Ice Cream Floats
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Celebrate summer with beautiful, delicious ice cream floats! Here in California we have plenty of vintage diners that serve up heaping scoops of ice cream topped with soda pop. But still, there’s something truly special about making your own ice cream floats at home. And when you’re entertaining guests, it’s fun to have each person scoop their own ice cream, select a soda pop flavor and create their own.
Last week my family and I celebrated my father’s 76th birthday. A few days later my husband and I hosted a backyard party for 40 guests followed by another family BBQ. This morning I took a look in the freezer and realized I had six tubs of Dryer’s ice cream left over from all of these events. It didn’t take long for me to find a way to use some of that wonderful ice cream. I invited my parents to stop by this afternoon, and I made a variety of fabulous ice cream floats.
Before my parents arrived I headed over to the market to pick up some fun artisan soda pop in delicious flavors and beautiful colors. There was such a large variety of choices it was hard to pick just two. I ended up selecting four yummy flavors: Stewart’s Orange ‘N Cream, Dang! That’s Good Red Cream Soda, Sunshine Root Beer, and Frostie Blue Cream Soda. Perfect choices for pairing up with Dreyer’s Vanilla ice cream. I feel so blessed that my parents live only 10 minutes away. It’s so easy for us to get together often. As they walked in the door to my home they were absolutely delighted to have so many colorful ice cream floats to choose from!
Making frosty ice cream floats is really easy. Just pour a bit of cream soda in the bottom of a tall milkshake glass. Cover the soda with large, generous scoops of vanilla ice cream. Then pour some more carbonated soda pop on top. I love it when the ice cream starts foaming up! It looks so darn festive.
To make this 50/50 Creamsicle ice cream float, use yummy orange-flavored soda. It’s a vintage fountain classic! For an additional burst of delicious orange-and-cream flavor, make your ice cream float with half vanilla ice cream and half orange sherbert. So darn yummy! To satisfy a crowd for a baby shower or wedding shower, with scissors cut a box of orange sherbert open on three sides and lift out the entire cube or column of ice cream. Place the orange sherbert inside a large punch bowl. Pour ice-cold orange soda on top. This punch will become gorgeously frothy and happy looking! Get ready for lots of compliments.
To make this beautiful Blue Ocean ice cream float, select a vibrant-colored blue cream soda. Today I chose one called Frostie Blue Cream Soda. But other blue soda pop contenders were Jack Black’s Blue Cream Soda, and the bright-blue Jones Berry Lemonade Soda.
If you’re hosting a backyard swim party for children, it’s fun to add bright red Swedish Fish Soft Gummies
My mother’s favorite ice cream float is made with vanilla ice cream and root beer. Growing up she remembers pulling into an A&W parking lot and a waitress wearing roller skates would come out with a tray to attach to the driver’s side window. On dates the teens would order cheeseburgers, French fries and classic root beer floats. They’d eat, drink and socialize in and around their cars. Makes me think of the movie Grease! Today I made Mom an ice cream float with Sunshine root beer crafted in my sunny home state of California.
When my husband comes home I’ll make his ice cream float using the red cream soda. I had a sip of each ice cream float flavor. Every one of them tastes wonderful and refreshing! For special occasions I put a large dollop of homemade whipped cream on top of ice cream floats I make for family and friends. But whipped cream or not, I always garnish each and every ice cream float with a bright red Maraschino cherry with the stem attached.
How to Make Ice Cream Floats > Shop This Post
I love my old-fashioned ice cream float glasses. I bought mine at Crate and Barrel, but you can find a similar set on Amazon. I love using striped paper straws. They make any drink look festive! The long-handled ice cream spoons shown here are the exact ones I have. I like that the heads of the spoons are round. It somehow makes them look more special. I got mine through Amazon.
Ice Cream Floats
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 servings
Description
There’s something truly special about making your own ice cream floats at home. And when you’re entertaining guests, it’s fun to have each person scoop their own ice cream, select a soda pop flavor and create their own.
Ingredients
- Vanilla ice cream
- Carbonated soda pop, orange soda, root beer, blue cream soda, red cream soda
- Maraschino cherries with stems
- Optional garnish: whipped cream
Instructions
- Open a bottle of brightly-colored soda pop. Pour 1/3 of the soda into a tall ice cream glass.
- Scoop vanilla ice cream and add it on top of the soda in the ice cream glass.
- Continue to layer the ice cream and soda until the glass is full to the top and frothy.
- Garnish your ice cream float with a Maraschino cherry. To make it extra special, top with both whipped cream and a cherry! An optional garnish for Blue Ocean ice cream floats are red Swedish Fish gummies.
- Serve your ice cream float with a paper straw and a long-handled ice cream spoon.
- Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: American, Italian
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How to Make Ice Cream Floats > Your Thoughts
Do you have a favorite ice cream float flavor? How do you celebrate summer? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
There really isn’t anything better than a ice cream float on a hot summer day. This Blue Ocean ice cream float sounds so good and I am going to be making it for sure. The Dreyer’s Ice Cream is so creamy and perfect for the floats. thanks for sharing the recipe.
I love ice cream floats they truly remind me of summer especially when I live somewhere that is always raining haha!Delicious x
Mmmm I love ice cream floats! I too love it when it gets all foamy. It’s so tasty!
wow! floats are not a big thing in asia where i grew up! i tired it once before and i can see the appeal to it and great to know the varieties one can make!
Oh gosh I haven’t had a root beer float in decades! Used to live on them when I was a child in Canada!
These ice cream floats look like SO MUCH fun! I gotta find that blue soda near me!
This looks super delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe
I would love this. Ice Cream floats bring back such wonderful childhood memories.
What a delicious ice cream!! These ice cream floats are diverse and varied. Summer days will be very refreshing with ice cream. What’s more, it’s the soda at the bottom of the ice cream that gives us new flavors. I love the presentation style. Thanks for your great recipe, I would love to make ice cream floats for my family in summer. It’s amazing!
You are a master of taking the most delicious photos. These look incredible! I want to try some of these with my son :)
The Blue Ocean ice cream float looks amazing! I definitely want to try that one! I bet my daughter will really enjoy making these with me!
Why I never had one of these in my life? Gosh, my husband is going to be super happy when I make him one =) I’m in luck because just yesterday I bought some Vegan vanilla ice cream ♥ thanks for sharing this!
I havent had an ice cream float in a long time! I would also like to try the no churn ice cream.
I’m a total sucker for an ice cream float in the summertime. These all look amazing. Love those straws!
These looks delicious. Not just the colours and recipe, I love the presentation style as well. I have to try the Creamsicle ice cream float. It’s clearly my favourite. Cheers!!These looks delicious.
Ice cream floats are one of my favorite summer treats. I’ve always loved the traditional rootbeer, but I’ve never thought of using orange soda. I think I just figured out what I will be having for breakfast.
This is such a great suggestion! I have never entertained people and done this before – I bet it would be fun!
Oh! These are so amazingly fun! The Swedish Fish version is my personal favorite :) Very cute!
Oh man, I haven’t had a float in so long, this looks amazing!
This is the best time to read about Ice Cream. New Delhi is so hot and humid. Just by seeing Ice Cream can almost cool off my body :D Can’t wait to try your recipe this weekend with my children. Thanks for the share.
Wow..great idea for my leftover ice cream :)
Denay as always you NEVER disappoint with your amazing recipes. I love ice cream floats. These remind me of a fond childhood memory with my Grandmother when she would take us to a store called Montgomery Ward (they no longer exist). It had a diner inside and after shopping, she would take us to get floats. I’d forgotten about that until now. Thanks!
I would love to try a Stewart’s Orange ‘N Cream ice cream float. We are having a BBQ this weekend and these are a great dessert idea.
Root Beer Floats are essential to life. ALl of these look so festive and super yummy. I want to try them all!
i love the colors! this looks like a fun idea just before he starts school and close out our summer
That blue one looks like it’s a must-try!
The ice cream floats look delicious. I love the color and fun aspect ot it.
I love a good old fashioned traditional root beer float. The trick is to always use high quality soda and ice cream!
I need to try this blue cream soda one, looks awesome!
Oh my gosh this looks so amazing! I love your photos too ?
I’m sure everyone thinks I’m crazy or evil when I say it, but I don’t like ice cream. The funny thing is that I’ve always been interested in ice cream floats. They just seem so fun! Lol
I wish my kids were still little because this would be so fun at a kids birthday party!
Oh wow!! I used to love these as a kid!! I really must make some when we get some nicer summer weather back … if we do (in the UK!!) haha! Nice post xx
These look so pretty and sound delicious! YUMMY!
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/
How fun! I love all the color! There is nothing like an ice cream float on a hot day!
xoxo Christie
These look delicious! And they’ve cheered me up on a grey rainy day here in the UK!