Dash My Mug Ice Cream Maker

Part of me does miss making ice cream, and then what does my wife surprise me with?

Dash My Mug Ice Cream Maker

Nostalgia Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Mix

Well, it's been over 10 years, but I'm finally going to pull the Cuisanart Ice-20 out from underneath the cabinet and make some ice cream. Actually, it's been closer to 15 years since I was truly trying to make ice cream. Anyway, what finally got the Ice-20 out of the cabinet? Well, I was in Walmart one morning and walked past several flavors of Nostalgia brand ice cream mix and decided to bring home...

Nostalgia Cookies 'N Cream Ice Cream Mix

Breakfast Sundaes lives on....

It felt pretty great to build this breakfast sundae yesterday. On the one hand it was amazing to look at, and then all the other hand, it was totally delicious.

One of the funnest parts of the Breakfast Sundae project was never knowing for sure how tasty something will come out. Pretty much all of them were decent, but some really click like this one did. The secret was that the ice cream in this one was Turkey Hill's all natural Blackberry Swirl and that fruity flavor blended well with the cotton candy crunch (which is good by the way).

What might surprise you is that the cotton candy element plus the fruity element wind up negating a lot of the eggy and cinnamon flavors coming from the french toast. The french toast is more about adding this great fluffy texture to the whole thing. I totally wanted to make another one today. You might look at it and go "that will never work" but it totally did.

So, my advice is to stay hungry and stay creative. Don't be afraid to try anything.

The Cookie Dough Core Pizza and the Nosh Show Episode 74

Good morning Nosh Show listeners! Originally I was going to give you an "adult energy drink" review but a crazy idea came up during the taping of Episode 74. Since Eric was chilling in Vegas, we were joined by Jeeg of the Nerd Lunch Podcast and, well, this happened.

Cookie Butter Cake Recipe

Hello, my name is Dubba and my son has food allergies. Since he can't eat many of the things I grew up on, sometimes I get a little crazy in the kitchen. Now I don't have any kind of culinary experience (or natural talent) that for many would tell you "hey, don't do that, it's a terrible idea". I've had more than my share of these bad ideas, but every now and then, my foolishness gets lucky.

"Cookie Butter Cake" (me) or "Cookie Spread Bread" (my son)

Homemade Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ok, I have something I want everyone to try at home. See, I kind of stumbled upon something dumb, simple, and very tasty. When I set up this breakfast sundae photo the other day, I made some extra ice cream filled Oreos for the background. By the time I was done shooting, I was running late for work, so I threw the lid on the tupperware and threw the whole thing in the freezer. I wasn't sure how it would taste, but I figured it couldn't hurt to save them.

Well, I went in the freezer yesterday and for a moment I thought about throwing them out, but I figured I should try a bite first and BOOM! I was shocked at how well the frozen Oreo wafers tasted. I truly had flashbacks to Oreo ice cream sandwiches. I could totally make a dozen of these, throw them in the freezer, then grab a few whenever I need a snack. Better yet, every time a new flavor comes through the freezer, boom, make a few more for the stash and then have whatever flavor Oreo I want on hand. Why did I not try this sooner?

Go try it and let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I don't always remember to say it, usually because I'm busy watching the parade with my kids or eating glorious food with my extended family, but I'm remembering today. Life is short, and we should enjoy shared days like today. I've always said that I was born bitter and jaded, so you would think I would despise the complications that can arise on holidays (and as a kid, yeah, I did sometimes), but as the years pass, I like to think these days have become more special as I realize you can never have today back, so make the most of it so you remember it forever.

Now I really wanted to have this ready BEFORE today. See, I've been trying to get back to making ice cream for a long time now, since it's been over three years since I've posted one of my attempts. I had gathered (most of) the ingredients to create Scoop Adventures Cranberry Ice Cream, plus I've got some white chocolate chips to mix in, but I just started it this morning so I'm not sure I'm going to have the energy to finish it when we get back later today. If I do, I'll add pics, if not, then relax, enjoy some great food, and do you best not to stress. Bury the hatchet, give an extra hug, and give thanks that people care about you!

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Update #1: Good news! My Cuisinart ICE-20 still works! The bad news is that I think this recipe is a smidge too big for a 1.5 quart ice cream maker. Anyway, so far so good, but it'll be awhile before this one is scoop ready. We did sample some before packing it up and it is indeed a potent flavor and not in my typical realm of what I pick out. That said, I have to admit this has been fun because it's neat to know this one started as a bag of fresh cranberries. The cinnamon has been tricking my brain into thinking I'm eating some kind of cherry pie filling, so I can wait to see how this one tastes when it's finally frozen solid.... I'm thinking breakfast sundae maybe tomorrow!

Update #2: You know, I still don't know how to make ice cream. Oh sure it looks right enough, but I still think I'm doing something wrong in terms of texture, and that's on top of the fact that this one is too strong for me. It's more of a complimentary ice cream I would eat with something else rather than something I would eat directly. Maybe less cranberries (and maybe some vanilla extract) next time.

Carl's Jr. Strawberry Poptart Ice Cream Sandwich

Wooowee! I bet you're stoked that I got my grubby little paws on something that's only in California. Thing is, I didn't go to California, or even leave the state. Travel that far for an ice cream sandwich? Even I'm not that crazy. Carl's Jr doesn't cross the Mississippi, and his brother Hardee's doesn't venture into "new" territory (new jersey, new york and new england), so I'm out of luck... but not really. There is absolutely nothing stopping me from trying out this great idea at home.

Could something go wrong? Yeah probably. Pop-tarts aren't exactly known for their structural integrity, but there are so many possible combinations of poptart flavors and ice cream fillings that I can't help myself. I'm shocked that this has been hitting so many of us as a new idea (apparently in 2010 it was quite the rage). Carl's Jr has gotten themselves a whole lot of free press for this idea, so let's see if it pans out.

For starters, we're going with a room temperature strawberry poptart and strawberry ice cream. This should be straight forward... or a gigantic mess.

Sundae Sunday with Rice Krispie Treat Sundae Bowls

Now rice krispie treats are nothing new with so many of us having eaten the homemade kind since we were little kids (so much better than the pre-made kind). Even rice krispies and ice cream is nothing new since we've seen this idea executed both poorly and wonderfully, but what if we took thinks up another notch?

You see, last week while everyone was mesmerized by the AFC and NFC playoff games, I was messing around trying to make chocolate chip cookie dough sundae bowls. I had stumbled across the idea here. Now while my attempt wasn't a complete and utter disaster that took hours to clean up, it was still a disappointing failure (yes, there had been something in the middle of the these to help keep their shape but I forgot to weigh them down).

Now during this same weekend, Nick was experimenting with slicing open store bought rice krispie treats and using them to make ice cream sandwiches (photo here). I told him about my failed exploits when a stroke of genius hit him, something to the effect of "What if you made sundae bowls.... out of rice krispies?" Dude.... GENIUS!

Who wants a slice of Voltron cake?

You know how I tend to try too hard when I make cupcakes or cookies? Yeah, well, I apply that same over the top philosophy to cake baking, too. A quick Google image search only reveals this frosted Voltron and this fondant Voltron. Let's see if we can't add a third Voltron to the mix.

Disclaimer: Look, I'm not pretending like I'm some skilled cake artist here. In retrospect, I can think of at least a dozen things I did wrong or could have done better. That said, it was just meant to be fun and different and one of a kind. Birthday cakes are a special thing and should be treated as such. Just use your imagination and the person that you give it to will appreciate it.

 Now, Children of the 80s unite!

This is my tasty buddy Voltron.

Well, he was my buddy before we ate him.

I'd say he came out more fun than accurate.

It took 2 boxes of cake mix, 2 tubs of frosting, 

4 tubes of cake icing and 8 jelly beans for the eyes to complete him.

I've messed around a little with cake decorating before, but nothing that was ever this elaborate.

(note: The white frosting is "fluffy white" and was pretty runny).

The good allergy news is that he's nut free, dairy free, and egg free. 

(I love Ener-G egg replacer.)

Cake Voltron is made up of a double layer chocolate center (9" cake pans)

and vanilla arms and legs (courtesy of some food dye and tiny disposable baking tins).

I looked over at the cake and realized the Green Lion was smiling.

Like I said, I could have done a bunch of things differently like make my own frosting which would have been easier to work with and resulted in a neater and cleaner cake. Also, I would have given him his wings and made his face look a lot fancier. That said, he's still cute, he serves twelve, and we will all miss him.

Rise and Shine with Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

I really wanted to make cinnamon rolls this morning, but it's hard to find allergy friendly ones. So, with a quick pinterest search I confirmed my suspicion that I could transform crescent rolls into cinnamon rolls. Mmmm, very cool, and my kids can help to boot.

Using the hungry house wife recipe post as my basic template, we set fourth on mixing up some cinnamon butter spread with Earth Balance natural buttery spread, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I was surprised THHW didn't go with brown sugar, but we certainly did!

Quick Tip: Make the butter THEN lay out the crescent rolls

That should be fun to clean

time to make the topping mix with confectioner's sugar, more butter, and vanilla extract

My drizzling needs some work

but oh man were these tasty!

Have a good day everyone!

On Location on Newbury Street in Boston Part 1 of 2 : Visiting SWEET

Ahhhhh, good ol' Newbury Street. For all our non-Bostonian friends out there, Newbury Street is kind of like.... ummm.... well, it's kind of like Newbury Street actually, I can't really think of any other street like it, though in my non-descript defense, it's not like I've been to a ton of other cities.

How can I describe it? It's just an awesome street lined with awesome shops. It's the old school Bostonian version of a street that probably exists in every great city, though we've been around awhile so we do it a little different. Where as a typical main street would have street level stores, Newbury goes with the split level approach. Alot of the time you can either go down a half flight of stairs to the basement store or take a half flight up to the first floor store. It's just a cool way to fit everything together.

So, Newbury St is blocks and blocks of stores and food. Clothing stores, knick knack stores, all kinds of neat restaurants (many of them open air), just all kinds of great stuff. On one end is the intersection with Mass Ave where a Tower Records once stood. 8 blocks to the east and you'll be in the Public Garden (with our infamous swan boats). If you are ever in the city, I recommend it as a nice walk... just do me a favor and try not to get run over.

Our day wasn't going quite as planned (i.e. total messed up), so my wife throws out that she's heard that SWEET has some of the best cupcakes in the city. That's a pretty bold statement and demands some investigating. 

We leave the Pru and head on over towards Newbury Street. It doesn't take us long to find our neat looking goal. We enter a small shop that is mostly white, a few small tables, a big TV on the wall, and most importantly : A display case full of some very tasty looking cupcakes.

Like many of the customers there, we have no idea what to get. Thankfully, the staff was all smiles and patience. We took our time and eventually wound up going with a four pack to take with us - it's like $3.25 a cupcake or 4 for $12.50 (I think). You can also do a half dozen or dozen if you want.

Mmmmmm, a simple box with a complimentary bow, I like it.

I bet two things strike you right off the bat. One, it's a average size cupcake, just like the ones you make at home. Two, It's a dollup of whipcream, and not a covering like you might find somewhere else. I think you still get the same overall volume of frosting, so it's more of just a styling preference.

Now these first two you see were my choices, though the idea here is to split them with my wife. On the right we have a CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZEL cupcake. It's a chocolate cupcake, chocolate buttercream frosting, and then some smashed pretzel rods for decoration. The cupcake is fairly typical, the frosting is this superb light and fluffy, super sugary conconction, and then the pretzels don't add as much as I had hoped. I adore pretzels, so I would have dug some more crunch in every bite (maybe some smaller crumbs mixed in with the big ones).

On the left we have the NOT SO ROCKY ROAD cupcake... oh wait, I forgot to tell you, SWEET is nut-free! That's were the "not so" comes from. So our little a-typical rocky road cupcake is actually chocolate brownie stuffed with homemade marshmallow, topped with whip cream and drizzled with chocolate. I really wanted to love this one since the frosting is light and excellent again (though I swear their is a hint of coconut). The marshmallow inside is a cool touch, but it was pretty liquidy. The big problem came with the chocolate brownie cupcake which was crazy dry. The frosting and marshmallow try to offset it, but it was just too much for me. (maybe we got a dry batch, who knows)

Now we couldn't go home without something for my daughter. They had a whole bunch of cute Easter themed cupcakes, but the funnest looking one is by far the PEEPS cupcake. It's a vanilla cupcake with two different buttercream frostings and then a peep on top. I love how the one layer of frosting matches the peep, that's just pure optical fun. We got home and my daughter dug in, but surprisingly she didn't finish. There's still a chunk of cupcake top left, so I give it a shot. Weird, the base cupcake seems flavorless yet the frosting is oh so potent. On one hand, it makes the 5 year old in me sing at how crazy sugary good the frosting is. On the other hand, it makes older me feel a little dizzy from the sugar high. WOOOOOOOO. Ok, I see why she stopped.

Our last cupcake (on the right) is the CHERRY CHEESECAKE cupcake. It's a cream cheese cupcake with cream cheese frosting inside and out, a graham cracker crust bottom (so cool!) and then it's dusted with graham cracker crust. My wife gives the thumbs up to this one and I'll admit to sneaking a little of the frosting which was indeed cheesy (and awesome like the other frostings).

So overall this place was cool. I like the decor and the cupcake holding ferris wheel was pretty awesome. Unfortunately I can't give a ringing endorsement since there seemed to be a few stumbles along the way. Hey, you know me, I'm super critical. To be honest, if we were walking down Newbury Street again, I know we would totally go back in and try some other seasonal flavors.

Verdict?  Lots of good points but a few issues as well
Buy Again?  Most likely

Ok, stay tuned for Part 2 where we go and get ourselves some ice cream.

Happy Easter Everyone

I just want to say have an awesome Easter. Nothing beats a good Easter egg hunt and a big basket full of candy. I also love honey baked Ham, and potatoes, and fresh veggies, and oh there will be so many desserts on the table. Be safe, hang with family and friends, and enjoy the day.

Quack Quack Quack   HONK

Star Wars Easter Eggs a.k.a. Dubba's Eggcellent Adventure

You know, I kind of had an epiphany after I posted yesterdays cupcake adventure. See, as a review blogger, it's so easy to get up on my high horse and just bash everything. I mean, look at 2012, it seems like I've been disappointed by almost every product I have tried. However, when you bake (or do anything else creative), you have to get off that high horse and accept the fact that it's hard to make stuff.

Funny thing is, me being me, I'm still critiquing myself the whole way through. I guess some things will never change... but I can change the content of this blog. Sure, we'll still do a quality ice cream review here and there, but it's time to get my hands dirty. It's time to embrace my construction cooking roots and start building my treat expertise one item at a time. And when we're not cooking (or scooping once a month a so), it'll be time to get back to drawing and creating. Yes, its a risk switching things up, but I hope enough of you will stick around for oddball geek projects like this.

"These are not the eggs you're looking for"

Ok, so buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride, I hope you come with me.

[No Star Wars eggs were harmed during the creation of the terrible April Fools Day joke]

Cadbury Cream Egg Sweet Cream Cupcake Recipe Crackin' Open the Oven : Easter Preparation Edition

When the fog in my brain isn't too thick, I tend to get random wacky ideas in my head. Most are forgotten within five minutes, but others, like a Cadbury inspired cupcake, manage to stick around long enough for me to jot it down somewhere. I did a quick pinterest search and sure enough I'm not the first one to think about shoving a big ol' cadbury cream egg inside a cupcake... the thing is, I've got two sticking points in my head. One, the big eggs seem to take up an awful lot of the cupcake. Two (and more importantly), why is everyone doing chocolate on chocolate here? What makes an Cadbury Cream Egg different is the filling, so why not base the cupcake on something different? TO THE INTERNET!

I do a another quick pinterest search for sweet cream cupcakes, but nothing really shows up. Hmmmm, how odd, I'm surprised I cant buy a sweet cream cake mix, let alone find one on pinterest. Off to google then... wow, only a few meaningful hits, including this recipe from Erik Homemade. Well, I guess we're going with that recipe and then adding my own special Dubba branded ideas. Ok, ready everyone?

Cadbury Cream Egg Sweet Cream Cupcake Recipe
from Erik Homemade
  4 eggs
  1 1/2 tspn vanilla
  1 1/2 cups heavy (whipping) cream
  1 1/2 cups sugar
  1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
  3 tspns baking powder
  1 tspn salt

and the Dubba additions
  2 packs of FROZEN mini Cadbury eggs
  1 can of milk chocolate frosting
  1 large hershey's milk chocolate bar

I pretty much followed E.H.'s directions by beating the eggs, adding the vanilla, and then adding the heavy cream (a first for me in any kind of cake recipe). Next up are all the dry ingredients. Add the sugar, salt, flour, and baking powder and then you are done. It only took me two minutes (yeah right!)

Bakers note: at first I thought the mixture was a bit thin, but as soon as I started pouring it, it turned out to be a little too thick. Something needs adjusting, not sure what.

Here are the cupcakes in prep. I decided to get overly creative and tried to add a yellow "yolk" to the cupcakes. My daughter thought I was adding some flavor, but it's just food coloring.

Whoopsy, the yellow seems to have gone everywhere. Let's cut them open to see how they are doing.

Click the image for larger view

As you can see, on went the milk chocolate frosting and then I rolled the edges in some semi-crushed Hershey bar (I know, I should have broken out the blender for the edging). The great thing about this view is that the particular cupcake I cut open was a near perfect specimen. Notice there's just a bit of cake underneath the egg which is what you want. Now let's take a frustrating look at how some of the others turned out...

To add a little bit of cookie science to the whole cupcake event, I decided to do a little refrigeration experiment. In the red trunks (left side), we have the warmed eggs. In the purple trunks (right side), we have the refrigerated eggs... and that made absolutely no difference of how the Cadbury eggs melted. Apparently using the freezer would have been the smartest choice. Uggg, live and learn. The worst part is that the Cadbury chocolate has merged with the bottom of the cupcake to form some odd plastic like substance --- See, in the red wrappers, I put the egg in first and they melted a bit while I prepped the mix. For the purple ones, I poured in the mix and then added the chilled eggs. Thing is, I think I may have pushed some eggs further down than others. It's a rookie mistake and I'm still kicking myself for it.

Ok, so ends this weeks cupcake journey. I'm pretty bummed these didnt turn out better, in fact, my daughter actually preferred them without frosting. Oh well, I'll get some ice cream reviews up tomorrow (the next post has got pictures, now it just needs the words)

On Second Scoop: Now that I've had a few days to reflect (and sample), I think a sweet cream frosting (but keeping the chocolate bar crumble) would be a better fit for this one. You don't need to be blown away with milk chocolate frosting, instead I'd much prefer a quality sweet icing on top.

I can't believe vacation is over

Well, that was a quick 9 days. I can't believe my vacation is already over. Bummer, that's all I can say. Between my new job and back when my old company got bought, life has just been crazy. We shut down for Christmas week 2009 and I haven't taken any serious time off since then. I didn't even take off time between jobs since I carry the insurance and didn't want to risk something happening.

Oh well, it is what it is. Time to recap the week, watch a little tv, and then rest up for tomorrow. My hope for vacation had been to play with my kids, do some cooking (baking), get caught up on some chores, and other misc stuff. Nothing too fancy really. My wife has only been at her new job a month (it's not usually the best time to ask for a week off), so we didn't plan any trips or anything.

The weekend started off with these cinnamon swirl pancakes. Yes that's a stainless steel pan... and yes, I realize it's a terrible way to cook pancakes. This was made painfully clear when I flipped over this pancake and the cinnamon swirl started burning. Sometimes it's the dumb mistakes that make for the quickest lessons in life.

Lesson: Buy a griddle


Monday was another lesson. My buddy came down from New Hampshire with his two little girls. It's been awhile since they've seen my daughter, but things clicked back into place after 15 minutes and all was going pretty well. After lunch, I explained to his kids that we have like 12 different ice creams in the freezer, and all they need to do is tell me what they want. "Do you have vanilla?" How quickly my ice cream castle comes crumbling down by the simple question of a first grader. Oh man. So, I got creative and made a sampler plate of Black Raspberry, Double Cookies n' Cream, Cookie Dough, and Chocolate Nougat Crunch. Thankfully that did the trick and I wound up scooping out bowls of Black Raspberry and Cookies n' Cream.

Lesson: Can't go wrong with simple (i.e. Plan Ahead)

So I was cooking dinner this week ofcourse, had some nice corned beef and stuff like that, but Friday it was time to cook a nice breakfast treat. This is an A.P. Cake, a breakfast staple from my childhood (recipe is here) You may notice it looks kinda puffy, well.... both my kids were talking and I kind of lost my scoop count... Yeah, I wound up with an extra half scoop of flour in the mix. Whoops!

Lesson: Pay attention

Ok, time to finish up the week with a little early morning cooking today. My daughter was sad we didn't do more baking this week so this morning we made double chocolate cookies for her (recipe from Mrs. Fields cookie cookbook). The first tray came out looking like they did 3 years ago. On the second tray, I doubled up my scoop size and flattened them a bit to create the giant cookies you see. Hmmmm, what to do with all these cookies?

Mmmmm, Black Raspberry ice cream sandwich, so tasty

or the slightly more traditional cookie dough version

for our non-fruit-loving friends

and my final secret is....

FREEZE 'EM!

They froze surprisingly well last time, so the only real difference here is that I used a thinner cookie. I also put these individual sandwiches in a big zip-lock so they are double wrapped. They will last a long time and should be great for whenever the mood strikes me. It's not like we could have finished 4 dozen cookies anyway, so it's a win win.

I was thinking about this and I don't know why scoop shops don't all sell these. Easy to do, lots of possibilities, and should have a good profit margin. Something to keep in my for my shoppe someday.

Ok, I'm off for a little TV time before my day is done. Good night!

Crackin' Open the Oven Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

Ok, I was going to write you all a nice long story, but after two nights of even less sleep then usually, we're going to make this short and sweet. Please read below and give these a try!

Our allergy friendly ingredients.

No nuts, no dairy, no eggs.

put the cream side of the cookie in the cup

put the dry side in a bag (and break them up a bit)

do up the yellow cake mix

and then throw the cookie wafers in at the last minute

that's it! 

Cookie and Cream cupcakes and they are excellent.

These were crazy simply to make yet totally delicious. We've added a nice cookie flavor to the cake but the secret is the crunch added by the cookie on the bottom. Once before I put thin mints in the bottom of my grasshopper cupcakes, but it wasn't perfect. However, these cookies here are perfect. I'm so glad I found this recipe. Genius, just genius. Tastes great, super easy to do, the crunch to cake ratio is perfect, and they don't even need icing... heck, they don't even need ice cream!

Happy a great day everyone, no matter what your plans are.

Mmmmmmm, cookies

I can't remember the last time I said this, but....

I LOVE COOKING

Wait! Don't be afraid!

I was wandering around the internet one day when I decided to check out Rodzilla's Links which took me over to Kirbie's Cravings. I'm not quite sure how long I drooled over all the awesome food pictures, but I stumbled upon the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew I had to make them.

Now my wife says she tried making cake mix based cookies once before, but for whatever reason I don't really remember. That said, I can't wait to try doing this again. Assembly is fairly simple, clean up wasn't too bad, and oh do I love fresh cookies!

Just as a warning, I tried to be "different" and used dark chocolate chips but I think it backfired a little as the red velvet flavor didn't pop as much as I had hoped. On the plus side, the cookies taste more or less like regular cookies but technically they are better for you since there's no butter.

Ok, I chased three of these bad boys with a little fresh Blue Bunny Super Chunky Cookie Dough, so I'm done for the night. Stay tuned for a new ice cream post tomorrow.

Happy National Ice Cream Sandwich Day with Friendly's SundaeXtreme Cookies 'n Cream Ripple

Woohoo! nothing like keeping my track record of announcing pointless national holidays at the end of said pointless national holiday. To celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich Day here on August 2nd, I now present to you: two very little ice cream sandwiches.

Now no where in the imaginary rules does it say anything about how you make your sandwich or what to make it with, so I present two frozen cake balls sliced up to make some wafers for my oreo ice cream sandwich. Don't they look so tiny and tasty? Well, don't be jealous, the cake was a bit too solid plus it was out of proportion to the ice cream. Oh well, I tried right? Have a good day (well, night at this point).

Now if you really must know, I used Friendly's SundaeXtreme Cookies 'n Cream Ripple in my sandwich. It's vanilla flavored frozen dairy dessert (oh joy) with crushed chocolate creme cookies and a fudge swirl.

BEHOLD.... The Cake Shake (courtesy of my daughter)

So, how's everybody doing? Me, I feel like I've been hit by a large caliber vehicle. See, yesterday started off simple enough. The plan was to hit Mystic Aquarium and then hit Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, much like Scoopalicious did a few years back. Unfortunately baby boy was a bit off yesterday, and after 2 hours at the aquarium (at a cost of $80), we grabbed a cheap Wendy's lunch and headed home for his nap.

Thing is, he wasn't the only one running on empty. I took a nap too, and when I woke up, I knew I needed a snack but I just couldn't figure out what. I grabbed some chicken and put my decision off a few hours. Thing is, I still couldn't decide. Do I go for another slice of CSC Midnight Delight or do I make myself a shake with BB Triple Chocolate Cake? I can't seem to muster the brain power to figure it out, so my daughter chimes in and goes "Why don't you make a shake with the cake?"

Whoa! Hmmm, I never thought about it that way. I try to tell myself that it's a crazy, childish idea, but deep down I can't help but wonder if she is on to something. My daughter has always been a great eater and she is my sidekick on many of my weekend ice cream adventures, so I realize I have to give this a try.

I start by slicing up a third of the cake into fairly thin slices.

Next goes the milk. I don't let it sit long because I worry the cake will get soggy.

TADA! To my surprise, the cake broke up into a million little pieces!

Success, we have made the very first CAKE SHAKE (copyright my daughter)

Now I mixed this with a just a fork, yet it still seperated perfectly. The fudge didn't really blend, so I happily scooped those bits out and ate them. How does it taste? Well, this one gets big points for being different. It's definitely a curious texture and maybe not something you would want to do all the time, but it's also very unique. There are all these soft little cake bits swirling in every sip.

This was a great first try at the cake shake. Next time I would definitely roll with some chocolate milk and also scoop in some extra chocolate ice cream from another source. The shake was just a bit thin, plus spacing out the cake bits a little wouldn't hurt. Technically you could strip out some of the cake hunks in the beginning instead of adding extra ice cream, but that seems like a waste.

To my daughter: Good Job!

Disclaimer: I can honestly say I would never have thought of mixing cake and ice cream like this, but apparently Square Burger in Philly already has. You can find glowing reviews here, here, and here. The fantastic thing is that they use the splended treat known as Tastykake's Butterscotch Krimpets for the cake base.