"99" Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I fondly remember the fun ice cream cone cupcakes parents would make for class birthday parties when I was in grade school. Who doesn't love an ice cream cone that doesn't melt? I wanted to recreate this for Miss A's birthday this year, but make it a bit more special.  We used pieces of Cadbury Flake chocolates to make it a "99" ice cream cone cupcake since we also love 99 ice cream cones when we visit family in England.

Miss A was turning seven. We've done several other fun school birthday treats the last few years, including ice cream cone cake pops. She was excited about the idea of ice cream cone cupcakes and requested chocolate cake and strawberry "ice cream" frosting. It was fun and easy. I referenced several different recipes and ways to decorate the cupcakes to make them look like true ice cream cones.  Here is my how-to to create this version:

1) Make the cake batter - I made homemade chocolate cake batter

2) Bake the cake in the cones - I used regular cake cones as they have the flat bottom. I filled the cones 3/4 full with batter and baked them until firm. Let them cool before frosting.

3) Make the buttercream - I always make Martha Stewart's simple buttercream recipe. After making the basic buttercream, add some color. I added some strawberry JELLO gelatin powder to add some color and a little flavor for the "ice cream."

4) Decorate! I piped on the buttercream to look more like ice cream, added some sprinkles and used a red M&M for the "cherry" on top along with the small piece of Cadbury Flake.

After we decorated them so nicely, we realized they weren't going to be so easy to transport to school.  So, my handy husband fashioned a holder from a piece of cardboard to hold  each of them in place in the tray.

The birthday girl was pretty excited (as were her class mates)!

Peach Sorbet

 

I used to have an ice cream machine that I ended up giving away when I downsized homes. So, when I found this incredibly simple recipe for peach sorbet in a Martha Stewart Living magazine, I thought I would try it. 

We escaped from DC to the country and enjoyed an amazing day picking peaches at a farm in Northern Virginia.

The peaches were gorgeous and it was such a beautiful summer day to roam around the orchard. 

Miss A loved helping us spot the perfect peaches and climbing up on the ladder to see if she could reach. 

It was fun picking peaches, but even more fun to relax in a nearby vineyard with a glass of wine and a fresh peach.

We ended up with a few pecks of peaches and used some of them to make the sorbet.  Pretty easy - slice the peaches, freeze them and then puree and you're done. I let it freeze more later, but we enjoyed it nice and spoonable with fresh cream.  

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

I wanted to make some fun and easy to make ahead treats for this past weekend when I had family visiting, so I made a few different kinds of ice cream sandwiches. I've made plenty of cookies and I always try to make homemade ice cream, but this is the first time I've combined the two to make ice cream cookie sandwiches.

I tried a new recipe for a chocolate sugar cookie that I found on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. I made homemade vanilla bean ice cream to make sandwiches with the chocolate cookies. While I thought the cookies were great out of the oven, I don't know if I cared for them as much when they were cold and frozen as ice cream sandwiches, but they were still yummy. It might have been because the other one I made was just so much better. I made my traditional oatmeal cookies and paired them with homemade cinnamon ice cream. This was the perfect combination and by far the favorite of the two. The cookies just have more texture and the ice cream was more creamy and flavorful with the cinnamon.



I baked the cookies a day in advance, let them cool and then stored them in air tight containers to keep them fresh. I made my ice creams in advance as well and let them harden more in the freezer. When I was ready to put together the ice cream sandwiches, I took the ice creams out of the freezer for about 10-15 minutes to let the ice cream soften so you could spread it. The vanilla ice cream I made was not a custard based ice cream though and it softened too much where it squished out of the cookies a bit when we wrapped them.

After we made the sandwiches, we wrapped them individually in aluminum foil and put them in the freezer to harden. It's nice that they can be made in advance and you can just pop them out of the freezer when you're ready for a treat. There are so many fun combinations you can try with different cookies and ice creams. The other thing I did not do that would be yummy is to roll the edges of the ice cream sandwich in nuts, chopped candy or mini chips before freezing them. You could also make chocolate fudge or caramel dipping sauce for even more indulgence.

Strawberry Ice Cream

This is most likely my last strawberry creation (at least this week). Strawberry season will last a little longer and I may be further inspired to try something else....a tart perhaps. After three batches of strawberry freezer jam, cookies and several fresh eaten strawberries, I decided to preserve the final few quarts of strawberries with cream, milk, sugar and pure vanilla in the form of some homemade strawberry ice cream.

I soaked the strawberries in sugar and fresh lemon juice all morning and mashed the strawberries to get some good juice to color the ice cream. I mixed the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla with the fresh strawberry juice and crushed strawberries and put it in my Cuisinart ice cream maker.

When it first comes out of the ice cream machine after about 25 minutes, it has a nice soft gelato like texture.

We sampled some and it was AMAZING and the rest went in a freezer safe container to freeze more to enjoy later.

Local Dessert Tasting

We have had the opportunity to try a few desserts at some local restaurants this past weekend and they were so interesting and yummy that I had to write about them. The first one was at a restaurant that our friend's own and they were sweet enough to invite us with them for dinner there last Friday. The Filling Station is a diner style restaurant with amazing homemade food. They told us we HAD to try this particular dessert and we were definitely surprised at how great it tasted...especially since it's a fried Twinkie! We both commented that we couldn't remember the last time we had eaten a Twinkie. In fact, they never really were a favorite of mine. But, this one was fried and then covered with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar and served along with chocolate dipping sauce. Yum!

The next day, we went on a date for Sean's birthday and went to Corez in East Hills for drinks and dinner. Our waitress highly recommended the ice cream sandwich for dessert as they make the cookie and ice cream in house. First of all, it was huge! We each had half and it came with an amazing caramel dipping sauce. The caramel sauce could have been a bit thicker to stick to it better, but it tasted great. What a whimsical yet gourmet dessert!

Not that this wasn't enough, but we went to The Green Well immediately after for a few more drinks and when I told the bartender it was Sean's birthday, we were told we could get dessert for free. Why would we pass this up? Pure indulgence that night - two desserts! We went with the warm brownie served with vanilla gelato, caramel sauce, fresh raspberries and candied walnuts. Ok, that's enough...until birthday cake the next day.

Beignets

I think I had first heard of beignets when I lived in Chicago and tried them at this restaurant downtown that would make them to order for dessert. We didn't make it out for lunch often, but when we did there were plenty of great restaurants to choose from and I remember sharing a plate of fresh hot beignets with my colleagues. I wanted to try to make these myself, but did a little research first to see what the fuss was about. Beignet, pronounced "ban-yay," is the french word for "fried dough" It's basically a fancy doughnut, but without a hole in it (which is much easier to make too). However, while they have French orgins, they have gained popularity in the U.S. The famous Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans is known for them and they are actually the state doughnut of Louisiana.

I've come to realize on recent travels that doughnut desserts at high-end restaurants are quite popular now and people love them served hot....what comfort food! So, with the other packet of active dry yeast I had after making hot cross buns, I tackled this popular dessert this past weekend.












They are made with a yeast pastry, which was really only sweetened with a little sugar and some freshly ground nutmeg. With the use of yeast, this again requires patience and waiting. My before and after photos of the pastry don't look like a dramatic amount of rising happened, but it did rise a bit and was ready for kneading.










I kneaded the dough a little, rolled it out to the right thickness and cut out my rounds to place on a floured cookie sheet. I had to let it rise again and this time I could really tell they had risen and the rounds were touching each other. I think I'd use a larger cookie sheet next time as the dough was quite sticky and it wasn't so great that they were stuck together when I was ready to fry them. Now onto frying...










I'm not a huge fan for fried foods, but these are fried in Safflower oil and cooked quickly (just a minute or so per side) at a high temperature (approx. 350 degrees) so they cook but do not absorb a lot of oil. I used the candy thermometer and kept it in the pan the entire time so I could monitor the temperature of the oil. After frying, they went on a paper towel lined plate and were ready for the final touches.










I covered them in powdered sugar and created a huge mound of sugary beignets. I made sure to have family around to help clean up this tower of sugary doughnuts and they loved them. I think I could have even used a smaller round cookie cutter to make more smaller beignets, but we had no problem trying more than one. They are really good on their own or served with dipping sauces, like a chocolate sauce, raspberry or strawberry. We enjoyed them with some homemade triple chocolate ice cream that my brother made (yes, we're a family of cooks!).