Review: Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream

I went to the grocery store today, hungry. Bad idea. Even worse idea? On my way to the cash register I thought that the best route would be past the frozen treats. I bought three pints of Ben & Jerry's. That's after the package of cookies I picked up, but I don't really think they count because in the end they were just horrible.

The ice cream though? I thought it was in my best interest as an ice cream blogger to pick up three new flavors: Red Velvet Cake, Clusterfluff and Late Night Snack (to find out more, you'll have to visit their flavor case because unfortunately their Flash-heavy site does not allow you to link to a particular flavor. Tonight I opened the Red Velvet (described as "Red Velvet Cake Batter Ice Cream with Red Velvet Cake Pieces & a Cream Cheese Frosting Swirl" on the container) and I can't say I was impressed. Maybe I'm biased with my own made-it-to-Craftzine Red Velvet Ice Cream, but not only did I not find B&J's Red Velvet to be that yummy, but I also didn't find it to be too Red Velvet-y.

First of all, when you open the container, it's not bright red like you'd expect (which might be a bonus, because that would be a super lot of food coloring additive!), but it looked like strawberry ice cream. I mean, completely -- strawberry chunks and everything. And I couldn't see any cream cheese swirls in the pale pink ice cream. I actually found the first bite to be super sweet, but not with any particular flavor. Eventually, I got a little bit of cream cheese taste, but really no striking Red Velvet taste. In the end, I kept thinking I was eating strawberry ice cream, so I don't know if it is what I expected to taste, but I kinda did taste strawberry! (No, I did not buy strawberry by accident!) I am a fan of lots of Ben & Jerry's flavors, so I can afford to be picky -- it's not like I will open the grocery freezer and find nothing I like -- so I think this flavor is going to be on my "not again" list. But it was worth a try.

I just saw Blue Bunny has a new Red Velvet Ice Cream in collaboration with Duff of Charm City Cakes and Ace of Cakes fame. They also created a wedding cake ice cream together too, so maybe those two Blue Bunny flavors are the next I will have to try, because with the price tags on those Charm City Cakes, the ice cream is the closest I'll get to an actual Duff creation!

Right now though, Stone Ridge Creamery is my top contender in the Red Velvet craze category.

Stay tuned for the Late Night Snack and the Clusterfluff review!

Note that when I took the camera out to take photos this morning to take photos of the ice cream (I wrote the post last night), I have to admit I had a couple of spoonfuls of the ice cream -- it's not bad, just not my favorite! I mean, it still is ice cream...and I like ice cream!

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.