Saturday, October 8, 2011

Cake!

Even though this is an ice cream blog, I have to mention cake.  In fact, ice cream and cake go together like pizza and pepperonis, so I decided to mention cake. Most of us have eaten cake especially birthday cake.


The word cake comes from the old Norse word kaka. This word is related to the word "to cook." Now you know the origin of the word cake, so what is a cake? If you get down to the nuts and bolts of cake, you are looking at a recipe of eggs, flour, sugar, and, depending on the cake, nuts, icing, fruit, or other ingredients. However, the taste of a cake can't be boiled down to a few basic ingredients. The delicate and fluffy mix of high quality ingredients yields a remarkable taste sensation in the mouth.

There are a variety of types of cake (there is even a rock band called Cake, but that isn't what we are talking about!). I list some of them below:

- Spice cake
- Italian wedding cake
- Red velvet cake
- Chocolate cake
- Fruit cake
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- And many, many more

If you want to truly enjoy your cake, you will want to pair it with ice cream. Most of the time the best choice is vanilla ice cream, because you don't want the taste of the ice cream to overtake the flavor of the cake. Thus, you wouldn't pair a lemon cake with chocolate ice cream, although some adventurous souls may dare to combine the two!

You can't have an ice cream blog without discussing cake, so there you go!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Ice Cream Sandwich


Today I noticed that my family didn't have any dessert, so I went out to buy us each an ice cream sandwich. Most people love ice cream (I know I do!), but it seems that just as many people, especially kids prefer the ice cream sandwich to plain old frozen dessert.

So what is an ice cream sandwich? Most people know, because they have eaten them since they were kids, but I'll repeat the definition before I give you the history of it. It is ice cream, usually vanilla, placed between two cookies or slices of cake, making a delicious chocolate and vanilla sandwich. The ice cream sandwich appeals to our desire for ice cream, cake, and chocolate, all in one sweet product!

The current style of the ice cream sandwich was invented by Jerry Newberg in 1945 when he sold ice cream at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. However, images from as early as 1905 show that similar products existed and often were sold for a reasonable price. It is funny, but some sources say that there is even an ice cream sandwich day. It apparently falls on August 2nd, although you aren't likely to be able to take off of work that day. Either way, my family and I will sit down and enjoy a tasty, creamy, ice cream sandwich whenever we get a craving.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Ice Cream Flavors: The many weird and exciting possibilities

There are many ice cream flavors available. I like most of them, because I love ice cream so much. I am sure you have many favorites as well. I am going to list some of my most well-loved ice cream flavors and see if they match up with yours. There are some pretty zany ingredients and flavors out there that get combined with ice cream, and I like them too.

First, I like popular flavors, like vanilla ice cream. It isn't that fancy, but I still like it. I like chocolate ice cream less, but I still love it. Most kids probably like it too!

There are other popular ice cream flavors too, like mint chocolate chip, rocky road, coconut, and even pumpkin ice cream (which is has the flavor of cinnamon and other flavors - rarely does it have actual pumpkin in it...too much of that would be gross!).

The number of ice cream flavors is really pretty much endless. All you need is a little creativity and fun, and you can come up with pretty much any flavor imaginable. I have seen green tea, cayenne, and bacon flavored ice cream, and people swear that they are great. It is likely that you aren't as familiar with these flavors, but they are still popular.  I have also seen seasonal flavors too. For example, around Christmas, we see candy cane ice cream, and near Thanksgiving, they make turkey ice cream (just kidding! that would be horrible). I have found that in the summer, they bring out more fresh and fruity ice cream flavors like Pistachio and Watermelon. I like those too. When I was little I used to eat bubble gum ice cream. It had giant pieces of bubble gum mixed in with it. I honestly didn't know whether to chew it or eat it. It was a weird experience, and an experience with ice cream flavors I won't soon forget. I also remember smurf ice cream. It was basically a vanilla that was dyed blue, but I swear it was the best tasting ice cream ever. Another ice cream flavor I remember is Pac Man ice cream. It too was vanilla, perhaps with some ghost carcass thrown in - I don't know. Ahh, the 1980s...a great time for ice cream flavors!

Mixing flavors is pretty common too. For example, you can mix virtually any flavors.

How does Pumpkin-Peppermint sound? What about Pistachio-Bacon? Bubble Gum-Vanilla?

Overall, you will find a lot of ice cream flavors and the sky is the limit as to which one you enjoy, even though I have to admit that with the exception of some ultra weird ice cream flavors, I pretty much love them all. What are your favorite flavors??

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Pumpkin Ice Cream: That Fall Flavored October Treat


 Around this time of year we get to enjoy pumpkin ice cream, which is a popular flavor among many ice cream stores and chains. Pumpkin ice cream isn't really flavored like a pumpkin, but is a combination of different flavorings and spices that go into pumpkin pie. Some types do contain a little bit of pumpkin, and thus have a little bit of beta-carotene and other nutrients that are common to squashes.

I like pumpkin ice cream mainly because it reminds me of the fall. Autumn is the time of year when everything I eat is essentially pumpkin flavored. Coffee, bread, and anything I can get, I put pumpkin flavoring in. This is why I eat a lot of pumpkin ice cream in October and November.

Some people are grossed out by pumpkin ice cream. I know some people that absolutely love it, and others that absolutely hate it. However, it is like anything else, people will always have their own preferences, and there is not much you can to change their minds. Some people just like good old fashioned flavors, while others prefer wilder and more exotic ingredients.

As the weather gets colder, and the autumn leaves turn yellow, red, and orange, I crave the chilly creamy treat that is pumpkin ice cream, in fact, I think I will go out and buy some right now, paired with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee of course!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Ice Cream

I love ice cream! A lot!

When I was a child, ice cream was the best treat in the world - it was a special treasure for the entire family.  Ice cream was a dessert that brought us all together, especially on a warm, hot, or even scorching hot summer day!  I remember going for ice cream from the carry-out near our house. My dad would say that we were going out for ice cream, and we all piled into his car and went the the carry out for homemade ice cream!

Their ice cream was a very special version of this frozen treat. They dipped it in that hot chocolate dip, you know, the kind that hardens and then forms that tasty crunchy shell?  Oh my, that was the best ice cream in the world.  As I remember, they would dip the vanilla ice cream into the red strawberry flavored dip sometimes too!  I tell you what, that was and is ice cream heaven!

Other good times I remember with ice cream was that we would make it at home.  We bought one of those ice cream makers with the crank, and we  made our own ice cream the way we wanted to make it, from the comfort of our home!  That ice cream was the best ever!

I remember once we even made ice cream at 4-H camp, with two coffee cans and salt and ice.  I guess salt water lowers the temperature of the ice to the point where it freezes the cream and the milk and the other ingredients, and we were able to make ice cream in the summer time in Texas!

Again, eating ice cream is a passion of mine, so I thought I would blog about it!  I hope you come back and read more about ice cream on my ice cream blog!

Friday, September 30, 2011

The Life and Death of Ice Cream

This is a sad video :(

Ice Cream Cone

So there are a lot of options where you can put your ice cream for eating.  My favorite is the ice cream cone.  Ice cream cone comes in many shapes and many sizes, from a waffle cones to a traditional cone.  Some versions come in the shape of a bowl, so not only can you easily use a spoon with your ice cream cone, but you can even eat the bowl, which is really just a sort of flat ice cream cone, at the end of nnyour ice cream!

To me, this seems to be one of the best types of ice cream cone that a person could use to eat ice cream, simply beause you can have the traditional ice cream cone experience, except the ice cream cone lets you enjoy a little it more control over your ice cream!  Now if they could just make a spoon made out of ice cream cone we would be set!

The next best type of ice ream cone in my opinion is the waffle ice cream cone.  This type has similar advantages to the ice cream cone shaped like a bowl, but you can walk around and eat your ice cream!  How much fun is that!  Usually when it comes to the waffle type of ice cream cone, the ice cream cone conveniently holds up to three scoops of ice cream!  And compared to a traditional ice cream cone, it is a much easier way to eat three scoops of ice cream!  I think this type of ice cream cone only makes the ice cream eating experience even better!

When it comes to waffle type of ice cream cone, you are not simply limited to scooped ice cream, because the waffle ice cream cone holds soft serve as well.  Heck, that is where I was introduced to the waffle ice cream cone: Soft serve ice cream!!!

My favorite part about the waffle cone is that after you have eaten most of the ice cream, and have moved on to eating the cone itself, when you get to the bottom all of the melted ice cream is found waiting for you as a surprise!  It is like a special stash of ice cream waiting for you at the bottom of your ice cream cone!!

Of course the traditional ice cream cone is also good, however it serves as more of a handle for your ice cream rather than the other two types of ice cream cones you can buy.  That means that with the traditional ice cream cone it is a race against the clock... will you finish your ice cream before it melts off the ice cream cone?!  I know I have personally never had the roblem before, but if you are the type of personal that likes to take their time with ice cream, the traditional ic cream cone may not be for you!