How To Make An Ice Bowl for a Party

See how to make an ice bowl to include in your party ideas at home. It’s an easy but impressive presentation for cold foods like shrimp cocktail or ice cream. See directions, here.

I’m excited to share this tutorial with you today as it’s something I’ve been meaning to get to for the longest time, and I think you’re gonna love it. I’m showing you how to make an ice bowl for any special occasion, OR to make any occasion special!

My favorite use for this is to serve this marinated shrimp cocktail recipe in. It keeps the shrimp cold during the party and it looks so chic. You can see how great it looks on my bar cart bubbly bar.

Several years ago I showed you how to make this fabulous ice bottle cooler, which has been very popular thanks to Pinterest. This ice bowl is just as easy to create and makes a wonderful presentation on a buffet of at individual place settings.

Important tips for using an ice bowl

My favorite use for the ice bowl is to serve shrimp cocktail at a party. It keeps the shrimp nice and chilled, and you can line the bowl with lettuce leaves to keep moisture away from the shrimp if it will be sitting out for a long time.
Make sure to place the ice bowl in a shallow dish to catch melting water. Line the dish with a napkin or towel {as in the photos} to keep it from sliding and to also absorb some of the moisture.
Experiment with size. If you have larger nesting bowls, make one large ice bowl for a buffet. Use smaller nesting bowls like I’ve done, to make individual servings. Since you can make these ahead of time, you can make several as long as you give yourself about 24 hours per bowl.
These also make great bowls for serving ice cream scoops!

What do you think? Is this something you’d like to try? I guarantee your guests will be impressed!

How to Make an Ice Bowl

What you’ll need:

2 nesting bowls

Duct tape

Distilled water

2 lemons

Pour some water into the larger bowl and place the smaller bowl inside. Use the duct tape to hold the smaller bowl in place, so it doesn’t rise with the water. The two bowls should be level at the top.

Place bowls in the freezer for several hours so water creates a base layer of ice.

Once frozen, remove bowls from freezer, and cut lemons into slices. Place lemon slices around the perimeter of the large bowl, and fill with water. Put back into the freezer and freeze over night.

When ready to remove ice bowl, set it out at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes until bowl slides out easily. To keep for future use, cover with plastic wrap and place back into the freezer.