Ice Cream Steamer

Medium size ice cream sculpture, approx 10-12 servings

REMEMBER TO READ THE BEFORE YOU START GUIDE FIRST

Ingredients:
- 4 litre tub of ice cream - any flavor/color you want
(we chose vanilla)
- Ice cream roll - for the funnel
- Red strawberry licorice strips - for the rails
- Cocktail sticks - for the rails
- Jelly Babies sweets - for the passengers
- Polo mints sweets - for the portholes






Utensils:
- Large serving plate chilled in the freezer before starting
- A large metal tray (baking tray would suffice) chilled in the freezer before starting
- Large, sharp knife for cutting the ice cream into shape
- Jug of hot, boiled water for the dipping the knife in between cutting

Remember: when working on a sculpture keep putting it back into the freezer about every 5 minutes to prevent it from melting and to retain its firm shape.

Creating the steamer
Take the tub of ice cream and the chilled tray from the freezer. Hold the bottom of the ice cream tub under running, warm tap water in order to loosen the ice cream from the sides and then tip out onto the tray. Using the large carving knife, cut out the shape of the hull of the boat. Transfer to the chilled serving plate.

Note: With hard ice cream cutting a block of this size can be difficult so take your time and keep dipping the knife into the hot water.

Cut out a separate, small square of ice cream and place on top of the hull to represent the captain's cabin. Cut a slice of ice cream roll and place on top of the hull at the opposite end to represent the funnel. Take a long strip of licorice (ours was red) and stick cocktail sticks through it at intervals of about inch (approx 1cm). Then stick the cocktail sticks into the top edge of the ice cream to form a rail all around the outside.

Put the plate with the ice cream sculpture back into the freezer for a few minutes to really firm up and then take it out and snap off the ends of any cocktails sticks that might be sticking through the ice cream at the bottom. Place Jelly Babies around the rail to look like passengers and press Polo Mints into the sides of the boat to create portholes.

Special Note: be sure to remove all the cocktail sticks from the ice cream sculpture before serving.

Important: You can choose other types of sweets or food for the decoration of this sculpture - just use your imagination!