Double double, toil, and trouble. This electric green Arsenic float will make you boil and bubble…
I’m a huge DIY lover and spend way more time on Instructables than just about any other site. I love not only the amazing range of DIY tutorials you can find there but also am obsessed with competing in the ongoing rotation of contests they have featured there (half my equipment has come from those contests, so THANK YOU Instructables!). In fact, it was during one of my most recent trips down the Instructables rabbit hole that I stumbled across fellow DIY and Halloween lover PieBaby89 and her most recent creation, her electric green and pitch black Arsenic Float. I was immediately hooked on the look and feel of her post so much that I asked if I could share it with you all and she happily agreed. So here it is in all it’s black and green glory…PieBaby89’s Arsenic Float!
Paris Green or Scheele’s Green, it’s beautiful emerald hue has been the bane of many death amongst women in the 19th century, it is even allegedly played a role in Napolean’s death. If this arsenic-laden dye has caused so much demise to all, oh why not we poison you further. Beware! Here lies a toxic concoction of great peril!
Okay in all seriousness, this Ice cream soda float is not poisonous. if anything it is really delicious and is quite a treat for Halloween! That color, that drama, that tasty goodness is sure to please your guest and ghouls in your next Halloween party. This Arsenic Float is actually a Lime Flavored Soda, with Honey Vanilla Ice Cream, with bits of White Chocolate skull candy and of course, Dry Ice.
Every part of this recipe is homemade, you could try on my recipe or even purchase store-bought syrups to customized your special beverage. So what does drink taste like? Well if you ever had Wall’s Lime Solero popsicle, it tastes exactly like it. If you are daring enough, why not add some booze for your adult company as well? So let’s go to this Halloween special and brew some poison…
To create your own Arsenic Float you will need the following ingredients:
Lime Syrup:
- 2 large Limes (zest and 3 tablespoons of the juice)
- 1/2 cup of water
- 3/4 cup of white granulated sugar
- Americolor Electric green (can substitute neon green food coloring)
Black Honey Flavored Ice Cream:
- 1 pint (2 cups) of whipping cream
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup of white granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup of honey
- 1/4 of brown sugar
- 1/4 cup of cornstarch
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup of Activated Charcoal powder
- 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
- Plastic food wrap
White Chocolate Candy Skulls:
- 1 bar of white chocolate, finely chopped
- Small skull mold
- Piping bag or ziplock bag
Arsenic Float:
- 1 liter of Club Soda
You will also need:
- Poison Tea Label graphic (below)
- Empty tea bags
- White Cardstock or White paper and thin cardstock/cardboard
- Scissors
- Cotton thread
- Spray glue or hot glue
- Piping bag
- Small skull mold
- Dry ice
- Hammer
- Safety Goggles
- Tongs
- Stapler
- A tall glass, like a Highball
Step 1: Poison Tea Labels
The first thing we need are appropriate labels for our Arsenic float. To that end, I have designed the following labels:
Once you’ve printed out your tags, using a scissor cut around the tag as neatly as possible.
Step 2: Prepare Your Tea Bags
Now you can do this one of two ways. You can either purchase empty tea bags (available at most health food stores or online) or simply open a tea bag you have at home and repurpose it for our Arsenic floats.
I chose option two and will walk you through the steps of emptying your already filled tea bags and prepping them for our float.
If using already filled bags, you’ll need to neatly cut your tea bags at the top edge as close to the sealed seam as possible. Dump out the contents of your teabag and save it to use for other purposes. Make sure there are no fillings whatsoever as it might alter the taste of your syrup later on.
Set aside for now.
To create a legit looking tea tag, you will need two of the tags to be sandwiched together with a length of your cotton string in the middle.
Drop a small blob of hot glue and stick your string in the middle. Blob a little more hot glue around the edges, and stick the other tag to the other side, design facing out.
Step 3: Homemade Lime Syrup
This syrup is incredibly flavorful and addictive, if you love Key Lime pie, you will definitely love this drink.
Pour into a container and let it cool completely before use.
This syrup is good for two weeks refrigerated.
Step 4: Black Honey Flavored Ice Cream Base
This ice cream is more like a classic custard ice cream base. If you are using a no-egg ice cream recipe, be sure to increase the amount of cornstarch. You can make any flavor that you enjoy the most! I love the taste of honey and vanilla ice cream because it compliments the lime soda. Alternatively, you can use a store-bought ice cream too, I would recommend Vanilla if you do.
While your mixture is cooking, in a separate bowl, whisk your four egg yolks.
Once thicken, remove from heat and pour in your activated charcoal powder and vanilla extract. The powder will have a hard time emulsifying into the thick cream but just continue to whisk and eventually it will be one homogeneous mixture.
Step 5: Churning the Black Honey Flavored Ice Cream
The next morning, churn your ice cream until it’s about a soft served ice cream consistency.
For those who do not have an ice cream churner, you can always churn your own ice cream by folding the mixture every few hours in the freezer.
Step 6: White Chocolate Skull Candy
Part of what makes this Arsenic Float so much fun is the addition of these tiny white chocolate skulls.
To learn more about how I make this incredibly adorable mini skull molds, check out last year’s Halloween post here!: https://www.instructables.com/id/Halloween-Diaries…
If you don’t want to create your own mold, any readily available small skull mold will do. You can usually find those on Amazon.
Squeeze a little big of chocolate into your mold and let it harden completely in the freezer for 30 seconds.
Check out this little mini skull candy, aren’t they just super cute!
Step 7: Prepping Your Dry Ice Tea Bags
One of the things that really helps sell the idea that this Arsenic Float is truly vile is the addition of a bit of dry ice. But first, a warning: I want to remind you that we are handling dry ice, which can be dangerous if consumed. That’s why I took the liberty to make this adorable Poison Tea Tags to attach our tea filters filled with dry ice. As you know accidentally consuming dry ice can be lethal because it causes suffocation and can potential frostbite your throat. To prevent that from happening, the tea bags are big and noticeable and can be removed once the dry ice has completely sublimated.
Carefully hammer your dry ice so you have a pile made up of small quarter size chunks. These should be small enough to fit into your tea bags comfortably while still leaving room at the top to seal.
Step 8: FINAL ASSEMBLY
Discard the tag when the dry ice has completely sublimates.
Note: Now because the ice cream is black, naturally the drink will darken into a dark off-green gray color. For those who might be a little turned off by the midnight hue, you can alternatively use vanilla ice cream. It will more or less taste the same, but the end coloration will be a bright Kermit green hue…it be more cute than scary, especially for the younger kids….whatever floats your boat, you guys! Enjoy and have fun for Halloween, xoxo. – PieBaby89
PieBaby89 has even included a video for us with a full walkthrough of the entire assembly process here:
PieBaby89 has even more spooky tutorials on her Instructables page! Swing by and show her some Nom love and see what other darkly delicious treats she has.
And if you want more boo-zy beverages, why not check out our Halloween Boo-zy Beverage: The Piña Ghoul-ada or our pyrotechnically awesome Flaming Phantom?
Of course, if you’re looking for more ice cream as black as the night, we also have our black cherry chocolate chunk ice scream recipe here as well as our salted black sesame ice cream.
Bone Appetite!
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