Cake Batter Ice Cream

Note: This makes approximately 4 1/2 cups of ice cream base. I use an ice cream freezer with a 1 1/2 quart capacity bucket.

Stir together the half and half and sugar until sugar is dissolved. This does not take very long. Just stir with a spoon. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.

Measure out the dry cake mix and put it in either a fine meshed strainer or a flour sifter. Sift the cake mix into the cream mixture. Cake mix tends to form lumps and the sifting process will break up those lumps, giving you a finer product to mix into the cream. This is really not the time for batter lumps. Stir the cake mix into the cream mixture until the cake mix has been well incorporated and the whole mixture is smooth.

The ice cream base needs to be cool before putting it in the ice cream freezer for processing. If you have used cold cream and half and half, then the base should be cold enough for processing now. If the base has come to room temperature, put it in the refrigerator and chill it for a bit. Once the base is cool/cold, pour it into the bucket of your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.

After processing, put the ice cream into a bowl or other container, seal, and place in the freezer for several hours to allow the ice cream to get firmer (ripen).

Notes:

– For the cake mix, I used a boxed yellow cake mix that states that it has pudding in the mix. A white cake mix will also work well.

– Sometimes people worry about using a cake mix in this recipe because of salmonella. Salmonella is found in raw eggs, not in a standard dry cake mix. There would only be a concern for salmonella if this recipe called for the use of raw eggs, which it does not. So, rest easy about that one. There is no actual batter made from the cake mix; only the use of the dry, unprepared, cake mix. Eggs = cooking = more time in kitchen = longer to wait for ice cream = less fun.