An Ice Cream Styling Emergency

We had an order recently for Lisa Golden Schroeder's e-booklet, “Working with Real (and Faux) Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts.” Product stylist Jennifer Hoon was in a panic because she found out that she needed to style ICE CREAM the following day. We rushed the PDF of the 18-page booklet to her. Plus Lisa emailed the following advice to nervous Jen:

Critical issues for you tomorrow:
1. Is the product being held now in a freezer (preferably a chest freezer, as a standing freezer loses a lot of its cold when the door opens and closes) that is at a good tempering temperature for it? Tempering depends on the amount of butterfat in the ice cream--so the lower the fat content, the colder the freezer can be. Very high fat ice cream (like super-premium brands--Haagen-Dazs, Ben & Jerry's, other very high end products) need slightly warmer tempering (about 5 degrees F).
2. Have you ordered enough dry ice? And have a styro or other separate cooler to hold it? Don't put it in the regular freezer. Be sure to get some dry ice pellets that are easy to crush (use a canvas bag or towel, with a hammer--wear gloves, too)--this is great to use for keeping scoops cold and putting into a strainer to hold over styled scoops/desserts under camera.
3. Stay calm and don't let anyone rattle you. You know what you need to do, so even if you're nervous or worried, don't let anyone see that (:-)) Good luck--do let us know how things go!! Hopefully, if this is just a small job that needs a few scoops, you can just go for it. Best,Lisa

Well, we were happy to know that Jennifer survived her ice cream shoot just fine! And she wrote us this follow-up note:
"The ice cream was a prop so I didn't have to worry about using the real thing. I used the recipe for faux ice cream composed of ready made frosting and confectioners sugar. The results looked very realistic. I was sooo relieved when it turned out. I brought it to my boyfriend to show him the happy results and he was convinced I was bringing him ice cream. He was quite disappointed to find out it was inedible. Most importantly, the client was very happy with the look. Thanks for getting the booklet to me in my day before the shoot panic. All my best, Jen"