If you are hosting a Halloween party this year, you better watch out, because these little guys just might steal the show!! These easy ice cream scoop spiders make a fun treat for Halloween or a bug themed party. Everyone will rave over their absolute cuteness, and you can make them ahead of time for your party guests, or use it as a fun Halloween activity to make with your kids!
This post was created in partnership with Breyers Ice Cream. Even though I was compensated for this post, I am happy to share that all the ideas, creations, and fun times with our family are all 100% ours.
For almost all of my life I have lived in climates where October comes and goes and it is still just plain hot outside. And what do you do when it is Halloween and fall has all but passed you up? Well, make absolutely adorable ice cream spiders and celebrate the holiday the most delicious way possible! Even if it is cold where you live, you don’t have to feel left out, ice cream is a great way to celebrate regardless of the temperature!
These little ice cream spiders have really stolen my heart. There are a few reasons:
- They are just so darn cute!
- They were really simple to make!
- Ice cream. Another excuse to eat ice cream people!
The cuteness overload is apparent, the deliciousness is a given, but really the thing that tips them over the top on the mom-factor is how easy they are to make! When I am looking for an activity to do with my kids, or something fun to serve for a Halloween party, the main concern is the same… can I actually do it and clean it up? Is this going to take me hours?!?!?!
That is exactly what I love about these! Super fun. Super simple.
How to Make Ice Cream Spiders
To start out grab some Breyers Ice Cream at the store. I got multiple flavors to give me a few different flavor and color options to create with! We used:
- Breyers Natural Vanilla
- Breyers Mint Oreo Blast
- Breyers Chocolate
- Breyers Chocolate with Peanut Butter
I am not one of those people who just love ice cream blindly, if I am going to eat it, I want it to be really, really good. And I am picky. Breyers has totally captured my heart. Their ice cream is super creamy, and comes in so many flavors there is always something we can agree on. The chocolate is the real reason I am hooked. It is so rich. Sweet but not too sweet. And oh so smooth!
Now, this might seem a bit silly, but I am absolutely crazy about one flavor of ice cream and that is Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream. It has been my favorite since I was 5 and let me tell you, it is soooooo good, but soooo hard to find! Recently, I have seen more brands come out with this flavor, but I have been so disappointed that they aren’t dark and rich, but instead just super sweet. Well, when I was looking through the case to buy for these I found that Breyers just released a new Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor and I decided to give it a try, as I am a connoisseur. Let me tell you people… they hit it out of the park. Like all of my chocolate peanut butter dreams have come true!!! The chocolate is rich and deep, and there is just about the perfect amount of peanut butter to balance it. I feel it my personal duty to tell everyone I know how good it is, so hopefully they will sell tons and never retire this flavor!
On top of it all, Breyers now uses only milk and cream from American cows not treated with artificial growth hormones* and most of Breyers products currently source natural colors and flavors, and they are working to transition the rest of the products as well. The vanilla that goes into Breyers products is 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™, and comes from sustainable vanilla farms in Madagascar and Breyers uses 100% sustainably farmed fruit to make some of their most popular fruit-based recipes like Natural Strawberry, Cherry Vanilla and Peach. It makes me feel good to buy food from companies that are responsible and producing products with the quality of ingredients that I want to give my family.
Once you get home with the ice cream, make sure to put it back in the freezer to get it nice and frozen before starting this project. Then follow these steps:
- Scoop the ice cream onto a nice round scoop. It make take combining and rolling a few scoops with your ice cream scoop.Tips:
-A good quality ice cream scoop will help you get a nice round scoop.
-Use a cup of warm water to dip the scoop in in between each scoop you make to warm it back up and prevent the ice cream from sticking to it.
-Freeze the cookie sheet or platter you are using before scooping the ice cream on it to help it stay colder while you are working with it. - Dip the top of the scoop into sprinkles of your choice, then return the ice cream scoops to the cookie sheet or platter and place in the freezer freezer to refreeze fully into the rounded shape.
Ideas for sprinkles:-Use colored sprinkles on light ice cream
-Use jimmies for a hairy look. Chocolate jimmies look great on chocolate ice cream.
-Instead of sprinkles, use store bought frosting to create a fun texture on top of the spider
-Use mini chocolate chips for a different texture
- Prepare the spider legs. I used two different things to make mine, licorice laces, and melted chocolate chips. I cut the licorice laces into thirds to make the right length for legs. Make sure they aren’t too long, and it is much easier to work with. To make legs from chocolate chips like this:-Put 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a zip top bag and microwave for 30 seconds then work with your hands to mix and return to the microwave for 10 second increments until they are fully melted.-Draw 7’s in roughly the same size over a sheet of parchment paper. You will need 8 legs per spider so make sure to make enough!
-Let the legs cool until set. If you have room, it is helpful to set them in the fridge or freezer to speed up the process.
-Peel up the legs and place them on a small plate in the refrigerator until ready to use. - Assemble your spider. Remove the ice cream scoops from the freezer. You can make them right on the platter, or use a spatula to move them over to individual plates if you are decorating the spiders as an activity with kids.-Add a lollipop head if desired. I did this on some of mine. It looks good with or without!-Add candy eyes. If you are adding them right to the ice cream, then you don’t need anything to help them stick. If you add a sucker for a head then use pre-made frosting to attach them to the front of the sucker.
-Add the legs. I found that if you take the leg and hold it where you want it while pushing gently, then the leg will melt into the ice cream where you want it and look and stay the best.
-Add additional decorations. I used pre-made frosting to add an hourglass on one spider and stripes on another. The sky is the limit for how creative you can get! - Refreeze, or enjoy! If you want to eat them right away, feel free, or return them to the freezer to keep them perfect until you are ready to serve them at your party!TIP: If you are serving a bunch, then use two cookie sheets of the same size. put one cookie sheet in the freezer with about 1/2″ of water on it and freeze, then use the other cookie sheet as the tray for the spiders and place it on top of the frozen one when serving to keep the spiders frozen while people oohhh and ahhh over them and pick out which one they want to eat.
That is all there is to it! You can see it is so easy and fun to make a big batch and still make each spider unique and fun! If you make your own, make sure to tag me on Instagram so that I can see your creations!
For more great ice cream recipes and creations, make sure to visit the Breyers website, or follow them on your favorite social platform – Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest!
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Easy Ice Cream Spiders
Ingredients
- Breyers Ice Cream in assorted flavors/colors
- Candy Eyes
- Sprinkles/ Jimmies
- Licorice laces
- Chocolate chips
- Prepackaged decorator's frosting
- Lollipops
Instructions
- Place the ice cream in the freezer to make sure that it is well frozen.
- Scoop large round balls of ice cream and then dip the top third to half of the scoop into sprinkles or jimmies. Place on a cookie sheet and replace in freezer to harden.
- Create chocolate legs by melting chocolate chips in a bag and then cut the tip and pipe 8 number 7's for each spider onto parchment paper. Let them cool until hard then remove from parchment and place in refrigerator until ready to use.
- Remove the sheet from the freezer and assemble each spider by adding candy eyes, then using the chocolate legs or licorice laces to make legs. Add any extra decoration with frosting or other embellishments.
- Optional: add a lollipop as a head for the spider.
- Enjoy immediately, or place the cookie sheet back in the freezer until ready to serve.
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.)
*Suppliers of other ingredients such as cookies, candies & sauces may not be able to make this pledge. The FDA states that no significant difference has been shown between dairy derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST treated cows.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Unilever Ice Cream. The opinions and text are all mine.
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