Simple Parchment Cone Packages

I'm back!  Or rather, my computer is back!  And mostly functional, after two and a half weeks of being in the shop. I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best at this point. But as long as it's up and running, I'm taking advantage of it and posting again, hooray!

For today's post, a quick and easy tutorial for making parchment cones.  Parchment cones can be used for piping icing, of course (though I've switched pretty much exclusively over to Kopy Kake brand disposable plastic bags for that job).  But they can be used for so much more, too!  I recently developed a Malted Pretzel Peanut Crunch recipe for Best Friends for Frosting (I'll let you know when it's posted--too delicious to miss!) and I needed a way to serve and display the scrumptious snack.  A parchment cone was a fast, easy solution that added just the right style I wanted.

How to Make a Parchment Cone Favor

1) The first step is to cut a right angle, isosceles triangle.  That just means that the top corner of the triangle is 90 degrees, and that the right and left sides are the same length.   To make it super-easy, just cut a square in half, into two triangles.  I cut mine out of a large sheet so I could experiment with different sizes, but it's even easier to buy pre-cut parchment triangles in the cake decorating section of any cake store.

2)  Curl the right corner of the triangle in and up, until the point lines up with the top point of the triangle.

3)  Curl the left corner of the triangle around the outside of the parchment cone, lining the left corner with the top corner of the triangle on the outside.  Tape in place.  And that's your basic cone!  You could just fill it and leave the cone open, which looks charming, but is kind of hard to display.  

4)  So I filled up my cone, taped the top point down to secure the contents, and added a little embellishment to make the cone pretty.  I just cut a heart out of construction paper, added red glitter, and glued pink lace to the back.  If I'd had some party printables on hand, those would have been even better and easier!

This is a great technique for making little favors or gifts of small snacks, like the malted peanut pretzel crunch I made, or flower petals to throw over a bride and groom at a wedding.  You wouldn't even have to use parchment paper; scrapbook paper or wrapping paper would be beautiful.  Just be cautious about what paper to use if you're wrapping up something buttery!  grease spots soaking through lovely paper wouldn't be so appealing.  How do you use parchment or paper cones?