In Canada, snow is a seemingly endless resource. In fact, it continues to cover my backyard even as I write this. For most people, snow is an excuse to to curl up in front of the fire with a book and wait for summer to return.

Instead of wallowing on the couch, my sister and I decided to make the most of the snow while it's here and turn it into something everyone can enjoy: snow cones. 

We made ours orange-flavoured because it's what we had on hand, but you can easily use a different fruit or even Jell-O mix to change up the flavour. Just be sure to avoid lemon—nobody wants to eat yellow snow. Nobody.

Easy 4-Ingredient Snow Cones

  • Prep Time:5 mins
  • Cook Time:15 mins
  • Total Time:20 mins
  • Servings:4
  • Easy

    Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 orange
  • snow
ice, cocktail, sweet, juice, liquor, alcohol, sorbet
  • Step 1

    Begin your simple syrup by juicing your orange. We used ¼ cup of juice, but you can use more or less depending on your preference.

    tea, beer
  • Step 2

    Add the water, sugar, and orange juice into a saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture develops a syrupy consistency (approximately 10-15 minutes).

    soup, cream, broth, vegetable
  • Step 3

    Remove the syrup from the heat and add the food colouring. To make orange, we used four drops of green and two drops of pink.

    soup, cream, dairy product
  • Step 4

    Put the saucepan out in the snow (or in the fridge) to cool while you get the snow cones ready.

    soup, tomato, cream
  • Step 5

    We're fancy, so we used martini glasses instead of paper cones. The best method we found was to fill the martini glass with snow, then tightly pack a ladle with snow to create a separate, rounded surface.

    egg, coffee
  • Step 6

    Once your glasses are ready and your syrup has cooled, drizzle the syrup onto your snow cones. Simple syrup is very sweet, so use no more than 2 tsp. per snow cone unless you want major cavities.

    sweet, ice, sorbet, cream, cocktail, strawberry

Whether you're making these to share with family or just to show off your skills on Instagram, they're a great way to enjoy the snow from the comfort of your warm, cozy home.