The fact that it’s fall doesn’t rule out ice cream shop pretend play, does it? Because today when Miss G realized that it had been a looong time since we last played with cloud dough {the last time probably would have been when we had our indoor beach kicking around}, ice cream play is what came to mind.
{this post contains affiliate links}When I picked up a Chill Factor Ice Cream Maker for the ice cream kit we put together a couple of weekends ago, I secretly grabbed a second one to tuck away for Miss G. I didn’t know how it would work, but I was hoping that it would be a step up from the leaky, messy plastic baggie and ice method we’ve been using to date, and I’m happy to report that it is. A serious step up, in fact. Like we’re in love.
There’s no doubt that Grae and I love putting together fun gifts for her friends’ birthdays. So far this year we’ve given several craft kits, a play dough kit, a sensory play kit, and a little artist’s drawing kit. This time around, we wanted to try something different – keeping in mind that the birthday girl is moving come the end of the school year.
This happened tonight… Miss G’s first ever ice cream cone. And oh my goodness, did she ever love it. Before we knew it, all that was left was sticky fingers and a drippy chin and dress.
She’s already planned our next two flavours too – pumpkin with cinnamon first, and then strawberry afterwards. There’s bound to be plenty of ice cream in our future.
{Healthier} Creamy Coconut Ice Cream with Candied Coconut Sprinkles
Ice cream:
Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl, then place in fridge to cool for a couple of hours. Process in an ice cream machine for 20 minutes and put into the freezer for a few hours to set.
Sprinkles:
Put both ingredients into a jar or bag and shake well. Spread coconut out on a baking sheet in a thin layer. Roast at 250 degrees until crunchy and golden brown.
Enjoy!
For more healthy-ish desserts, click here.
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After making a few batches of ice cream dough this afternoon, Gracen and I set up a simple little ice cream shop in the living room. We used an old wooden apple crate for her table top and made sure the floor was protected with a large bath towel.
Then we went around the house to collect a few other items. First up – ice cream cones. Yes, the real ones… We had them on hand from her 2nd birthday party and they’d never be used otherwise, so may as well use them for some fun pretend play, right?
Of course, for customers not partial to cones, you need to have a bowl option. These silicon baking cups did the job perfectly.
Next, we gathered up some spoons and an ice cream scoop…
As well as some buttons, beads, and straw pieces for candies and candy sprinkles.
And with that, our little ice cream shop owner got to work.
There was plenty of scooping, touching, smelling, and exploring to be done.
Of course the ice cream treats rolled out of the shop one after another too. A hazelnut ice cream cone for Papa…
And a strawberry ice cream cup {with extra candy sprinkles!} for Mama.
This was such a simple set-up, but I can already tell that she’s going to get hours of fun out of it. Of course, it’s more than just fun… This little ice cream shop incorporates pretend play, a sensory experience, and creativity too.
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And if you love ice cream and pretend play, check out our play dough ice cream shop too!
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This afternoon Gracen and I tried out a new sensory material originally created by Jessie of Play Create Explore (if you’re a parent and haven’t checked out her blog before, you definitely should – she’s got hundreds of sensory play ideas, fun bath ideas, and tons more) and it was AWESOME.
The ingredients seem a little strange, but they work perfectly together to create a hard ice cream-looking texture. The main two ingredients are cornstarch and conditioner – yes, hair conditioner – the cheapest variety you can find. The other stuff is just food colouring and cheap imitation extracts to make it look and smell more like real ice cream.
We decided on making 3 ‘flavours’ (coconut, strawberry, and hazelnut), Gracen started us off by putting an equal amount of conditioner in 3 bowls.
Then she added our food colouring – none for coconut, red for strawberry, and a combination of red, green, and yellow for the hazelnut.
Then she added a generous pour of extract into each of the bowls…
And mixed them up.
One thing I will say is that we should have spend a little more time looking for an unscented {or at least a very lightly scented} conditioner. At $1.28, the price was certainly right, but the strong ‘fresh’ scent gave our imitation extracts a serious run for their money. Even something food scented would have been better… Next time we’ll look for something of the strawberry / coconut / mango variety.
Next up was the messy part… Mixing the cornstarch into the conditioner mixture.
After gently folding and blending the cornstarch and conditioner together, this was the end result.
Isn’t it crazy how much it looks like REAL hard ice cream?!
Here’s a close up view.
And as long as it’s handled like hard ice cream usually is (not rolled or smoothed over too much – thanks for the tip, Jessie!), it scoops perfectly – just as ice cream does. ☺
We followed Play Create Explore‘s ratios exactly, so please visit the original post here. The amounts we used for these batches, along with details on the colouring and extracts are as follows:
Coconut Ice Cream Dough
Strawberry Ice Cream Dough
Hazelnut Ice Cream Dough
Enjoy!
See how we put our ice cream dough to use in our pretend play ice cream shop.
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