cake and ice cream, v. 1 « kimchi for beginners

cake and ice cream, v. 1

03Aug08

marshmallow + vanilla

Miguk Momma is a classicist when it comes to birthday parties. Tres leches cakes and yogurt ice creams have their place around here, but when it comes to celebrations of life, pure, unadulterated sugar is the order of the day.

Which begs the question: is there a way to increase the indulgence factor of that birthday standby, vanilla ice cream, without substantially altering its character? A: yes. BY ADDING MARSHMALLOW. Laugh if you will, you fans of espresso granitas and you Tahitian vanilla bean enthusiasts, but I guarantee that a bite of this ice cream will send you rummaging for the frosting. And remind you why sometimes adult flavors are boringly overrated.

The best thing about this ice cream is that it’s not, in fact, sickeningly sweet; actually, the marshmallow cream does a really nice job of sort of amplifying the sweet creaminess of the vanilla flavor, but it’s not sticky like a smore. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that you’ll be able to note the perfumy essence of vanilla beans or any crock like that, but birthdays are not about subtlety. We reserve that sort of thing for other holidays.

Pros: birthdayish, easy to make, inventive

Cons: hello, it’s marshmallow ice cream. What cons can there be?

marshmallow vanilla (marshnilla? vanarshmallow?) ice cream

from Matthew Klein’s The Joy of Ice Cream

The other fantastic thing about this ice cream is that you can make it in a blender. Oh food snobs, relax.

3/4 cup marshmallow cream (we prefer Fluff)
1 large egg
1 cup half and half
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups heavy cream

Warm the marshmallow cream in a double boiler. Keep warm. Put the egg, half and half, sugar, and vanilla extract in a blender, and blend on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and all the sugar is dissolved. Slowly add the cream and continue blending on low speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. [Note: I messed up and added all the ingredients at once, and it turned out fine. This is ice cream in a blender, peeps.] Stir in the warm marshmallow and blend again until there are no discernible clumps of fluff. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.

A note about the cake: MM is also a proponent of bakery cakes for birthdays, specifically the kind with white cake and sweet vanilla frosting, and within these parameters, the cakes at Another Touch Bakery in Jonesborough, Tennessee, are fantastic. The frosting was characterized by my sister Candace as “probably just butter and sugar and vanilla,” and while I would add that a hint of almond is also present, her characterization isn’t too far off the mark. The cake didn’t have any sort of preservative/chemical aftertaste. In short, this is a good ol’ cake for a good ol’ birthday. Besides, check out that frosting/cake ratio.