Ice Cream Ball?!
Ice Cream Ball?
I am thinking about purchasing one of those plastic balls that you roll around to make ice cream (Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker) for my son's birthday party. Has anyone out there purchased one? What did you think of it? Do you think 8 year old boys would enjoy it?
Also, I saw suggestions on taking it camping, has anyone taken it camping? I just want to make sure we will use it more than once.
Thanks!
Answers:
my 8 year old son likes to do stuff like that and he has the ice cream machine and the popcorn machine and he wants the cotton candy machine...but my 5 year old son doesn't like to use them cuz he says they are for girls...so it depends on your son and what he likes
we have one and my 4 yr old loves it. we do take it camping but i think making ice cream in ziplock bags is quicker. and you can make a few bags at a time. the ball will only serve 2-3 people. but we like it.
I think it depends on how rough your son and friends like to play with things. I went to some friends house and they were tossing one of these balls around. I thought it was a pretty neat toy and the kids seemed to love it but a few people tossed it kind of hard. A few days later one of my friends said that the ball cracked because it was dropped one too many times. I think they were playing with it harder than they were supposed to, but if your son wants to play catch with it, the ball will probably eventually break. If your son just wants to roll it around and throw it short distances it should be fine. The one I used only made a pint, but you can get larger sizes or just do it several times.
I am sure it would be great to take camping as long as you have access to plenty of ice. Even with the salt, we had to refill the ice once before it was done. I don't know if you bring cream camping with you, because you will need it for the ice cream as well as vanilla or something to flavor it. If you don't bring these things, you can make sherbert in the ball with just juice. At my friends' we tried organic pasionfruit juice and a little sugar and it made wonderful sherbert.
If you don't end up buying the ball you can get good results using a ziplock bag and a coffee can. Put the ice cream ingredients in the ziplock bag and then put them back in the can with ice cream and salt. Roll or gently kick the cofee can back and forth. I tried this the other day using half and half, hot chocolate mix, candy bar pieces, and coconut extract. I didn't even measure the ingredients, just did everything to taste. It came out a lot like a Wendy's frosty with coconut flavor. Everyone who tried it liked it. There are lots of recipes online for the can method. There is also a trash bag method, but we found the ice rips the trash bag if you toss it around. This way you could also try it out before the party and see what you and your son think about it.
ya