Buy 1 Get 1 - Baskin Robbins

Signs of the times...more coupons! I am a big fan of Brad's Deals and came across this coupon today and of course wanted to share. It's for their super creamy 31 Below concoctions, your favorite candies and cookies blended with rich and creamy Soft Serve. So head on down to Baskin Robbins by 6/21 and Buy one "31 Below" and get one free.....enjoy! Don't forget to print the coupon.

Reminder: Cupcake Project/Scoopalicious Second Annual Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup

Just a reminder that the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup ends in five days.

To get you excited, (especially if you haven't concocted your own to enter yet), here are some ideas:

1. Check out the entries from last year.
2. Check out the recent ice cream cupcakes made by out Roundup co-host Stef (of Cupcake Project) -- while you are there you can also check out some other pretty exciting cakes, such as Honey Baked Ham Cupcakes.
   
3. Check out the post I did earlier this month for my very sweet Cake Ice Cream Cupcakes.
4. Read below for my Shirley Temple Cupcakes:

As you can tell, I love Shirley Temples. I have made two different Shirley Temple ice creams (one and two) and once even tried a sorbet.

This time, I made ice cream cupcakes. The base was a white cake, a recipe I got from my sister:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1.5 cups self-rising flour
1.25 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar using an electric mixer on medium for about 3 minutes. Beat in four eggs, one at a time. Combine the two flours separately, and add half to the batter, mix, then add 1 cup of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add the rest of the flour a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers and fill each 0.75-full with batter. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

I filled mine about 1/3 full with batter, as I wanted to leave room for the ice cream.

I piled on some homemade lime ice cream from Bruce Weinstein's The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More (this is my bible of ice cream making).

Finally, I whipped up some butter cream to which I added some grenadine.

0.5 stick butter, at room temperature
0.5 stick margarine, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter and margarine about 3 minutes, or until light and creamy. Add the confectioners' sugar, 0.5 cup at a time, beating about 2 minutes after each addition, until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.

I then added about 3 tablespoons of grenadine.

The result? Very limey ice cream with very very sweet frosting. Not very Shirley Temple-y. They were good, but would never be my first choice for a dessert. Mostly because I don't think I am a huge lime fan.

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The Ice Cream Machine - Cumberland RI

How in the world does a homemade ice cream shop less than 10 miles away from me, rated one of the best in RI, go unnoticed? Sad I know but I luckily had a brainstorm this Mother's day. 

So its Mother's Day and I tell my husband all I want to do today is get ice cream...one simple goal and if didn't happen he knew the trouble he could be in, especially since I am pregnant too! And that's what we did after unsuccessfully trying to fly a kite. When all else fails, head to the ice cream shop and I had a grand idea... to head to a place we've never been together as a family, The Ice cream Machine. 

For some reason I never think to go to this awesome homemade ice cream hangout not far from home, The Ice Cream Machine in Cumberland RI. They have almost 60 amazing homemade flavors, famous ice cream pies, and huge servings. It's rated one of the best in RI and that you can tell by the very long lines. 

Wow, so many flavors and so hard to decide. I finally made a decision to go with Brownie Batter and Mocha chip with hot fudge and whipped cream. I was very intrigued by the brownie batter because I have never seen that flavor anywhere and it was one I was actually going to attempt to make myself since I love Cake batter. How different can it be?! And I also love coffee ice cream (its a RI thing I think!) so the Mocha Chip was always on my mind. It's always that or Mint Chip. Unfortunately in this picture the whipped cream covers up all huge scoops of ice cream this delivered but you can see how yummy it looks and that it was. I was SO happy! The brownie batter was super smooth and as expected tasted like the batter I like to lick right off the mixer and it actually had chunks of homemade brownies and the mocha chip had just the right amount of coffee flavor, not too strong, and rich chocolate chunks. The neat thing is, is that the site tells you the ingredients for each flavor so I can try to replicate...if that is even possible. Or at least get some ideas. Definitely check out menus from your favorite ice cream huts....they truly inspire new ideas in the kitchen.

And as for my counterparts, my daughter had the strawberry (with M&Ms of course!) that was super refreshing, creamy and full of fresh strawberries and the hubbie loves his rootbeer float. All in all it was a fab Mother's day and I know it won't be another 15 years til I get back to the Ice Cream Machine. This place is awesome and I have all summer to go through 60 homemade flavors!

Hershey's Premium Ice Cream at Hogie's Sweet Shop in New Hartford, Connecticut

Ok, so I just lost a huge part of this post, so bear with me as I try to rewrite it. I am wondering if I should reconsider where I write my posts so this doesn't happen!

Ok, but that isn't about ice cream, it's about Blogger, so back to the ice cream post.

A few weeks ago when visiting the fam, on our way home from dinner at Blue Sky Foods , we stopped at Hogie's Sweet Shop on Main Street in New Hartford.

My family is a great hope with this blog by the way...they often seem to suggest stopping at an ice cream shop for the goodness of the blog. Thanks family! And a special thanks to Arianna for always remembering her camera and for the awesome photos!

You'll notice that Hogie's has one of those freezers in the front where you can see the kinds of ice cream to choose from. I love those. I am such a visual person, I love to see what I am choosing. However, oddly enough, only some of the ice creams were in the front case, the rest were in the back. This was kind of frustrating. I mean, I almost rather all were in the back. I want to see all of my options or none of my options.

Though the little shop looked like a place that would carry homemade ice cream, it actually carried Hershey's Ice Cream. I was looking forward to trying it, because I had always seen small cartons of Hershey's Ice Cream at the bodega by my old studio, but I had never tried it.

Ater some heming and hawing over their extensive menu (see further down in the post), I finally decided on Cherry Chocolate Cordial (black cherry ice cream with thick chocolate fudge and real black cherries with cherry filled chocolate hearts.). The ice cream was creamy and rich, and I love the combo of cherries and chocolate. A kiddie cup was even enough for me!

As you can see in the menu at left, not only do they have an extensive listing of flavors, but they also had some pretty unique ones. I decided to head over to the Hershey's site to give you a glimpse of some of Hershey's more unique flavors. Please keep in mind Hogie's only carries some of these. Hershey's has quite an extensive collection of flavors and even Hogie's long list of flavors is only a fraction of what Hershey's offers:

1. Royal Red Velvet Cake (Classic baked red velvet cake blended in a cool cream cheese ice cream with vanilla créme.) -- YUM. Wish they had that. This brings back fond memories of the first time I ever had red velvet cake (thanks Christina -- it was amazing) and the yummy red velvet cupcakes at Stacey and Clint's wedding. Couldn't stop eating those!
2. Sinfully Amazing PB Pie (Rich peanut butter ice cream filled with peanut butter cups, peanut butter flakes and mixed with a delicious chocolate pie crust.) -- Too bad Husband missed out on this one. This sounds almost as good as the Peanut Butter Pie I make from the New Basics Cookbook.
3. Playdough (Bright yellow vanilla ice cream with hot pink and blue sugar cookie gems.) -- Ah, they had this at Hogie's, but the name just turned me off. It reminded me too much of eating, well, play dough!

Gosh, that is only the beginning...

Looking at the Hershey's site and being a huge cake/cake batter ice cream fan, I was disappointed to see that Hogie's didn't carry either Birthday Cake (cake flavored ice cream with a whipped cream spiral and confetti cake pieces) or Birthday Batter (ultimate cake batter ice cream exploding with sprinkles)...OMG, if they had carried both, I would have had a scoop of each...heaven!

Something else that is important to note (and I am not sure if I ever mentioned this before in an older post) but Hershey's Ice Cream is not related to Hershey's Chocolate. In fact, Hershey's Ice Cream says this right on their site. The thing that interests me is that they are both from Pennsylvania and their logo is pretty similar. I wonder if they were ever related?

One final note about Hogie's: they don't have a website. From the web searches I did, it seemed to me they have two locations (Main Street in New Hartford and Willow Street in Winsted) but neither have much of a web presence at all.

Would I go to Hogie's again? Sure! Would I buy a carton of Hershey's Ice Cream if I saw it again? If I could find those fun flavors!

Note: All ice cream flavor decriptions are taken from the Hershey's Ice Cream Site.

Ben & Jerry's "Do the World a Flavor" Contest

Seriously, with the sunshiney months upon us, ice cream events are starting to pop up all over!

You've got a couple of weeks for this one...Ben & Jerry's is sponsoring another flavor contest: Do the World a Flavor. Like flavor contests past, you have to use their fun site to choose a base, chunks, a swirl, and a name (and design the packaging if so inclined) and you're done! Oh, that is until you win -- then we want a full report!

Seventeen countries are participating in this contest. They are: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom ("UK") and the United States.

Prizes are as follows (text below is directly from Ben & Jerry's Official Rules):

Second Prizes: One (1) per country (17 total): Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Prize awarded in the form of 12 Ben & Jerry's coupons each good for 1 pint of ice cream.
First Prizes: One (1) per country (17 total): A trip for the winner to the Dominican Republic. Trip includes round trip coach airfare for one (including applicable sales and airport taxes) from internal airport nearest winners home and hotel for 6 days. Trip also includes three (3) meals per day for six (6) days and ground transportation.
Grand Prize: One (1) Grand Prize winner awarded to one of the First Prize winners. The winner's flavor launched as the 2010 global flavor. Flavor will be produced as a pint for Europe and Turkey and as a limited Edition Scoop Shop Flavor for US, Mexico, HK and Singapore. Grand Prize has no monetary value.

All this is being done to promote their fair trade efforts, for which we give a big thumbs up. Visit us in coming weeks for future fair trade ice cream posts!

Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup 2009: Just a Sampling

So I thought to inspire you all in the Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup 2009, I would make a couple ice cream cupcakes...I tried two. One was completely from scratch, and the other, well, wasn't. It was all mix and ice cream in a carton. That's the one I am going to post about today -- just so you know that these do not have to be completely from scratch. My sister Arianna (who is also the lovely photographer -- except for the blurry photo, that's probably mine!) and I made these a couple of weeks ago.

These Funfetti© cupcakes were sweet sweet sweet -- just like we like 'em!

So basically, we made the Funfetti cake according the instructions on the box. We filled the liners (which we had placed in tins) about 1/4 to 1/2 way, which was too much and I needed to scoop out some of the cake in the end...so save yourself the extra scooping step and don't put too much -- you don't want the cake to come up too high and have no room for the ice cream!!! You'll probably want to make some full sized cupcakes (just to frost, no ice cream -- I know! -- the horror!) as well, because with the little bit of batter you use in each cup, you'll be filling and baking cupcake tins all day otherwise!

Cook them accordingly, but check them a bit early -- they might be ready sooner than later because of the little bit of cake.

Leave them in the tins to cool. Once cooled, add a nice layer of slightly softened Turkey Hill (yay Turkey Hill and their awesome blog!) Party Cake ice cream, and put the cakes directly into the freezer to harden.

Once hard, frost with Funfetti frosting (we used pink) and of course, add the sprinkles (oh! -- in these photos we actually used sprinkles from my mom's cabinet because she wanted to use them up)! Note: the frosting is kind of hard to slather on the ice cream, so you will really have to slather a lot on -- what a shame...or not! Eat them right away or refreeze until you can't wait any longer to eat them!

We can't wait to see your creations by May 31!

(Sorry for the blurriness of the last photo. I wanted you to get the full effect, but once I realized it was blurry, the cupcakes were long gone!)

SpiceDish Saturday {May}: Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

We love us some SpiceDish Saturdays and we are so happy it's that time of month! I am especially excited for this one because my strawberries are growing like weeds (um, yeah...) and flowering like crazy. So, if Ernie the dog doesn't eat them, I'll have to make some of this when our strawberries start to appear...Thanks EB!

Okay folks, so it’s the beginning of strawberry season around these parts and I’m a sucker for ‘em. I always have been. I was not a Barbie girl. I was a Strawberry Shortcake girl. There’s just something about those little, dimple covered bombs of deliciousness. This recipe highlights the first, sweet berries of the season and is just the right balance of tart to that sweet.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

1 lb organic strawberries, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of sugar
1 ½ tsp lemon juice
The zest of 1 lemon
1 cup cream-top whole milk plain yogurt

Cover the strawberries with the sugar, add the lemon juice and the lemon zest. Stir well. Let sit for about 30-45 minutes. Squish the mixture with a potato masher until it resembles jam. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Stir in the yogurt and mix well. Freeze according to your mixer’s directions.

Cabot's (Newtonville, MA) 40th Anniversary Flavor Contest

I guess it's that time of year for ice cream contests...though I think this one has been going on for quite a while, I just haven't posted about it yet...Bad B!

Cabot's Ice Cream and Restaurant in Newtonville, Massachusetts* is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an super fun contest with awesome prizes. Though I can't be sure what happens if you win out of state and the prizes aren't that practical for you...maybe you have a friend or a favorite blogger in the area who you could pass our winnings along to?

The game plan is simple: visit the site, fill out your info, and create a new flavor. (You might want to submit that one you sent to the Ben and Jerry's flavor contest a couple of years ago but didn't win...these guys over at Cabot's may have better taste to know that you are a real winner.) Do this by July 20th. And let us know if you are a winner come July 25th!

Prizes? Let's not forget the prizes...

First prize is having your flavor created as a signature flavor at Cabot's (priceless!), a six month supply of your flavor AND a $100.00 gift certificate to Cabot's.

Second prize is a $50.00 gift certificate to Cabot's and the possible use of your flavor creation in the future.

Third prize is a $25.00 gift certificate to Cabot's.

Get thinking and submit your best idea to Cabot's, because there is only one entry per person.

*Here's an irrelevant but interesting factoid I learned on Wikipedia when linking to the Newtonville entry: "Newtonville's Shaw's Supermarket, formerly Star Market, was one of the first companies in the country to buy airspace for construction; the supermarket straddles the Mass Pike." (Of course I knew it straddles the Mass Pike as I have driven under it countless times and even visited it once with my dear friend Lisa, but I never knew it was a pioneer in airspace construction. Hm. The things you learn on the internet.)

Girl Scout Cookie Ice Cream Challenge

Yah for Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties and yahoo for putting them in ice cream! What fun I recently stumbled upon at our local creamery, Lizzy & the Enchanted Creamery in Cumberland RI. Local girl scout troops each were invited to the back end operations of this shop to learn how to make ice cream with their prized possessions, the infamous Girl Scout cookie, and to then be engaged in a fun contest against eachother for a winning flavor. Where was this fun idea when I was a proud Brownie eons ago!

So the basic idea was that each troop had to come up with their creative concoction that must contain Girl Scout cookies and to then make tub fulls to compete against others. The public was then invited to come and buy a scoop, or two, or three of their favorite flavors and the flavor that had the most gone at the end of the day were the lucky winners whose flavor was placed on Lizzy's menu as the prestiged "Flavor of the Month". How fun!

So as we headed into the shop the girls were outside in full force promoting their flavors with flyers and just creating a buzz....true marketers in the making! And then the hard decision happened as we cruised inside and saw all the options. What to choose...something with my obvious favorite Thin Mint cookies or go for something different? As usual I always have to have two scoops of different kinds cause I feel that if I get only one I am missing out on another. This way there is no disappointment or its just a good excuse to have more!

My final decision...scoop #1 was Brownie Power Troop 218 which was chocolate and vanilla ice cream with Thin Mint and Thanks-A-Lots mixed in and scoop #2 was Caramel Cookie Explosion Sundae which was a mix of caramel ice cream with Caramel Delights, Shortbreads, and fudge swirl. Wow....lots of flavors in one dish! Both were super creamy and had lots going on...almost too much to truly enjoy a single flavor but then again lots to really savor..who can complain! I think my only criticism was that the caramel flavor of the ice cream almost tasted more like maple for some reason but it was good regardless. My friend chose the MVPeanut Butter Explosion which was vanilla ice cream with Peanut Butter Patties and fudge swirl. It was good but they were a bit stingy on the cookies which were the most enticing part so it seemed more like fudge swirl. But hey, they are a bunch of 10 year olds just learning the tricks of the trade so I give them all high fives for coming up with some creative flavors and for just having fun doing it.

In all what a great idea to teach these girls the value of good ideas, good business, marketing, entrepeneurship, and some friendly competition at such a young age....oh and how to make ice cream too of course! And even better that I got to benefit from it all!

Sadly enough the Girl Scout cookie season has ended but I luckily purchased a few boxes that they were also selling and have them stashed away to make some ice cream with so stay tuned for my future flavor of the month.

Cupcake Project/Scoopalicious Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup 2009

It's time again for the Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup - your opportunity to showcase your amazing ice cream cupcake creations just in time for summer! For a brief tutorial to get you started, check out Stef's post on ice cream cupcakes. For tons of inspiration, check out all of last year's entries at Scoopalicious or Cupcake Project. Also check out Bethany's cupcakes from last year (you'll need to scroll to the middle of the post) as well as check back here throughout the month because we have a couple of sample recipes to show ourselves...

This year's Ice Cream Cupcake Roundup is going to be a bit different because we've got PRIZES!! Lots and lots of prizes!! They are all listed after the official rules.

Official Rules:

• Dates: You can enter any time through May 31, 2009.
• How to Enter: Write a post on your blog during the month of May and include a link to this post and to the post at Scoopalicious. Then, complete the entry form (available at the bottom of this post or by clicking here. If you don't have a blog, you can still enter by emailing us the details about your ice cream cupcake, a photo, and your top three prize selections.
• Reader's Choice: There will be one Reader's Choice Award winner chosen by vote during the first week of June (you can get anyone you know to vote - start begging).
• Editor's Choice: There will be two Editor's Choice Awards: one by Scoopalicious and one by Cupcake Project.
• Prizes: When you enter the roundup, you will have an opportunity to tell us which prize you want the most, your second choice, and also your third choice, so be sure to review the prizes carefully. The prizes will be distributed as follows:
• The Reader's Choice Award winner will get their first choice prize.
• The Editor's Choice Award winners will receive their first choice prizes unless they have already been taken by the Reader's Choice Award winner (in which case, they will get their second choice pick). If both Editor's Choice winners want the same prize, the winner of that prize will be randomly chosen and the other will get their next preference. It is possible for someone to win an Editor's Choice Award and a Reader's Choice Award or even two Editor's Choice Awards. In these cases, the winner will receive multiple prizes.
• Just by submitting a cupcake, you have a good chance to win a prize. After the Reader's and Editor's Choice Award prizes are given out, all other prizes will be distributed randomly. There is no guarantee that you will get one of your top picks. If one of your top picks is still available when your name is drawn, then you will get that prize. If not, you will get whatever prize is still available. If you don't love it, there is always the re-gift (but, why wouldn't you love it?).
• The Fine Print: While we would love to see entrants from all over the world, not all prizes can be shipped internationally. If you are outside of the USA and you win a prize, will will try our best to get that prize to you, but we make no guarantees.

The Prizes

3 winners will receive a 12 pack of gourmet cupcake wrappers from Bella Cupcake Couture. Her cupcake wrappers are gorgeous!! They will surely snazz up any cupcakes you make. Save them for a special occasion or a fancy night in.



1 winner will receive an awesome prize pack from the talented Just Jenn Designs (a participant in last year's ice cream cupcake roundup). The package includes a Cupcake Gift Set (eight personalized cards + envelopes with one cup-a-cake holder), I heart cupcakes' cards (6 folded cards plus envelopes), and Happy birthday, cupcake! (six - 3.5"x2.5" glossy tags w/various color ribbons).

1 winner will receive a cupcake tote bag from Avocado Creations. It will look just like the one above, but in turquoise. What better thing to take shopping with you to buy all of your cupcake ingredients?!

3 winners will receive a package of bread mix from JB Dough. It may not be cupcakes, but who doesn't love the smell of fresh bread in the oven? Yum!! The winners can choose from 22 different flavors of bread mix!

2 winners will receive a bag of cacao nibs from Patric Chocolate. Patric Chocolate will also include a recipe for Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies. If you've never tried cacao nibs before, they are truly a treat, and Patric Chocolate is some of the best chocolate on the planet (not that having dinner with the owner recently made me at all biased).

1 winner will receive an 8-pack of homemade cupcake birthday cards directly from Bethany of Scoopalicious. In addition to running the fun ice cream blog, Bethany also sells all kinds of items on her Etsy page, Buzz Buzz Bee.

1 winner will receive a 4x5 illustration from the incredible Cakespy! Cakespy's art just couldn't be any cuter!

1 winner will receive a cupcake pendant from Krissi's Mixed Media Arts. What better way to show your love for the cupcake than by wearing one around your neck?

The Submission Form: (if you have trouble accessing this form via the blog, you can also get to it by clicking here)

We can't wait to see all of your delicious entries!!