Whipping Up Cream and Frozen Hot Chocolate
Inspiration: My mother used to make whipped cream and butter with her class every year when she taught second grade. They made it by taking turns shaking a jar of heavy cream. I thought this would be an activity both a 4 year old and a 1 year old would enjoy. And a very fun indoor activity for C’s 1st birthday!
Shaking up the cream
I wasn’t sure how long shaking the cream would take, so I used a jelly jar, and put in only about half a cup.
We first touched and tasted the cream as a liquid. Then I made sure the lid was TIGHT and explained that by shaking the jar we would change the way the liquid inside looked and felt.
They had a blast, shaking the jar individually and together. I opened the jar after about a minute and we saw that it was, in G’s words, “frothy.” The lid went back on, and we shook some more.
After the sound changed (a few minutes), we opened it up, and…whipped cream! The boys both loved the whipped cream. And G thought it was very cool that through our movement we changed the cream inside.
Hot Chocolate On Ice
When I think of whipped cream, my mind immediately pairs it with hot chocolate. With the current blazing temperatures, however, this was a nonstarter. I thought I’d throw some ice in, and make frozen hot chocolate. After all, how could I go wrong mixing milk, chocolate, and hot chocolate mix? I used:
- 4 oz dark chocolate (I used some from Trader Joe’s)
- 1 1/2 c 2% milk
- 4 tbl hot chocolate mix
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 3 c ice
Throw it all in a blender and process until all the ice and chocolate is blended.
C had to take a rain check on the the frozen hot chocolate, but he enjoyed the whipped cream!
While I was blending up the frozen hot chocolate, G was doing some mixing of his own. He asked for bowls with some blackberries, hot chocolate mix, and peanut butter, and tried various combos (the biggest one was just a mix of everything!). My favorite of his creations was the peanut butter whipped cream. YUM.
(Yes, their clothes changed – turns out sharing whipped cream from a jelly jar can get messy).
I really wanted to show them butter, so after we finished off the first batch of whipped cream, I poured more cream into the jar, and we shook some more. They hung in there until the whipped cream stage, but after that it became “Mommy’s turn” more and more frequently. But they were still very interested in watching. And they definitely both enjoyed the butter on baguette slices!
