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Make ice cream in a bag

Shake your way to this cool treat, served with a scoop of science.

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You’ll need

  • Ingredients (see recipe)
  • Spoons
  • Measuring jugs
  • Teaspoons
  • Tablespoons
  • Small zip-seal food bags
  • Medium/large zip-seal food bags
  • Plenty of ice cubes
  • Tea towels or oven gloves
  • Bowls (if sharing)

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely. 
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers. 

Planning this activity  

  • If you’re looking for a healthier alternative, use the same method to make these Shaky sorbets. 
  • You could do this activity around National Ice Cream Day, which takes place every third Sunday in July.

Using a kitchen and preparing to cook  

  • You could run our kitchen safety and hygiene activities, Kitchen risk bingo and Home kitchen hygiene prior to running this session. 
  • Remember to have a hand washing station and take extra hygiene precautions when handling raw meat, such as regular hand washing, having separate equipment for raw and cooked meat, and washing up equipment as soon as it's been used. Take a look at our guidance on food preparation. 
  • Make sure you’ve all the ingredients ready.  
  • Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients.  

Running this activity 

  1. Gather everyone in a circle and tell everyone that they’re going to make ice cream in a bag. 
  2. Ask everyone to wash their hands before you get started.
  3. If people will be working in pairs, ask them to find a partner.
  4. Give everyone a zip-seal bag and a copy of the recipe. You could also read it out to everyone in stages. 

Make your ice cream

Ingredients

  • 125ml cream 
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar 
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • A few handfuls of ice cubes (about 20 ice cubes) 
  • 4 tablespoons of edible rock salt  
  • Ice cream toppings (optional)

For a cheaper alternative, you can use whole milk - it’ll just be less creamy and may need to shake for a little longer.  You can also swap the rock salt for table salt if needed.

Prep time: 5 mins

Shake time: 5-10 mins

Serves: 1 potion (or share with a friend!)

  1. Measure out and pour 125ml cream into the small zip-seal bag. You could use a funnel to help you. 
  2. Now, carefully add your 1 tablespoon caster sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. 
  3. Carefully seal the bag. Remember to gently squeeze out any excess air before sealing it. Make sure that is closed securely and none of the liquid can escape.  
  4. Take a larger zip-seal bag. Add around 20 ice cubes and 4 tablespoons of edible rock salt into it. You need enough ice to cover the smaller bag, while leaving space for everything to shake around.   
  5. Put the small zip-seal bag of ice cream mixture, inside the large zip-seal bag of ice. Carefully seal the larger bag. 

Shake it up 

  1. Wrap the bag in a tea towel or pop on some gloves, and start to shake it!
  2. Be careful. It's a good idea to take a step away from any electronic equipment (just in case of any leaks) or anything breakable while you're shaking your ingredients. You could ask everyone to do it in an open space. 
  3. After about 5 or 10 minutes of shaking, your mixture should have frozen into ice cream.  
  4. Gently unzip the larger bag over a sink.
  5. Take out the smaller zip-seal bag of ice cream. 
  6. Now, tip the contents of the larger bags (the ice, salt and any melted ice) into a sink or bucket, so you don’t end up in a big puddle. You can also reseal it and pour it away later. 
  7. Pour the zip-seal bag of ice cream into a bowl or tub. You can either eat it straight from bag or pop into bowls to share. 
  8. Before they tuck in, ask everyone what they think it’ll be like. For example, do they think it’ll have a nice texture? 
  9. Add any toppings, grab a spoon and eat the ice cream!  
  10. Tidy up and gather everyone in a circle. Ask everyone if they enjoyed their ice cream or if there’s any good toppings people used. 
  11. After you've enjoyed your ice cream, you can wash and recycle the bags. You could also keep them and use them in Scouts for storing craft items or other things.  
  12. If you want to recycle them, you can find recycling points at large supermarkets. Find your nearest soft plastics recycling points on Recycle Now.  

Reflection

This activity gave everyone the chance to try something new and enjoy using science.  

Had anyone made ice cream this way before? Was anyone surprised that the experiment worked? How does it work? Why is the salt needed?     

How it works: 

  • Explain that the salt stops the water in the large bag freezing by lowering the temperature that water freezes at. In winter, ponds and rivers freeze over before the sea does.  
  • By lowering the ‘freezing point’ of the water, the water can get colder without turning to ice. This means the water can be used to freeze the cream mixture into ice cream.  
  • Shaking the bag made sure that all the mixture froze evenly and not just on the outside, so it could become tasty ice cream.

What does it feel like to have made your own ice cream? How is it different from eating ice cream you’ve bought from a shop? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Snow and ice

Be careful when activities involve snow and ice. Check surfaces and reduce the risk of slipping where possible. Have appropriate supervision for this activity.

Science

Supervise young people, and only do science activities that are advised and age appropriate for your section. Test activities first, to make sure you’re confident you can lead them safely. Use protective clothing where necessary.

Food

Remember to check for allergies, eating problems, fasting or dietary requirements and adjust the recipe as needed. Make sure you’ve suitable areas for storing and preparing food and avoid cross contamination of different foods. Take a look at our guidance on food safety and hygiene.

Try out some different flavours. You could try adding sprinkles, wafer cones, sauce, crushed biscuits, finely chopped strawberries or chopped banana to your ice cream. 

  • Remember to check your ingredients against any allergy or dietary requirements to ensure everyone can enjoy the recipe. This may mean using alternative ingredients. 
  • For a dairy-free/vegan option, try Shaky sorbets. 
  • There are lots of different jobs that need doing when planning, making and cooking in a kitchen or on a campfire. There’s a role for everyone, so encourage everyone to be involved in a way that works for them.  
  • If anyone needs help or struggles with fine motor skills, such as when shaking the bag or pouring, give them the opportunity to work in pairs, with a young leader or an adult volunteer. You could swap out the items for larger items or something easier to handle. 
  • Some people don’t like (or can’t cope with) loud noises – such as the ones that may be made by the bags being shaken or the ice being poured in a sink. You could try having everyone spread out while shaking the bags, an adult doing them in a separate room, doing the activity outside or use ear defenders, so everyone can be comfortable taking part. 
  • For anyone who may not be able to read the words on the recipe easily, consider copy large print or printing on coloured paper to help people with dyslexia. You could also let them work closely with someone who can help read out the recipe. 
  • People could work together to create their ice cream and take turns doing the shaking to make it easier.
  • Make sure the objects are placed in areas accessible for everyone in the group and that all the materials are at a level that can be easily worked on by wheelchair users.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Experiment Activity Badge
Cubs Scientist Activity Badge

Enjoy experimenting with the recipe or method, or perfecting for your personal taste. What happens if you change the quantities or ingredients?  What happens if you don’t use the rock salt? 

This recipe uses plastic food bags, and although they can be recycled, can you find a more sustainable method?

Before the session, everyone could think about what flavour ice cream they’d like to make, and what extra ingredients they’d need. Or, would anyone prefer to make sorbet instead?