Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

My dear, sweet, loving husband was born on June 22nd.  That is today, in fact!  Happy Birthday Carson!!!  (He won't read this.)  Anyway.  If you are unfamiliar with June 22nd (weird thing to say), it is the day after the first day of summer.  It is often the last day of school for many.  And, AND, it happens to be VERY close to Father's Day.  One year, the two dates were actually one day apart.  Why am I writing things that are obvious?  Because I'm trying to justify my lack of enthusiasm for baking two cakes for two great occasions in such a short (busy) period of time.  

  That's why this year, I tried to combine things that I know Carson loves (mainly ice cream and the chocolate/peanut butter combo) in a dessert that was very easy to pull off.  Enter this ice cream cake: a mouth-watering crowd pleaser that anyone can throw together, and I mean ANYONE (especially if you have kids willing to unwrap all the peanut butter cups in exchange for one or two or five).   

It begins with an Oreo crust... yes, I said that.  One whole package of Oreos, crushed together, combined with melted butter and pressed into a cake pan.  Then, the ice cream.  Best part?  You can choose your favorite flavor, brand, make your own, etc.  I decided to layer my cake with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and a Vanilla Bean (this brand).  There is hot fudge and crushed peanut butter cups in between the two layers, more hot fudge on the top, and MORE crushed cups on top of that.  All that's really time consuming is letting your layers melt in between, but I think at the end of the day... we all have patience for that.  After all, ice cream cake is worth the wait.  As would my husband's birthday be if he could move it just... you know... a weeeee bit further away from Father's Day.   

Full cake recipe here.  (But again, modify it to your liking!)

Pineapple Vodka Soft Serve

Yep, you read that correctly.  This is creamy soft serve, made from chunks of fresh pineapple with, yes, VODKA in it.  Tasty videos for the win again!!  When I saw this it wasn't a question of WILL I make it, it was WHEN.  While it did require freezing for 6 hours, the entire process was pretty simple!  Especially if you're lazy and buy pre-chopped up pineapple like me.  This is the perfect little (adult) treat for the summer heat.  

You can find the recipe in the comment section HERE.

Simple Blueberry Ice Cream

Last weekend, Amanda, Pete, Evan and I were sitting in the sun, drinking beer. Pretty typical. And then our friend Mer showed up. Also typical. So there we were, sweating our faces off, drinking craft beers (Seattle is craft beer heaven, by the way). Aside from the sweating our faces off, this is basically what we always do. So anyway, Amanda started talking about homemade ice cream, and the next thing you know, we were all crammed into my apartment around my ice cream maker. Summer is the best. 

I love a good egg-filled custard based ice cream. All creamy and rich. But for those moments when you want homemade ice cream and you want it right now (er, well, in 20 minutes) this simple milk and cream base can't be beat. No cooking. No extra cooling or anything. The only added step here is throwing some fresh blueberries in a blender with fresh lemon juice to make a tangy, fruity, swirly mix-in. 

It's seriously so easy and basic that I almost didn't share it. But the little bites I've been sneaking from the freezer all week were enough to change my mind. 

Simple Blueberry Ice Cream
Ice cream maker required

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Pinch salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

Juice from 1 lemon

Whisk together cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt, and pour into your ice cream maker. Follow ice cream maker's instructions. 

While ice cream maker is doing it's thing, blend together blueberries and lemon juice. Feel free to add a little liquid sweetener if you want (like honey or agave) but I like the tang. 

Right as ice cream is almost done, add 3/4 of the blueberry mixture and continue running machine until it's mixed in. 

To eat as soft serve, top with a little additional blueberry sauce. 

To freeze for hard ice cream, pour ice cream into a freezer safe dish, and pour remaining blueberry mix on top. Swirl with a fork. Freeze until set. 

Based on Emeril's Old Time Vanilla Ice Cream recipe

Boozy Honey Cinnamon Shakes

Boozy shakes, boozy shakes, boozy shakes for all! 

Before I talk about boozy shakes, let's talk about my day job. For work, I drink boozy shakes. And I also manage the content team at a B2B tech marketing agency. It's rad and I love it. Sometimes, I go to events and conferences about digital marketing, social engagement, new technology, and interactive media. Sometimes these events have food. And sometimes they have really, really good food. And drinks. I go for the food and drinks, I stay for the knowledge, ya know? 

This week I attended IN-NW 2014, which happened to be one of the best events I've attended, knowledge-wise and food-wise. And, what a stacked agenda! It basically looked like this:

• Top Pot Donuts and coffee
• People talking on stage
• Marination Mobile food truck
• People talking on stage 
• Snoqualmie Ice Cream Whiskey Milkshake happy hour
• Networking

WHISKEY MILKSHAKE HAPPY HOUR. Sign this girl up! I went through line twice. Or maybe three times, no one was counting. Oh�they were?

Whiskey and ice cream together is always a good idea. It's an even better idea when you're using amazing ice cream like Snoqualmie, which is local for us Pacific Northwest folks. They're family run, and use local ingredients and sustainable practices for their small-batch ice cream, which is really creamy amazing, and comes in a ton of flavors. I really only stopped by the milkshake table three times so that I could ask the Snoqualmie gals how to make these boozy beauties� and then of course, I had to sample each time, just to make sure. 

Honey, cinnamon, whiskey, and ice cream� come to mama. 

Boozy Honey Cinnamon Shakes

Inspired by Snoqualmie Ice Cream

Snoqualmie makes these shakes with their Honey Cinnamon Frozen Custard. Which I totally recommend. But, if you can't get your hands on it, then you can definitely recreate the awesomeness with vanilla ice cream. If you can find the Honey Cinnamon custard, just leave out the honey and cinnamon. 

1 pint (2 cups) vanilla ice cream

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 ounce whiskey

Extra honey & cinnamon for glass rim

Add all ingredients to blender or milkshake machine, and blend until thick and creamy. Add more whiskey as desired, party animal! Add about a tablespoon of honey and a pinch of cinnamon to a plate, and mix together. Dip rim of glass in the honey/cinnamon mixture until coated, then pour in the milkshake. Drizzle remaining honey from the plate over top of shake. 

Note: This post is not sponsored by or affiliated with Snoqualmie Ice Cream in any way and all opinions are my own, I just really like their ice cream!