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.

Ice Cream Bread

Violet is sleeping, Kevin is at the gym, and I am writing about ice cream. Oh, and eating it. Healthy me!

Anyway, this is a bit overdue but clearly a must post because I got emailed two separate links the same day on the subject: ice cream bread!

Say what? Yes, apparently the rage is to mix equal parts of ice cream and self rising flour and you get an ugly-but-yummy bread. Who knew?

First, the lovely Marsha of First Things First sent me a link from Instructables: Ice Cream Bread -- Ka-POW! (I just love the name). Apparently this was part of the bread contest that Instructables is having. I wonder if I can still vote. This one has my vote! Darn, it's too late, but Phyllo, good luck! I'm rooting for you!

Ice Cream Bread photo courtesy of
Nutrition Man

Then my lovely husband who seems to spend his day surfing the web (just kidding, Company-that-husband-works-for!) found a link and sent it to me later in the day. Oh, it seems to be a link to the same recipe but Kevin sent me the link as it appeared on Boing Boing and they aptly called it "Fugly Bread." It's true. It's not gorgeous looking, but it does have potential to be yummy!

I'm going to try it in the next couple of weeks. Boing Boing suggests it's probably more like a cake than a bread. To me it looks like scones. Ok, wait, actually, on first glance it looks like fried chicken! All the same, my wheels are turning and I just need the ingredients and the time.

The Perfect Scoop's Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream.

I know I have written before about how much I love custard based ice creams, but just the other day I really wanted to make a chocolate ice cream and found a recipe that didn't use eggs and thought I would give it a try. Um, YUM.

I whipped out my copy of The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments and was about to make the regular chocolate ice cream until I came across the recipe for “Aztec ‘Hot’ Chocolate Ice Cream” and decided to be a little daring. I pretty much followed Lebovitz's recipe, but made one replacement because I am trying to clear out my cupboards of things I don't use that much. Following a tip at the bottom of the recipe, I put in the ancho chile powder instead of regular chili powder to give it an extra oomph. Additionally, I made the executive decision to replace regular cinnamon with Saigon Cinnamon, something I once thought was a good idea to buy from Costco even though I had never tried it. Now while it has a nice flavor with a nice little kick, I don't have a clue what to do with seven ounces of Saigon Cinnamon. Well, now I do.

The combination of the Saigon Cinnamon and the Ancho Chili Powder mixed in with the chocolate was wonderful. First you get a lovely taste of chocolate with a touch of spiciness. As the ice cream is melting onto your tongue, you are left with a surprise kick (which I found to be "kickier" in some spoonfuls than in others).

The texture of this eggless ice cream was not icy as I often find eggless ice creams to be, but incredibly smooth and silky.

A definite must try.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Yes, baby, it is cold outside, but it's a bit warmer with the fabulous gift our fabulous friend Martha knit you!

Violet wore her ice cream sweater for the first time today and boy, is it awesome.

I don't know if there is too much more to say. I think this picture speaks for itself.

Oh, a big thank you to Martha for knitting it for Violet and to Gail Pfiefle of Roo Designs for the gorgeous pattern and her generosity of sharing it on Knitty.