The Neumann Family: Pickles & Ice Cream Shower

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Pickles & Ice Cream Shower

One of the moms in our playgroup is about to have her second little one, so we threw a Pickles and Ice Cream Play date/Shower for her and the playgroup kiddos. It was, of course, chaotic as one would imagine a play date full of 3 year-olds and younger siblings mixed with a baby shower would be. But, it was still loads of fun to plan and take part in the celebration.

Here are my creative culinary contributions:

Ice Cream Pop Rice Crispy Treats (so easy to make and SO yummy!)

Here they are wrapped and ready for display. I think these will become a go-to treat of mine since they were so simple! My Secret? I used the pre-made, individually wrapped treats, trimmed the top corners to make them round, stuck in a stick, dipped them in chocolate and sprinkles. Too easy!

Here was my challenging creation. Let's be honest here. As much as I wish it would happen, I am just not a baker, or at least a talented one. I would much prefer to cook, even blindly without a recipe, etc. than try to bake and decorate a cake beyond canned frosting. Anyway, I accepted the challenge.

These are strawberry cupcake cones frosted with cream cheese frosting and topped with a candy-shaped 'pickle' and sprinkles. I'm not sure what was the most difficult part of this venture.... molding the candy pickles, frosting the cupcake cones, fighting gravity when all they wanted to do was topple over ( I didn't do it the "classic" way and bake the cake down IN the cone, it's actually up on top of the cone, like real ice cream), or transporting them. Just think about that for a minute- how would YOU transport these when one of the variables is that the temp outside was 100+?

I won't bore you with the details, but they got to the party with only a few casualties and they were a huge hit, as well as mighty tasty. (strawberry cake gets the shaft! ~ it's yummy!)

Here are some of the other cute decorations from the party that my friend and co-host Mendi did:

Cute favor bags for the kiddos which included those fun foam ice-cream ball-poppers from when we were kids as well as yummy ice cream themed treats, ice cream bowls & spoons, and of course some pickles!