One of my dearest friends from Ken’s Stanford Business School class, Katie, is someone I have always looked up to. Not only is she brilliant (obviously), fun (best dancer ever), smiley, honest, and real, but she also has the best homemaker skills of anyone I know. Yes – totally sounds sexist, but when I met her when I was 25 years old, I didn’t know anyone who sewed their own curtains, made their own scalloped potatoes for dinner parties, and hosted lavish, extravagant sit down dinners with all homemade dishes. So I am thrilled to have Katie guest blog today on “Ice Cream Flower Pots.” Thanks so much, Katie. Love you dearly.
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My mom first made these “ice cream flower pots” for my 10th birthday party which was a joint party with my dear friend Carrie who had a birthday the same week as mine. We themed the party “Pink and Purple” so all our friends wore everything pink and purple, as did our moms and my older sister who was the “helper”. The party was afternoon backyard games and a BBQ at Carrie’s house, and then a slumber party at my house. The ten or so girls in attendance are still some of my closest friends, and to this day, everyone remembers the “ice cream flower pots” that thrilled us all when they were revealed as dessert. They embody the creative and festive flair that my mom was known for bringing to everything she did. She passed away 6 years ago and I miss her every day, but making treats like this on a lovely summer day for the ones I love makes her feel close in my heart again.
Beautiful flowers….but wait, it’s a delicious dessert!
Materials:
cooking with flowers.
* Gerber daisies
* small flower pots
* thick straws (like for smoothies or shakes)
* small biscuit cutter
* ice cream scoop
* bread knife
* cuisinart
Ingredients:
* your favorite ice cream(s), well softened
* pound cake
* chocolate wafers (you can find them in the cookie or baking goods aisle; Nabisco makes the best ones designed for baking and projects like this – they come in a yellow box)
Directions:
Using the sharp blade, grind the chocolate wafers in the cuisinart until the crumbs are the consistency of “dirt”. Take out any large chunks.
Slice the pound cake in 1 inch thick slices. Use a biscuit cutter to cut circles about the size of the base of the flower pots. This serves as a “plug” so that the ice cream doesn’t ooze out the drain hole!
A good size
Nice and thick
Place the pound cake in the bottom of the jars / cups
Stick a THICK straw through the pound cake down to the bottom of the pot – the flower stems have to fit in the straws which is why you want them as thick as possible.
Scoop ice cream into each flower pot leaving up to about 1/2 inch from the rim of the pot. It is easy to do this when the ice cream is really soft. I like to use multiple flavors and then each pot is a bit of a surprise. At a dinner party people swap and share to their liking.
TALENTI!!!!!
Spoon the chocolate crumbs on top of the ice cream. Put into the freezer to firm things up until just before serving. DO NOT put the flowers into straws before they go back in the freezer (rookie mistake I made one time in the “what was I thinking?” category). To make them fit in your freezer, you can trim the straws at this stage.
Beginning to look a lot like flowers AND not ice cream
Trim the straws
Once you are ready to serve, remove from the freezer and trim the straws to right at the “dirt” line. Select Gerber daisies that have the thinnest stems, and trim to the height you prefer. Stick them into the straws and VOILA, you have an edible flower garden of the sweetest variety! Some people like to put gummy worms coming out of the dirt but I like the simplicity of just plain.
What a happy dessert!
These are as fun at an adult dinner part as they are to serve to little kids…ages 6 and under will really think it is dirt and they FREAK OUT when you scoop out a big spoonful out dirt and put it right into your mouth. Then they realize with delight they get to do it too and the pots get devoured in minutes.
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Thanks so much, Katie. I love your enthusiasm, creativity, projects, taste, and most of all your friendship. My goal is to try to make this recipe this summer…better get going on it now!
Awesome kaiser!
This is amazing. But my girl would probably eat real dirt next if I ever made this for her!
I have to admit that when I saw the title of this post…I really kind of wanted the flowers to be ice cream as well…either way I may have to try this out…
Fab: Let me know when you make them and what your thoughts are. I bet your girls would LOVE them. Hope all is going well and you are holding down the fort. We are back at the beginning of next month and already dreading it…..