Make a fun DIY Ice Cream Sundae Kit gift for Christmas with painted bowls and spoons, homemade toppings (or not) and holiday-themed printable tags. Find more easy gifts on the handmade gifts page!
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I’ve been waiting a whole year to share this DIY ice cream sundae kit Christmas gift idea with you!
These baskets were our Christmas gifts last year – they were fun to make and everybody loved them. This kit makes a perfect “family gift” – one gift you can give an entire family that most will enjoy, because, hello – ice cream!
You may recognize the colorful painted bowls and matching dipped spoons from this tutorial I had already published since they are a fun gift all on their own or as a part of another type of basket.
But once my daughter created the fabulous, holiday-themed tags to go along with the kits we gave, I knew I’d want to share them with you and it seemed best to wait for the holidays to offer the tags as a free printable.
So, if you don’t have a gift idea yet from the 31 days of handmade gifts series, this may be ‘the one.‘
DIY Ice Cream Sundae Kit, Free Printables & Recipes
Step 1: Find and Paint Bowls & Spoons
The first thing you need to do is source and make your bowls and spoons. You can, of course, just buy colorful bowls (like this cute set) and plain spoons – it’s still a great gift idea and you can just customize the basket as much as your time and budget allow.
I found small white bowls (between 4.25 and 4.5 inches across) at stores like Walmart, Fred Meyers, Pier One, and Target for between $1 and $1.50 each. If you aren’t able to shop around, here are some small white bowl options on Amazon.
Long ice tea spoons were harder to find – most of them came from Big Lots (here’s a set of 8 on Amazon that would work, too).
Step 2: Make (or Buy) Toppings & Package
You can use the easy, printable recipes on the next page (by clicking HERE or the arrows at the top or bottom of this page) to make three ice cream toppings: Chocolate Sauce, Mocha Chips, and Peanut Butter Chips.
These are a little better for you and were actually fun to make and unique to give, but if you don’t want to, it’s totally okay to buy toppings (though I’d always make at least the chocolate sauce unless you can find a quality sauce that’s not full of junk).
The recipe for the chocolate sauce provided is actually a hot fudge sauce, but you can also use our classic Homemade Chocolate Syrup if you didn’t want to use milk, so I decided to go with a more generic label that would work for both. Using the syrup recipe instead of the fudge sauce is also what you’d want to do if the basket couldn’t be refrigerated when gifting.
And the homemade chips? It’s a matter of mixing and letting dry, so they don’t take a lot of time, but of course you can buy different types of toppings. That’s why the labels only say ‘toppings’ – we simply wrote on the backs the varieties to let the recipients know what the jars contained.
Use easy-to-find mason jars for packaging your toppings: 8 oz. size jars for the chocolate sauce and 4 oz. jars for the chips.
Step 3: Gather Baskets, Containers & Wrapping Supplies
Visit thrift stores for baskets or other containers that would look nice holding the contents of the kit. I also used gift bags, which were easier to cover and carry – just make sure they are sturdy (the kind with cardboard bottoms).
For filler (that you’ll need for both baskets and bags, since it helps cushion the jars), shred newsprint or scrap paper you have or use Dollar Store basket filler. Pick up some ribbon at the Dollar Store, too, if you need.
Step 4: Print the Free Tags & Put Kit Together
Print the tags by clicking the image below, then right-clicking and saving to your desktop and then tie them to the jars with simple jute twine:
Ice Cream Sundae Kit Recipes
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce:
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 6 ounce unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup milk
Peanut Butter Chips:
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup melted cocoa butter
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Mocha Chips:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- pinch salt
Instructions
For Fudge Sauce:
- Add all ingredients to a microwave-safe bowl and heat 1 minute. Stir until completely smooth.
- Alternately, heat in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth.
- Pour into jars and refrigerate.* (Makes about 2 cups, enough for 4 half-pint jars for giving.)
- To Serve: Heat a few seconds and stir.
For Peanut Butter Chips:
- Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth.
- Pour onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and spread into about a 10"x13" rectangle.
- Refrigerate until set and then cut into small cubes.
- Store in airtight containers at room temperature.** (Makes about 1½ cups)
For Mocha Chips:
- Add all ingredients to a small bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
- Spoon mixture into a cake decorating bag with a round tip (OR into a strong baggie with the corner clipped) and press chocolate chip sized pieces onto the prepared pan.
- Let dry at room temperature for 24 hours or until completely dry to the touch.
- Store in airtight jars. (Makes about 1 cup)
Notes
Nutrition
Other food gifts you may like:
Gluten Free Buckwheat Oat Pancake Mix
This article is part of the 8 Weeks of Christmas Ideas series where you’ll find resources for cooking, gift ideas, time savers, recipes, traditions & more all November and December through the 24th.
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