I have some FANTASTIC friends. Some of you, ya well, you’re annoying. JUUUUUST kidding, sorta. One of my closet friends was celebrating her 26 birthday so of course I offered to bring dessert. It was a surprise, so I asked her husband what her absolute favorite cookie and ice cream are:

Dreyer’s Take the Cake
Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Should I just buy the ice cream or attempt to make it? Here’s the problem with this flavor of ice cream if I were to have bought it: it has partially hydrogenated oil in it. And in the last few months I have been really working on getting my friend away from all foods with phos in them. I’ve been trying to make her aware of the random things we consume, almost daily, that have phos. She is becoming more aware and doing SO well. So I didn’t want to sabotage her. Which left me with one choice; to make it myself.

Every recipe I came across used box cake mix. Problem: all the box cake mix you find in the baking section, you know, the popular name brand ones, they all have partially hydrogenated oil. SUPER DUPER (I really wanted to throw the f-word in there to express how much this annoys me, but I’ll refrain). Frustrated. I decided I wad gonna make my own ding dang cake mix and mix it in my own ding dang ice cream and it was gonna taste freaking awesome. Period, no other option. So that’s what I did.

Let me tell you, I’m not a cake batter ice cream fan, but she and her husband are and they LOVED it. It is perfectly sweet and creamy, just like a good ice cream should be. It doesn’t taste exactly like a cake batter from the store, but that’s okay because this one has no chemicals or preservatives. Just good old fashioned cream, eggs and sugar, and a little flour too. The sprinkles were an after thought and I am glad I added them. They made it look fun and birthday-ish.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream, divided
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 cup half and half
2/3 cup cake mix (white or yellow or homemade; recipe coming soon)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp sprinkles (I used nonpareils)

Directions
In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of the heavy cream with the cake mix, sugar, and salt. Heat over medium heat until warmed through. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Combine the milk and half and half, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl with a fine mesh sieve set over the top.

When the mixture in the saucepan is warm (not boiling, but almost), slowly pour a small amount into the bowl with the egg yolks to temper them, whisking constantly. Continue pouring the cream mixture in a steady stream, whisking continuously until completely combined. Return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat. Continue heating, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the mixture thickens slightly coats the back of a wooden spoon.

Immediately pour the custard mixture through the mesh sieve into the bowl with the remaining milk mixture and mix to blend. Cover and chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (I chilled it overnight). Once the mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Store in an airtight container in the freezer.

Sometimes my homemade ice cream gets a little too hard when it freezes after I churn it. This one didn’t. It stay perfectly soft and scoop able, I was very pleased!