An ice cream maker including a canister for holding a mixture of ingredients used to make ice cream, a dasher which fits inside the canister and a drive mechanism for rotating the dasher. The ice cream maker includes an outer bucket formed using individual slats of wood which to provide a generally cylindrical or other shape bucket having inside walls and having a generally circular bottom portion. An insert made of a plastic material is configured to mate with the inside walls and the bottom for holding a freezing mixture into which is inserted the canister with ingredients used to make ice cream.