Red Velvet Ice Cream

Red Velvet Cake reminds me of Valentine's Day, so maybe that's why I was insistent on making Red Velvet Cake when I got together with my art school girls the day after Valentine's Day. I used Jennifer Appel's recipe for Red Velvet Cake from The Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook: More Than 80 Recipes for Irresistible, Old-Fashioned Treats, but used the recipe for her Cream Cheese Icing rather than her Red Velvet Icing. I made cupcakes instead, and reduced the cooking time to 30 minutes. I got about 28 cupcakes from the recipe, and lots of extra frosting -- bonus!

With any good cake comes ice cream, and therefore, I felt it necessary to make a Red Velvet Ice Cream. I have had a Red Velvet Ice Cream before -- I am a big fan of Stone Ridge Creamery's Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream. But, I wanted to try my hand at it.

Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 2 red velvet cupcakes, frozen, then diced into 1/2 cubes
• cream cheese frosting
• red sanding sugar

How to:

1. Heat cream, cocoa powder and sugar in a medium sauce pan, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a rolling boil.
2. In a small bowl, mix together whole milk and lemon juice to make "buttermilk".
3. Transfer hot cream mixture to a large bowl and add milk and lemon juice mixture and vanilla extract. Stir until combined.
4. Chill mixture thoroughly in fridge.
5. Freeze ice cream in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. During the last few minutes of churning, add in the diced cake. Then add a few shakes of sanding sugar (as desired). Finally, swirl in three heaping tablespoons of cream cheese frosting.

Voila.

The reviews are in. I liked it. Husband liked it. Four art school friends liked it. One nine year old and one six year old liked it. No one disliked it.

The ice cream was not too sweet but just sweet enough. Though I have had disagreements with buttermilk in ice cream, in this case, the "buttermilk" gave it just what it needed to give it the Red Velvet kick.

My one complaint? The cream cheese frosting. I love cream cheese frosting. Love it. However, when eaten in the ice cream, the cream cheese seemed to coat the roof of my mouth, which I wasn't a huge fan of. What to do? Leave it out? Try a lower fat version of the icing? Any thoughts? Right now, I'd say leave it in (maybe add less) until I find a cream cheese swirl replacement.

Still haven't gotten your Red Velvet fill? Head over to CakeSpy's where she recently compared the cake to Marilyn Monroe. It's quite a treat and chock full of history.

Or visit Krista of In the Kitchen with Krista where she made Rich Red Regale Red Velvet Ice Cream Cupcakes for last year's Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup.