Ice cream sundae and sodas are part of an ice cream soda fountain.
You've probably heard of the saying: "You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream." It is a popular dessert, with more ice cream consumed annually in the United States than in any other country, according to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association. The consumption level reached more than 21 pounds per capita in 2009, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. While ice cream is a treat all by itself, it's even better when topped with gooey warm hot fudge, bubbling in a bath of soda or sitting on a slice of rich cake. Set up the ingredients and equipment needed for your own ice cream soda fountain in your home.
Instructions
1. Clear out a shelf in your pantry for all the equipment you'll need for your soda fountain. Keeping everything together means you'll know at a glance if supplies are low.
2. Stock up on straws, long-handled plastic spoons, ice cream soda glasses -- the old-fashioned kind that are narrower at the bottom and wider at the top and sit on flared bottom -- and, of course, sundae glasses. You'll also need an ice cream scoop and glass bowls to put the ice cream in.
3. Place the sodas in the refrigerator at least six hours before serving time. You want them icy cold. Choose plain soda water, root beer, strawberry, lemon lime and chocolate soda starting out. Branch out later with more exotic flavors like blackberry, orange and tropical fruit. Right before you set up the ice cream soda "fountain," put several bottles of each flavor in tubs filled with ice.
4. Scoop out flavors of the ice cream into the glass bowls and return containers to the freezer.
5. Lay the white marble tiles on a kitchen or other counter to mimic the look of an old-fashioned ice cream soda fountain. Their weight should keep them in place until you're finished. If you have a few round-topped bar stools set them by the counter.
6. Line up the glasses with a long-handled spoon in each one. Line up the sundae glasses as well. Open the caramel, butterscotch and chocolate toppings and put a spoon in each jar. Put all the ingredients out for people to make their ice cream sodas and sundaes.
7. Write the instructions for making the sodas on cards and tack up where they are easily readable. You might put something such as, "Place three spoonfuls of your favorite sauce, such as chocolate, in the bottom of the soda glass. Fill the glass one-quarter full of soda, in this case plain soda water. Stir the sauce into the soda. Add more soda until the glass is half full. Place a scoop of ice cream in the soda and watch it fizz up. Top with more soda when the fizzing has settled a bit. Finish with a squirt of whipped cream and a cherry. Try lemon-lime soda with raspberry sherbet, caramel sauce with cola and butter pecan ice cream, or make your own concoction."
Tags: cream soda, soda fountain, fountain, with more, cream soda, glass bowls