Roofs for ice castles -- using funnels and balloons

A page just for making ice castle roofs

Branching out from ordinary ice lanterns into ice castles requires some additional techniques.  Here are some ways to create castle features.

A tower made in a plastic bucket,
with a funnel roof supported by
individual ice "cubes."

The funnel-shaped tower roof is familiar from many real castles in Europe.  To make a funnel-shaped roof, seal the hole with a rubber stopper and place the funnel in a bucket of a suitable size to hold it upright.

Funnels for small peaked roofs, freezing
in plastic containers that can also be
used to make the towers.

A funnel with the rubber stopper in place.
This one was ready to unmold.

If the roof is made as a solid piece of ice, it tends to crack, so the key is to unmold it before it freezes all the way through.

Ice has formed about an inch thick
on the wall of the funnel, and also
across the top, but there is still a core
of liquid water inside.  To release that,
I fill a small metal bowl with hot water
(repeatedly as necessary) and rotate
it over the center of the funnel.

The heated bowl melts a hole into the
center of the ice funnel.  At the same
time, I pour some hot water into the
bucket that supports the funnel, to
loosen the ice from the wall.  It is not
necessary to have that water actually
touching the funnel. 

A cradle of bubble wrap protects the
ice roof from breaking while the water
is poured out from the core and the ice
is freed from the mold by pouring more
hot water over the inverted funnel, if
it hasn't already been loosened enough.

The funnel lifts off from the completed
roof.  If the ice cracks during this process
it is often possible to "weld" it back together.
Some funnels release the ice roofs more easily
than others, and putting hot water below the
mold while melting the hole into the core
seems to help make it release better.

Supporting the funnel roof on pillars makes it possible to slip LED light strings into the towers.  Ice shot glasses and various kinds of ice cubes make good pillars.  I have three different trays for making the ice shot glasses.  The one that works best is an 8-cavity pentagonal mold with a Halloween theme, seen here.

These pillars are pentagonal ice shot glasses
that I found on sale after Halloween one year.
They have a raised spiderweb design, but it
doesn't show.  UK source It's from Wilton
with the ID number 2105-4633.

The tower is made of two Arctic Ice Lanterns
stacked together, with shot-glass pillars and
a funnel roof on the top.  Smaller towers
surround it to make a castle complex.

Some towers have rounded roofs, like the onion domes of the Kremlin in Moscow, or of many churches in Central Europe.  Teardrop or hanging-drop ice shapes can be used to create those roofs.

This small tower has a somewhat oversized
roof made from an hanging-drop balloon
ice lantern, in this case lit by an LED
tea light.  Support pillars were made
in a silicone ice cube tray.

Return to the introductory page.

Go to the page for ice castles.