Organic ice cream and cake...a natural combination

Cake and ice cream...the perfect duo and on a warm end of summer day even better. Oh and even better that Bethany was along to try it too!

Now who would have thought a premade frozen cake would even be worth opening but let me tell you that Amy's Organic Orange Cake was so surprisingly moist and yummy. It had a great orange flavor that was not too overwhelming but perfectly refreshing and light. I am a baker (well, was pre-two kids!) and freshly baked cake is a must but my mind has been changed by this little vegan cake. Yes it comes in a box but when you open it, the cake is nestled in a sweet little cardboard cake liner that looks like it just came out of the bakery or your own oven. I give Amy's kudos for stepping up on the packaging...it goes a long way especially when you are trying to disguise it as your own!

Well I guess I have to move on cause this is an ice 

cream blog right?! So the topper of it all was Green & Black's Organic Chocolate Ice Cream. I had no clue who Green & Black was but come to find out they are amongst the elite of award-winning chocolate makers. Made from bittersweet dark chocolate and fresh organic cream its no wonder this ice cream was so smooth and rich. (But i do have to admit that both Bethany and I thought it seemed icy at first but it was just the top layer...think this one was in the freezer for a bit). With that said not sure I put it above my favorite Ben & Jerry's Chocolate but it is really good and has the organic factor working for it. 

All in all...love the combination of orange and chocolate and also love the fact that they are both all natural. Both Amy's and Green & Black's obviously are natural winners here. Next time I think I might have to try making my own ice cream with Green & Black chocolate. If anything its a good excuse to try the chocolate!

Another piece of cake...ice cream cake, that is!

Today I got an email from Cold Stone Creamery. Before I got into that, I do want to point out that Gmail now has themes, and if you use Gmail and choose the "candy" theme, you will have a cute little ice cream staring at you every time you check your mail. And if you are like me, that would be all the time...oh! oh! And if you choose the "bus stop" theme and make your location Boston, you also have a kid holding a huge (um, "dream" might be a better word) cone down at the bottom.

Oh, and wait...one more digression. I am on my computer that doesn't have Adobe Creative Suite on it and I am too lazy to go upstairs and use Photoshop, so I just wanted to mention this super cool online photo editing site I just read about. Picnik. Great for on-the-go editing!

All over the news, I am hearing about bailout this and bankrupt that. Apparently Cold Stone Creamery isn't having these problems, because they have a contest this holiday season with a chance to win up to $10,000 when you buy one of their cakes. Sweet! Cakes and money! (Although right now I can't even begin to think about ordering a cake because I ate too much Party Favors cake at a reception at the Museum School's Art Sale, InsideOut.) Anyway, $10,000. How could I get away from that? Without further ado, here is the $10,000 news!

Now through January 6th, 2009 (or sooner, if they run out of game pieces), purchase a Cold Stone cake and get a "gold medal." With this gold medal, you have a chance to win one of three $10,000 prizes, five $500 prizes, or one of 1000 cakes! Even the smallest prize has some sweet potential!

Anyway, this is an ice cream filled post along with a couple of hot tips, so I hope between this post and Tina's yesterday, we are getting out of the dog house for being kind of MIA.

Speaking of $10,000...er, um, at least 10,000 lakes...I will be in the land of 10,000 lakes (Minnesota) next week but hopefully will be able to report back on some midwestern ice cream.

This is a new one...Turkey Cake

Ice cream cake that is....what will they come up with next?

There is something so wrong about this but something so right! Baskin Robbins has come out with a new festive cake, the Turkey Ice Cream Cake. According to their site, this creative cake can be made with the ice cream flavor of your choice (their favorite is half chocolate half vanilla to re-create the dark meat and light meat effect) which will be glazed in chocolate and caramel. The legs are actually sugar cones with a caramel top glaze. Now if this isn't a conversation starter for those awkward family gatherings I don't know what is. I totally want this...its hysterical and a cake to never be forgotten!

Recipe: Cake Batter Ice Cream

A while back we posted a recipe for a very simple but amazing cake batter recipe. We got feedback from someone who said we should be careful because cake batter is meant to be cooked, and we should be aware of the possibility of Salmonella. Though I probably should be, I am not too worried about Salmonella and I love the original recipe. However, when making ice cream for 30-40 guests, I have to say I am a little more anxious about it, so I made a very good recipe by cooking the base.

For the recipe I used the Vanilla Ice Cream #1 (Pure and Simple) from Bruce Weinstein's The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More as a guide, but I changed it up a bit.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup Yellow Cake Mix (though I am sure other flavors would work well too!)
1 cup skim milk
2/3 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Beat the sugar into the eggs until thickened and pale yellow. Add the cake mix.

Bring the milk and half and half to a simmer in a medium sauce pan. Once simmering, remove from stove and pour the milk mixture into the egg, sugar and cake mix and beat until well mixed. Pour the entire mixture back into the sauce pan, and cook over low heat while mixing constantly until the mixture thickens. The mixture may start to "bake" -- if this happens, take it off the stove immediately, and then pour through a strainer into a clean bowl. Allow the mixture to cool for a bit and add the heavy cream.

Cover and refrigerate until cool.

Freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

For an extra treat, I added rainbow sprinkles to the ice cream semi-frozen ice cream (about five minutes before I was ready to remove it from the ice cream maker.) Eat immediately or transfer to another container and freeze.


For another cake batter recipe that looks amazing, visit EB at SpiceDish.

Ice Cream Party Spectacular

I can't believe its been two weeks since the madness of frantically making ice cream for a bunch of three year olds. Funny thing is I am not sure if the adults were more excited than the kids. Man, you should have seen the size of some of the sundaes created. In the end I made eight flavors, had 10 toppings, and way too many leftovers. I think this may become an annual tradition but only if people promise to bring some home. The Cake Batter ice cream has been calling my name every night since last Saturday which is not a good thing around here.

In retrospect I wished I had little score cards so everyone could rate each flavor but I didn't so here is what I think are the results. Seeing as the container with the least amount of ice cream left was Oreo Cookie I think that takes first place. I did get a comment that it had more cookies than ice cream so I'll lay off the Oreos next time, but it still seemed to go. And it was actually the one flavor I was able to send out the door with them. The next popular was the Peanut Butter Cup, although hard as a rock, and third place prize would probably go to the Cake Batter, which is my personal favorite out of the bunch.

Also, because a three year old can't comprehend that we are not having a cake on her birthday, just ice cream, I had to honor her wishes and get her a princess cake to blowout her big three candles. I made the mistake of showing her a cake book with this crazy Barbie cake and she instantly became obsessed and had to have it. So here I am 8am the morning of her birthday jamming her Barbie in the cake and piping ribbon. Oh what moms will do for their kids. But I had to share because I think the thing is hysterical. If you could have seen me and my husband fighting about how Barbie should be properly jammed in the cake you would have laughed. So we not only enjoyed plenty of ice cream but had the joy of Barbie to go with it.

So this posting isn't all together so informative but what I learned from having an ice cream party is...start churning a few weeks prior or have two freezer canisters to speed up the process. Second, take all ice cream out of the fridge at least 10 minutes before as some of mine was a hard as a rock and difficult to serve. Third, watch the amount of mixins put into the base of your ice cream. I found my peanut butter cup and oreo had more candy and cookies than ice cream. And lastly, send leftovers home with guests!