Baked Sunday Mornings: Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake Shakes/Buttermilk Pound Cake and Roasted Strawberry-Buttermilk Ice Cream
Baked Sunday Mornings has made milk shakes before; Baked Elements included recipes for Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milk Shakes and Malted Vanilla Milk Shakes. But this week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe is decidedly different type of milk shake. To make the Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake Shakes, you just need to drop three ingredients into a blender: frosted chocolate cupcakes, salted caramel ice cream, and milk. Matt and Renato encourage experimentation with other flavors, so I decided make a strawberry shortcake variation. I thought it seemed appropriate for spring, and I wanted something that wasn't too heavy. So instead of chocolate cupcakes and salted caramel ice cream, I made buttermilk pound cake and roasted strawberry ice cream.
I've been making the "Buttermilk Pound Cake" from Alice Medrich's Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts for many years. It never disappoints and doesn't taste low-fat at all. (If I had wanted to go the more decadent route, I would have used the Buttery Pound Cake with Salty Caramel Glaze from Baked Occasions.) I decided to pair it with the "Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream" from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. It includes an ice cream base (milk, cornstarch, cream cheese, salt, heavy cream, and sugar), buttermilk, and strawberry puree (strawberries that have been roasted with sugar and pureed with lemon juice). You only use half a cup of strawberry puree in about a quart of ice cream, so the ice cream was a barely pink and the strawberry flavor was easily identifiable but not very prominent. I would give the tangy buttermilk flavor equal billing (even though there was only one-quarter cup of buttermilk in the ice cream -- but I used some very tasty buttermilk from Trickling Springs Creamery).
To make the milkshakes, I put some pound cake in the blender, along with ice cream and extra roasted strawberry puree. There was leftover puree from the ice cream recipe and I was thinking that I could substitute it for the milk. However, the shake was too thick and I ended up adding some milk anyway. I ended up with the spoonable consistency shake that the gentlemen bakers endorse. Tom and I tried our small shakes alongside the unblended equivalent -- a slice of pound cake topped with the roasted strawberry ice cream and extra strawberry puree.
Both of us agreed that the unblended version was better. The texture of the blended cake in the shake was a bit gummy and strange. It's possible I blended it too much or too little. My mother recently gave use a Vitamix blender and this is the first time I've used it. I also wonder if toasting the cake first might have helped. My ingredient ratio might have been wrong, as I eyeballed the amounts of cake, ice cream, puree, and milk -- and I wasn't sure how to estimate the amount of cake that would be equal to two frosted cupcakes. The recipe headnote states that ratios are critical here and that the higher the ratio of cake to ice cream, the better the shake. But regardless, while the shake definitely conveyed the flavor of the cake and strawberry ice cream, both of us missed the experience of having cake with ice cream and enjoying their contrasting textures. Still, I love the idea of a cupcake shake. I might give it another try when I have some extra cupcakes on hand.
Recipes:
I've been making the "Buttermilk Pound Cake" from Alice Medrich's Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts for many years. It never disappoints and doesn't taste low-fat at all. (If I had wanted to go the more decadent route, I would have used the Buttery Pound Cake with Salty Caramel Glaze from Baked Occasions.) I decided to pair it with the "Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream" from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home. It includes an ice cream base (milk, cornstarch, cream cheese, salt, heavy cream, and sugar), buttermilk, and strawberry puree (strawberries that have been roasted with sugar and pureed with lemon juice). You only use half a cup of strawberry puree in about a quart of ice cream, so the ice cream was a barely pink and the strawberry flavor was easily identifiable but not very prominent. I would give the tangy buttermilk flavor equal billing (even though there was only one-quarter cup of buttermilk in the ice cream -- but I used some very tasty buttermilk from Trickling Springs Creamery).
Both of us agreed that the unblended version was better. The texture of the blended cake in the shake was a bit gummy and strange. It's possible I blended it too much or too little. My mother recently gave use a Vitamix blender and this is the first time I've used it. I also wonder if toasting the cake first might have helped. My ingredient ratio might have been wrong, as I eyeballed the amounts of cake, ice cream, puree, and milk -- and I wasn't sure how to estimate the amount of cake that would be equal to two frosted cupcakes. The recipe headnote states that ratios are critical here and that the higher the ratio of cake to ice cream, the better the shake. But regardless, while the shake definitely conveyed the flavor of the cake and strawberry ice cream, both of us missed the experience of having cake with ice cream and enjoying their contrasting textures. Still, I love the idea of a cupcake shake. I might give it another try when I have some extra cupcakes on hand.
Recipes:
- "Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcake Shakes" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
- "Buttermilk Pound Cake" from Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts by Alice Medrich.
- "Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream" from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer, recipe available here.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milk Shakes," June 22, 2014.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Malted Vanilla Milk Shakes," July 7, 2013.
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