What's Your Take on Cake Ice Cream?
In celebration of its 30th birthday a few weeks ago Ben & Jerry's released Cake Batter ice cream. The flavor, which is a mixture of vanilla ice cream, yellow cake batter, and chocolate frosting, joins the ranks of more than 200 others the company has produced over the past three decades. From the simple (Strawberry, Butter Pecan, Chocolate Fudge Brownie) to the sensational (Bananas on the Rum, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Coconut Seven Layer Bar), there's no denying that Ben & Jerry's makes some great scoops. But I must admit, while I love ice cream, cake, and ice cream cake, I'm not a fan of cake ice cream.
Are you?
Once relegated to specialty shops like Cold Stone Creamery and Maggie Moo's, lately cake batter ice cream has been popping up everywhere from supermarket freezer sections to soft serve shacks like Smoochie's and Tasti D-Lite, the later of which has gone far beyond plain yellow to include Carrot, Red Velvet, German Chocolate, and even Angel Food Cake flavors.
I think my dislike of cake batter ice cream stems from its inherently artificial nature: not only is it ice cream flavored like cake, it is ice cream flavored like fake cake; something you might get out of a box as opposed to actually baking yourself. An ice cream cake is not a cake meant to taste like ice cream; it is a marriage of the two ingredients. Why shouldn't it work the same way the other way around? Ice cream with chunks of real cake in it sounds pretty delicious to me.
But perhaps I'm being a food snobbish grouch. There's a reason that these days the flavor is as common as Cookie Dough: people adore it. I'm curious to know how Serious Eaters feel: when it comes to cake ice cream, do you love it or leave it?
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39 Comments:
I tried this and just didn't care for the taste. It really seemed overly sweet, with an oddly artificial taste. I was disappointed as I had thought it might be yummy. I love the Americone dream flavor. The chocolaty crunch and the ice cream are really good. Ben & Jerry's used to have a flavor called Di's Candy drawer but I can't find it anymore, it was really good also.
annie1963 at 9:08AM on 04/18/08
Do not want! Cake batter does not equal cookie dough. One is pretty much a paste until cooked, the other is cohesive balls of goodness.
Why aren't there ice creams with actual pieces of cake? Or even better, pie!
MerMade07 at 9:10AM on 04/18/08
I've had Dryer's (I think) Take the Cake ice cream and I could NOT get over the fake taste of cake and frosting mixed in with ice cream. I have had cake ice cream that I liked, but I think my tastes have changed and I now prefer less artifical flavors....
modysoul at 9:17AM on 04/18/08
I agree with you Lucy. Those cake batter ice creams just seem so artificial and they're always too sweet. I also think Ben & Jerry's has gone down in quality, in general, the last couple of years.
earlybirdkate at 9:22AM on 04/18/08
Cake batter ice cream is delicious on the first bite but quickly goes from curiously delicious to sickeningly sweet & artificial tasting. I'm still a fan of cookie dough ice cream, or for about 99.9% of ice cream flavors in general.
sharsd at 9:32AM on 04/18/08
Cake batter ice cream is probably the best flavor ever created. I do agree that it is overly sweet, but how can you go wrong with something that reminds you of licking the spoon when mom was baking cake? Haven't tried the Ben & Jerry's version yet, but I haven't been very impressed with their ice cream lately.
cakegirl83 at 9:40AM on 04/18/08
The best cake batter ice cream I've had was from Cold Stone Creamery and that was only good on the sample spoon-when I got a small serving, I found it cloying and artificial, like HFCS infused melted Swedish fish.
AJ1280 at 9:46AM on 04/18/08
The best cake ice cream was from Kilwin's... It had chunks of cake in vanilla ice cream, so it was more like an ice cream cake. I think it also had sprinkles in it, and maybe frosting? I really just remember thinking the chunks of cake were a little different.
pbisNOTmyname at 9:56AM on 04/18/08
I tried the Cake Batter Ice Cream from B&J's when they were doing tastings. The lady thought it was weird that I didn't like it, since she said most people preferred it to the 7 Layer Coconut Bar. It was way too sweet in that artificial manner. It was definitely reminiscent of cake from a box and frosting from a can. Gee-ross.
Jikuu at 10:05AM on 04/18/08
This tastes EXACTLY like Dunkaroos. So it reminds me of my elementary school cafeteria. Not their best by any means.
franklyn at 10:12AM on 04/18/08
Blech!!! The thought of raw uncooked anything in my ice cream makes me sick. I don't like cookie dough so to me this is even more revolting. I also don't like overly sweet ice-cream so I wouldn't care for this. I don't understand the obsession with raw dough and cake batter. Chunks of cake would appeal to me more. In the meantime I'll just stick with B&J's Pistachio, Pistachio.
RichardCrystal at 10:13AM on 04/18/08
Cake batter ice cream is delicious. I don't know that I would get it in the supermarket since I think the smooth texture you get at a place like Coldstone is pretty important for really bringing back that feeling of licking the beaters.
Fake? It tastes exactly like what it claims to be. Too sweet? I don't know if I've ever had that problem with ice cream - seems like saying a brownie is too chocolate-y.
I'm with Bourdain - I don't care if it glows in the dark, as long as it tastes good.
palmsey at 10:24AM on 04/18/08
Yuck! I used to work at a Carvel and we had Cake Batter ice cream. I never understood why it was so popular. I prefer fruity kinds of ice cream--strawberry, peach, etc.
cochon at 10:29AM on 04/18/08
Mmm... Bananas on the Rum is easilly one of my favorite flavors. I wish they had kept Sweet Potato Pie ice cream so I could have tried it. Oh well. I'm getting an ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for my birthday next week, so I'll just have to give it a crack after I make David Lebovitz's bacon ice cream.
Xtreambar at 10:44AM on 04/18/08
I like Cake Batter flavored ice cream, but what's with the chocolate "frosting" mixed in? There's no frosting in batter!! (said with the Hanks' tone of "there's no crying in baseball"). I haven't tried it though and I don't see myself doing so. I don't like chocolate and rarely have a craving for sweets at all.
Southern_bella at 10:56AM on 04/18/08
I dont like cake batter ice cream. Nor cookie dough. What I really want to see from B&J is Wavy Gravy comeback. I loved that stuf. Until then I will have to live sub-sufficiently on NYSuperFudgeChunk, ChunkyMonkey and anything else that includes serious chocolate.
jdshd at 11:12AM on 04/18/08
Oh, I love it. Love it! Did I mention I love cake ice cream? Maybe it was growing up with 5 kids, but boxed cake was all we ever made. (In my defense, I attempted to make a cake...from scratch...by myself...when I was 9. It didn't turn out. I didn't try again until last week. Umm...I'm 26.) I love cake batter, and I love cake ice cream!
Oh, and I love cookie dough ice cream...for the same reason. That WAS what dad would make from scratch, and it was good!
Teahlo at 11:26AM on 04/18/08
I tried this and I really liked the chocolate frosting but didn't love the cake batter taste--rather disappointing!
amosbkln at 11:31AM on 04/18/08
Yuck - will not try! Another ploy to take something simple and good, and muddle so many flavors and so much sugar into the thing that you wind up missing the whole point of eating ice cream (to taste 'ice cream').
GingerSnap at 12:00PM on 04/18/08
I hate cake batter ice creams, but for some reason love Ben & Jerry's Brownie Batter flavor. Go figure.
Messily at 2:30PM on 04/18/08
NO, NO, NO!!!
And I don't get the "Cookie Dough" either......gross
Hunnyoil at 4:13PM on 04/18/08
Cake batter ice cream is wonderful - if something else is mixed in. Which is why I think it works at places like Stone Cold Creamery. I might give B/J a try, but would probably need to have some of my own-mix-ins on hand.
a70wilson at 4:15PM on 04/18/08
I haven't had B&J's Cake Batter - They're Brownie Batter is damned delicious though. I may make the bf try the Cake Batter this weekend.
lo82070 at 6:09PM on 04/18/08
I haven't had the Ben & Jerry's Cake Batter ice cream, but last weekend I was in Atlanta at Irwin Street Market and had the pleasure of tasting red velvet cake ice cream from Jake's Ice Cream and OMG. It was beyond delicious - the vanilla ice cream was a very creamy, rich perfect one and the cake had big chunks and tasted fresh, not overly soggy. I had gone there specifically to try a cupcake bakery called Sweet Pockets and wound up simply wanting more ice cream!
rachelkramerbussel at 6:12PM on 04/18/08
Oh, but the ice cream with cake hunks in it is AMAZING. I had birthday cake ice cream at Jake's in Atlanta. So, so good. Their other flavors are also fantastic, particularly the coffe & doughnuts, which has real Krispy Kremes in it.
RunningWithScissors at 6:31PM on 04/18/08
Not a cake batter or cookie dough ice cream person. BUT Ben and Jerry are my "go to guys" when the rest of the world is giving me crap! I love those boys!!
Karmal Sutra - yummmmmmmmm
SayWhat at 6:35PM on 04/18/08
Our here we have custard . . . at Ted Drewe's stand on old Route 66, they have the "Bunnycrete" during the Easter season. It is a vanilla concrete (sort of an extremely thick shake) with chunks of real carrot cake in it. I highly recommend it!
For those with difference preferences, there also is the Big Apple (a concrete with a slice of apple pie broken into it, I recommend with caramel custard), and another one (whose name I forget) that involves a fudge brownie in the custard. Both of these come topped with whipped cream.
Now I want one . . .
Mizbee at 6:37PM on 04/18/08
I've never tried this. It sounds kind of gross.
I like ice cream cake. French vanilla Haagen Dazs :-)
paris221966 at 10:02PM on 04/18/08
I loved cake ice cream when I was still eating dairy. I don't know what it is about it, but I just liked the colorful sprinkles, and the fact that is was called cake ice cream. It does taste artificial, but oddly, that is part of the appeal to me. Maybe I'm just weird, and I can't really describe why I like it, but I do. I believe I had the Turkey Hill version of cake ice cream, but I was a bit disappointed that there weren't a lot of cake pieces in it.
faeriedude208 at 11:06PM on 04/18/08
Oh yea, I just looked it up, and the kind I ate was Party Cake from Turkey Hill brand.
faeriedude208 at 11:08PM on 04/18/08
I have had a flavor called Piece of Cake from Perry's Ice cream it is very good, I haven't had any ice cream in a while because I don't eat any sugar and find the sugar free types not worth it.
joanpieroni2 at 8:10AM on 04/19/08
I hope they bring this to Finland too, I love batters!
jammarita at 9:18AM on 04/19/08
Haven't tried the cake batter ice cream - probably won't.
I miss B & J's Rainforest Crunch flavor. It was so good, I'm surprised that they discontinued it.
suegsf at 1:06AM on 04/20/08
Haven't tried the Ben & Jerry's flavor, but have had mixed feelings about the ones out in ice cream shops. Some are quite tasty--I think it's more a mood. Sometimes I want a fine, subtle gelato and sometimes I want that ooey-gooey-way-too-much-junk-in-it feel of ice cream. When I want B&J, I'm usually in the latter mood.
One thing I have really mixed feelings about is cheesecake flavored ice cream. I've only had the Cold Stone version, which I thought was tasty but off putting. Thoughts?
lovesomething at 1:28AM on 04/20/08
I recently tried B & J's cake batter flavor and I LOVED it. I then bought it again and loved it at first, but a few spoons later it started to make me feel sick and I didn't finish it. I don't know why the inital love of it faded so fast, but I think it comes down to it being too sweet and too authentic to cake batter - while that should be a good thing, but realistically, who eats the whole bowl of batter? You lick the beaters and the remains of the bowl, not the whole thing~!
I would love to try an ice cream with cake pieces, that sounds great.
radley24 at 11:18AM on 04/20/08
I hate the cake batter flavor...too sweet and artificial, as everyone else seems to think. And I'm mad at B&J's...my favorite flavor (Coconut Almond Fudge Chip) can only be had at the scoop shops now, not in the grocery store. I hope it's not going the way of the dinosaur...
rosezilla at 6:32PM on 05/07/08
I have not had this, but I tried Maggie Moos cake batter ice cream and loved it! I've seen cake batter flavored ice creams at the store, but they always have stuff added in. I DON'T want frosting, sprinkles, or chunks, just the creamy-smooth sensation of licking the bowl. Sadly, Maggie Moos closed down all stores in the area, so I can't get it anymore.
merin at 10:05PM on 04/13/09
I saw this in the ice cream section at the local market but haven't had the nerve to buy it. I do heartily wish they would bring back Half-and-Half, a swirl of dark chocolate ice cream and stout ice cream. Now THAT was some smooth "comforting" after a ragged week.
skyeyes at 4:45PM on 04/20/09
Reading these comments has been interesting. When it's all said and done, it comes down to personal preference. I love Cold Stone’s Cake batter ice cream with extra cookie dough mixed in. You’re right a70wilson that is key! So far, nothing in a local grocery store has come close to replicate the taste. I’m scared to try Ben & Jerry’s version.. Too many nay sayers. My research continues!
chiqita at 1:09PM on 05/14/09