red rim

This is my finished platter. I love the extra dimension the 2nd cookie gives to the basketball hoop. Thanks for looking.