Just in the nick of time for V-day, I'm sliding in with this Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream recipe! All the heart eyes for this one! Close your eyes and imagine this... Well, don't close them because you have to keep reading. Ok. Cream Cheese Frosting is the flavor of the ice cream base. Yes! And it really tastes like it. And then, plenty of Red Velvet Cake is crumbled throughout. Can you tell I'm excited about this one? Well I am! And I hope you are too!
Ice Cream is my Love Language
It's no secret I love creating ice cream flavors. I have so many that I just haven't had time to get written up but it is one of my goals for 2021. This is one I just had to share with Valentine's Day fast approaching. But you don't need a holiday or any excuse to make this Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream.
I pride myself on nailing the ice cream flavors I'm creating. Like, when you take a bite of my ice cream, I don't want you to have to guess what flavor it is. I want you to know. So I spend time really thinking about the flavors and the little things. I love watching the reaction and the realization when someone takes a bite of my ice cream. As their eyes widen and they say, "it really tastes like ... insert flavor here ..." My son did this recently with a *coming soon* flavor. He was just amazed at how I replicated the flavor of a well-known dessert and turned it into an ice cream flavor. Gosh I love that kid.
This cream cheese frosting ice cream base is pretty amazing and totally unmistakeable due to a combination of lots of vanilla bean paste and a little bit of almond extract - and of course a good amount of cream cheese. And then crumbling in nice big chunks of fresh, moist, red velvet cake? This is the perfect Valentine's Day treat!
A few notes on this Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream Recipe:
- I highly recommend this red velvet cupcake recipe from Buttermilk by Sam. And it is so chocolaty and moist and is just the right size for this ice cream recipe!
- Use the good cocoa, and if you can find it, use cocoa rouge - it is naturally a deep red color which means you can use less food coloring.
- similarly, use the good extracts. All natural, highest quality.
- And about that food coloring - I am not a fan of artificial anything, so I always use a natural food coloring especially in something like this where you are using quite a lot. This is totally up to you. This is the one I use: Watkins Natural Red Food Coloring
- This recipe does require an ice cream maker. I have not tried it without one and I can't recommend you try to make it without one.
- Making the ice cream base the night before and letting it chill overnight before churning is the way to go. You want it completely chilled before churning.
I hope you'll give this ice cream recipe a try! Let me know if you do. I love seeing my recipes in your kitchens! xo - Anita
Here are a few more V-day appropriate sweet treats!
Chewy Strawberry Sugar Cookies
Salted + Malted Chocolate Bundt
And don't forget the cocktails
Spiced Pear + Vanilla Bean Gin Fizz
Grapefruit + Basil Gin & Tonic
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Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream
Cream Cheese Frosting flavored ice cream swirled with crumbled red velvet cake. This ice cream is a triumph and perfect for Valentine's Day!
- Total Time: 1 hour plus chilling and churning
- Yield: 3 quarts
Ingredients
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 3 cups half and half
- 1 8-ounce block cream cheese, room temperature
- 8 egg yolks
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon natural almond extract
- prepared red velvet cake - I recommend this recipe: red velvet cupcakes
Instructions
- Whisk egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- Place cream cheese in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add ½ cup of sugar and begin whisking to break up the cream cheese. Add another ½ cup sugar and continue whisking until you see no more lumps of cream cheese. Add the rest of the sugar and stir to combine.
- Gradually add cream and half and half while whisking. Once you have a smooth mixture you can add the remainder of the cream and half and half. Adding it slowly will help prevent any lumps of cream cheese.
- Continue cooking this mixture over a gentle heat, stirring often, until it begins to steam. You do not want it to boil.
- Using a ladle or a measuring cup, add about a cup of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks in a slow stream while whisking. Add one more cup.
- Next, add the yolk mixture to the pan and whisk to combine.
- Continue cooking over medium heat, stirring almost constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly. It will resemble a very thin pudding texture.
- Transfer this mixture to a large pitcher, measuring cup, or bowl and add vanilla and almond extract. Stir to combine and allow to cool at room temperature before transferring to refrigerator and chilling overnight or until completely cold.
Churning:
- When your mixture is cold, process according to your ice cream maker's instructions. I use this ice cream maker and it takes me about 3 batches to finish this recipe.
- I prefer to crumble the cake into the ice cream as I'm adding it to my containers. I don't recommend adding it directly to the ice cream maker as it is messy and it just gets too crumbled up in my opinion. So, as you are transferring the churned ice cream to your freezer-safe containers, just crumble the red velvet cake in. I like some small crumbs and some pretty large chunks.
- Continue churning until all of the ice cream base is used. store in airtight containers in the freezer. *See notes for the containers I use.
Notes
If you feel you may have overcooked the custard and it looks curdled, don't fear - just strain it through a fine mesh sieve in step 8.
To me, the flavor of cream cheese frosting is a combo of vanilla and almond extract. I know almond extract is not everyone's favorite, so if you don't love it, simply leave it out.
Feel free to use a good store bought cake for this to make it eve easier, but Sam's recipe is SO GOOD!
I use these containers. This recipe perfectly fills two of the large rectangular containers.
- Category: dessert, ice cream
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