No Churn Birthday Cake Ice Cream

So cake batter ice cream is a thing!! I first discovered this nearly a decade ago now when I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time in San Francisco. I generally find it very difficult to walk past an ice cream parlour…if encountered I am more than likely to wander inside to sample some delicious frozen treats. This occurred during one sunny San Franciscan day, and on that occasion I was drawn towards the birthday cake ice cream. A base of cake batter ice cream (resembling the uncooked cake mix that clings to the wooden spoon following a baking session and that is always fought over in my household) with sprinkles and chocolate chips smooshed in for that extra ‘birthday’ flare. And so a decade later I decided to make my own, using cake mix powder to add that all important flavour again with the addition of chocolate and sprinkles to save them having to be added later. And this delicious, childhood memory inducing treat, packed with chocolate chips fits perfectly with the Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream theme this month where Kavey Eats have teamed up with Choclette for some chocolaty frozen goodness!

INGREDIENTS

100g egg whites (approx. 3 egg whites)

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

310g caster sugar

100ml water

Seeds scraped from ½ vanilla pod

300ml double cream

100g vanilla cake mix

50g white choc chips

50g dark choc chips

A generous shake of hundreds and thousands.

A sugar thermometer is also needed

To make the meringue;

Using an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer whisk the egg whites in a large, clean bowl until they start to look foamy. At this point add the cream of tartar and continue to whisk until the egg whites form stiff peaks (this means that if you lift the mixer out of the mixture a peak should form and it won’t collapse or ‘wilt’ once the mixer/whisk is removed….check out Delia for more info!)

Place the sugar and water into a large saucepan and place over a medium heat. Swirl the saucepan gently (but don’t actually stir the mixture) until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is clear.

Stick your thermometer into the mixture, raise the heat and allow the mixture bubble rapidly until 112 °C / 234 °F is reached.

Remove the sugar syrup from the heat.

Begin beating the egg white mixture again and slowly (and very carefully) begin to pour the sugar syrup into the egg white mix, beating all of the time. Once all of the syrup is added continue to beat the mixture for another 10 minutes or so until the mixture has cooled and has a nice glossy finish.

Stop beating and set to one side (this is the Italian meringue done)

For the birthday cake element;

Scrape the seed from the vanilla pod and transfer to another large bowl along with the cream.

Beat the mixture with an electric hand mix until it has doubled in volume and is light and fluffy. Stir in the cake mixture until fully combined with the cream (if it becomes a little too thick to stir at this point just add a dash of milk to loosen slightly). Then fold in the chocolate chips and hundreds and thousands (or other ice cream type sprinkle).

Add about a third of the cream to the Italian meringue and gently fold in until well combined. Continue adding the rest of the cream to the meringue bit by bit until well combined (but try not to overmix the mixture at the point). Transfer to a freezer proof container and bung in the freezer overnight (there is no need to churn or mix the ice cream once in the freezer).