Here's what you'll need to make a flower ice bowl:
1. Fruit slices or flowers (obviously) however I made the mistake of using a sunflower, which I don't recommend - see why below...
2. Two bowls that can fit inside each other with 1/2"-1" separation around the sides. Trust me on this, I'll show you what happens if it's more than that!
3. Tape (optional) - not necessary but it doesn't hurt to have it on hand
Start by filling up the larger bowl 1/3 of the way with cold water. Note: I didn't do this but if you boil distilled water and let it cool completely before adding to the bowl, the ice will be clearer!
Gently place the smaller bowl inside, making sure it doesn't touch the bottom, and start adding your flowers in between the two bowls. Now I'm a multi-tasker so I decided to make multiple mistakes at once:
#1 - The bowls should have been closer in size - see that big gap between the two? While it makes it easier to place flowers between them, you'll have a much smaller opening for your ice bowl.
#2 - The sunflower was too thick so when the small bowl was placed inside, it sat on top of the sunflower!
#3 - I used double-stick tape to help center the smaller bowl (see above)... if I had used regular Scotch tape, it would have been fine, but as it was the tape kept sticking to my fingers and ultimately fell off when the bowls were placed in the freezer.
After 24 hours, you'll need to remove the ice from the bowl. I recommend filling your sink with warm water and placing the larger bowl in the water. In a matter of a few minutes, the ice will have melted around the edges of the bowl and you'll be able to pop it out by flipping it upside-down.
So needless to say, when I removed the ice from the bowls, it was a bit of a disaster. A pretty disaster, but a disaster nonetheless. So I waited for it to melt, took those same flowers (minus the sunflower) and tried again!
24 hours later, it looked a LOT more like a bowl!
Something to note, though, is if your flowers float, they might stick out the top.
Also, in the 45 seconds I had it sitting on the table, it left a nice pool of water underneath it. If you do decide to make this, either keep it on ice, leave it in the snow, or be prepared to have a big wet mess. Pretty? Yes. Practical? Nope.
TOTAL COSTS: Free!
Bowls and flowers already on hand
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 24 hours
You'll want to give it enough time for the water to freeze completely before removing it from the bowl.
EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The hardest part is getting the flowers to fit in between the two bowls without having them float to the top. If you're using anything thicker than a daisy, you're going to have uneven sides. Be patient and use a ruler or a knife to push the flowers down if they start to float to the top!
Flower ice cubes are pretty but again, not very practical.
First, if you plan on having these in drinks, you need to use safe, edible flowers (in case any are consumed) like roses, pansies, violets, or geraniums. You could also use herbs like mint or rosemary, if flowers aren't available.
Second, they're time consuming. You have to pour a little water into the ice cube tray, place your flower, let it freeze, then pour a little more water into the tray, let it freeze, and keep repeating this process until the flowers are completely covered in frozen water. If you don't, you're going to have little pieces sticking out (which is going to happen anyway when they melt, but whatever).
Finally, unless you plan on boiling distilled water, you're not going to be able to see the flower from all sides. So unless you have a LOT of time on your hands to boil the water and freeze/pour/freeze the water in stages for hours, I'd skip this project. All your hard work is just going to melt away in a matter of minutes, anyway... but hey, it's pretty!
