How to make ice cream while playing with a Sanrio yo-yo

If you grew up in a household where you were reprimanded for “playing with your food”, the idea of putting together toys and food may be either sacrilege or a fun activity to do with your own kids (or by yourself). There are several toys out there that can turn cooking or making food more interesting and even educational at times. The Japanese in particular have a knack for creating things like this which make you wish you had them when you were a kid.

Designer: Takara Tomy

The Ice Da Yo-Yo is a collaboration between the Japanese toymaker and popular brand Sanrio. From the name itself, you can probably tell that it has something to do with yo-yos and ice cream. It’s basically a portable ice cream maker that teaches kids the science of making no-churn ice cream while also enjoying the classic yo-yo. And the reward at the end of the process is that you get to eat the sweet concoction that you made while you were playing.

The thingamajig is made up of two containers. One is where you place the ingredients like the fruit and the milk and the other is where you place ice, water, and salt, the latter of which causes the ice to become colder and help freeze the other ingredients. Then you spend three minutes bobbing the yo-yo until you’re able to finally create ice cream and eat it afterwards.

The Ice Da Yo-Yo features designs with popular Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, My Melody, Cinnamoroll and Kuromi. It also comes with a booklet with different ice cream recipes like strawberry, chocolate, mango, cookies and cream, and even an orange sherbet for the lactose intolerant. It’s something I’d add to my shopping cart if I ever make my way to Japan again soon. Or maybe I’ll just buy my own ice cream and leave it to the kids to study how to make it on their own.

The post How to make ice cream while playing with a Sanrio yo-yo first appeared on Yanko Design.

Nintendo x Cold Stone Creamery Video Game Themed Sundaes

If there’s one thing Nintendo knows how to do, it’s sell products. Cold Stone Creamery teamed up with the video game giant to sell ice cream sundaes themed after some of their most popular games. I don’t know about you, but I’m already waiting outside my local Cold Stone waiting for them to open so I can try them all.

Varieties include the Mario Party Superstars-inspired Superstar Sprinkle Blast (cake batter ice cream, yellow cake, blue frosting, and rainbow sprinkles), Animal Crossing’s Island Getaway (chocolate ice cream, strawberries, banana and whipped topping), and Kirby’s Mighty Pink Puff (strawberry ice cream, strawberries, mini marshmallows, and caramel). Which sounds best to you? I’m going to mix them all together and create a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sundae!

There’s also a Mario Kart Rainbow Road-inspired ice cream cake available, which I better get for my next birthday. OR ELSE. Or else I’ll be locking myself in my room and crying for the remainder of the day. You know, the usual.

[via NintendoLife]

These perfume toppings for ice-cream are designed to enhance their smell and taste

Ice cream is one of mankind’s best inventions, at least according to my standards. Whether it’s peak summer or I’m at my most stressed, having a spoonful of this flavored, cold stuff is enough to make my mood a little better. I also love to experiment with different flavors, toppings, and additions to my frozen scoop although just eating vanilla can sometimes be enough. But what I haven’t really thought much about is smelling ice cream.

Designer: Salt & Straw and Imaginary Authors

American ice cream chain Salt & Straw has partnered with perfumery Imaginary Authors to create three fragrances that can also serve as ice cream toppings. It may be weird to think of perfume and eating ice cream in the same breath but it is an interesting concept all the same. In reality, you cannot smell ice cream on its own since the chemicals that trigger smell are frozen at these low temperatures. You can only technically smell the fragrant ingredients once it has melted in your mouth.

So they have come up with three fragrances which you can smell on its own and then add them to your ice cream if you feel like enhancing the flavor. Think of it like a wine or coffee tasting where smelling before drinking actually enhances the flavor and experience. Only this time, with these perfumes, you spray it and smell it before spraying it onto your ice cream. They say that the way you smell your food is actually critical to how you eat it even though it’s something that we don’t consciously do.

The three culinary flavors they’ll be launching are: A Cloud of Cocoa with Ecuadorian chocolate, malted milkshake, and Japanese whisky notes; A Swoon of Citrus that includes the scents of key lime pie, lychee, and Italian lemon grove; and A Plume of Blooms which combines the scents of jasmine, honeysuckle, and wildflowers. There are also travel-size samplers with all three flavors. Spraying them onto different ice cream flavors will give you a fully immersive experience with scents and flavors all blending in your mouth.

These perfumes/toppings will be making their debut on National Ice Cream Day on July 17 Salt & Straw scoop shops. Let’s see if this unique product will actually become a hit with ice cream lovers or those who want to experiment with their desert.

The post These perfume toppings for ice-cream are designed to enhance their smell and taste first appeared on Yanko Design.

An Ice Cream Spoon with an Integrated Flame for Melting Hard Ice Cream

The Sizzling Scooper is the brainchild of Matty Benedetto of Unnecessary Inventions. It’s an ice cream spoon with an integrated lighter beneath for melting hard ice cream before scooping. Is it practical? Probably not. Is it necessary? Almost certainly not. Come on, Matty; you should have at least used a torch lighter for maximum melting capabilities.

I wish Matty would have provided some sort of warning before I decided to try making my own Sizzling Scooper with a metal spoon and burnt my lips after heating the ice cream too long. Can you even imagine how embarrassing it was to explain what happened to my doctor? Dammit, Matty, this is all your fault!

Alternatively, dip a metal spoon in a glass of hot water before scooping hard ice cream. That’s what I used to do before Matty put this idiotic idea in my head. Can I sue? The emotional distress this has caused has got to be worth something. At least a free Sizzling Scooper.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Frolic makes it super easy to create your dream ice cream, be it fat-free or vegan

You don’t have to worry too much about your figure or your health if you can make the perfect ice cream that suits your tastes and your diet.

Very few people will probably say they don’t like ice cream, and a lot of those that don’t favor the cool, soothing dessert probably do so for reasons not directly related to the ice cream itself. It might be because of calories or the ingredients used to make the ice cream. It might also be because they don’t like the flavors available in the market. What if you could craft the perfect ice cream made just for you and in just two minutes? Will that be enough to break down the barriers of resistance? That’s what Frolic is proposing using a familiar pod-based system popularized by the Keurig coffee maker.

Designers: Joseph Collins & Yuri Gallegos of Frolic

Click Here to Shop Now: $389 $449 ($60 off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

Comparing Frolic to Keurig is both a source of pride as well as a disservice. On the one hand, it describes how simple, fast, and convenient the process of crafting your own ice cream at home can be. On the other hand, it greatly downplays the innovation involved, the quality of the product you get, and the freedom to really go to town with the flavors you want to use.

Right from the start, you get to choose one of three types of pods, available in vanilla or chocolate bases. Both classic and fat-free Lite pods use 100% grass-fed dairy, while the dairy-free Vegan uses coconut milk. You then drop in the flavor you want, like fresh fruits, nuts, cookies, really anything you can think of. Your taste buds and stomach will be the judge of your creation.

Frolic atomizes these large chunks and blends them into the pod mixture to create a smooth and creamy ice cream that your tongue will think came from a top-end ice cream shop. All of that in just two minutes! Actually, Frolic does even better than these mass-produced (not to mention unhealthy) confections. By using ice crystals that are 10x smaller than store-bought ice cream, Frolic ice cream freezes faster but doesn’t get hard when stored in the freezer for long periods of time.

Making homemade ice cream has always been a dream of many dessert lovers, but the work and time required have always been a huge obstacle. That’s not to mention requiring special-purpose equipment or containers to really match the output of professional ice cream makers. By the time you’re done even just thinking about those, you might have already given up and just ordered a tub on your phone.

Frolic makes crafting ice cream just as fun as eating them. And this time, you wear the chef’s hat and get to decide what you want to put inside, which is great for counting calories or making sure your dessert is 100% vegan. Even better, it’s not as expensive as you might presume for such an innovative machine. The Frolic will retail in June for an MSRP of $449, but you can grab one right now for $389, which already includes two pods. Additional pods will be priced at $7 each, but there is also a subscription that brings that price down to $6 per pod.

Click Here to Shop Now: $389 $449 ($60 off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left!

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Giant Ice Cream Cone Planter: You Have to Eat Your Greens

Wafer cones: they’re everyone’s least favorite kind of ice cream cone behind waffle and sugar. Me? I’ve always been more of a sundae-in-a-cup man myself. But enough making myself hungry. This is the giant Safe-T Cup ice cream cone planter created by Rotary Hero and available at Urban Outfitters for $55. I can already imagine myself pretending to take a bite out of it to entertain dinner guests. Add a plant and it makes it look like you’re growing dessert! Although not a dessert I’d be inclined to finish my plate to be rewarded with. Finish my greens just to eat more greens? Nice try, mom! Also, I’m pretty sure that plant is poisonous.

The durable plastic planter measures approximately 26″ tall and has an 8″ opening in which to place a plant. Of course, if you actually do put a plant inside instead of eight gallons of ice cream and trying to eat it all in one sitting, what are you even doing with your life? Not the same thing I’m doing, that’s for sure.

[via The Green Head]

Ben & Jerry’s made a binge-worthy Netflix and Chill’d ice cream flavor

With official support from Netflix, Ben & Jerry's has announced a new flavor called Netflix and Chill'd. The ice cream is about as about decadent as you expect. It's made with peanut butter, salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownie chunks. The lid...

This scoop spoon uses liquid thermal energy to easily scoop through rock-solid ice-cream

Imagine how good an ice-cream scooping spoon would have to be to win a Global Innovation Award. With a special heat-retaining liquid inside its handle, and a thermally-conductive alloy structure internal structure that guides the heat to the scoop’s rim, the ScoopTHAT II can quite naturally carve through that solid block of ice-cream with zero fuss. Relying on just the physical transfer of heat, ScoopTHAT II slices through frozen cream like a hot knife through butter, but without any electricity or batteries… just good old science.

The scoop comes with a non-stick concave scoop-head, and a special metallic rim that pulls thermal energy from the handle, giving you absolutely effortless scoops, no matter how frozen your ice-cream is. The ice-cream plops off the scoop-spoon effortlessly too, thanks to the non-stick finish, giving you the most perfect looking ice-cream spheres ever… perfect enough to warrant a Global Innovation Award!

Designer: THAT! Inventions

Click Here to Buy Now

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Ice pops in ten minutes

Not only do ice pops act as a tasty refreshment on a summer’s day, but they can also be used to quickly cool us down in the sweltering heat. However, the ice pop making process is anything but quick, which can lead to frustratingly long waits as our impatience levels increase. This is certainly not the case for THE SEAL, which reduces the processing time down to a mere 10 minutes!

You may be asking how this has been achieved? It takes full advantage of the working principle of an ice-cream maker but reduces the volume significantly. This, paired with the metal molds that reduce the freezing time even further, allow for ice-lollies to be made in just a matter of minutes… so you can enjoy the refreshing treat on a whim!

At first glance, you would be forgiven for not recognizing the device and an ice-lolly maker; its minimalistic aesthetic leads to an inconspicuously designed object that gives no hints at the craving-satisfying capabilities that it harnesses.

Designer: Ellie Tsang

If Deadpool Was an Ice Cream Cone

We’ve seen Deadpool take all sorts of forms, from a dog to a kid to a duck. But I can say with 100% certainty that this is the first time I’ve come across Deadpool in ice cream form.

This awesomely silly collectible is part of Unruly Industries‘ “One Scoops,” a series of limited-edition vinyl toys that envision comic book characters as ice cream cones.

Designer Erik Scoggan nailed the look with this figure, which looks like a melty merc with a mouth as his iconic black and red mask drips onto the cone below. It’s like somebody left their Funko POP figure out in the sun for too long. The figure measures 6.5″ tall and comes with a stand that looks like Deadpool’s gloved hand.

If you’re a fan of either Deadpool or ice cream, you need one of these in your collection. You can pre-order one now from Sideshow Collectibles for $85. Keep in mind that the images shown here are prototypes of the final toy, so they may change between now and when they ship in early 2020.