Friday, April 16, 2010

Red Velvet Ice Cream


Hubby loves Red Velvet Cake. I love ice cream. We both love ice cream mixed with cake. Therefore, I decided to see if I could pull off a concoction that married the best of both worlds.

Red Velvet Cake recipes are everywhere…so much so that I was overwhelmed by the options I found on the Internet. Some call for butter, others use oil. Almost all call for a generous serving of red food coloring (Though, I did see at least one recipe that used beets to dye the cake).

I finally settled on a largely reviewed and positively received recipe for Red Velvet Cake from Epicurious.com. I can’t comment on the entire recipe because I stuck strictly to making the cake (sans berries and icing). The cake was surprisingly light and made waaaay more cake then I would ever need for this project. Next time, I’ll cut the recipe in half.

For the ice cream, I went to the source: Dave Lebovitz’ “The Perfect Scoop” and was delighted to find a recipe for Cheesecake Ice Cream. When I went to make the ice cream base I averted almost near disaster after opening the package of cream cheese at 10pm to find that 2 ounces were missing…I must have used some before and forgot about it! A wonderful resource that had I just discovered earlier that day helped me do some quick conversions to account for having less cream cheese than the recipe called for. I tasted the mix before chilling and it was perfect…tasted just like cheesecake.

When it came time to actually make the ice cream, I decided to briefly chill in the freezer the bite size pieces of red velvet cake that I wanted to mix in. I then added them as I transferred the finished ice cream into the container, finding that they broke apart pretty easily.

My husband, the Red velvet cake afficianado, declared that the finished product tasted just like a piece of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, but colder. We augmented the final dish with some buttered pecans and extra pieces of cake. Revisions for the next batch will include adding larger pieces of cake, and possibly some of those yummy pecans.


Cheesecake Ice Cream - Adapted from “The Perfect Scoop” by Dave Lebovitz

6 ounces cream cheese – cut into small pieces
Zest of 1 lemon
¾ cup sour cream
¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons half and half
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt

Zest lemon directly into a blender; add sour cream, half and half, sugar, salt and cream cheese. Puree until smooth and chill in fridge at least 24 hours.

Churn mix in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. Mix in chilled pieces of red velvet cake as you transfer ice cream from the machine to its container. Freeze, wait patiently and then enjoy!

10 comments:

  1. I was going to say genius too but someone already said that. But truly, genius!

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  2. sweet charlotte! my stars i must have this!

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  3. Publix grocery stores carry their own brand of Red Velvet Cake ice cream, but I would so rather make it myself, so I do believe I will be making this when the carton is gone!

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  4. AMAZING!!! I was looking for ways to make red velvet ice cream (thereby combining my 2 favorite things), I will give this one a whirl!

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  5. This looks great! I'm currently going to try this recipe from my David Lebovitz Book and 2 other versions to see which red velvet I like best.

    Why do you need to freeze the cake? And why do you put it in as you are transfering at the end instead of dropping it in the last 5 minutes of the churning process?

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  6. It's all a matter of preference. If you don't freeze the cake it will disintegrate as you try to mix it in. This is the very same reason you add the cake you are transferring the ice cream. If the cake is added into the ice cream maker it will essentially get soggy and turn to mush. It basically comes down to how you would like the texture to turn out. Try things your way and see how it works.

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  7. I think freezing the cake is a must. I have the Publix brand ice cream in my freezer and it's half gone. I just bought the carton a few days ago. I thought that if I made the ice cream it would be even fresher and not contain the preservatives in it. Plus I could control the sugar and cut it down a little and still have a good flavor.

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  8. what is half and half sugar?

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  9. I gona try this thanks

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