Since I like to make things harder for myself, I found probably one of the most difficult ice cream recipes to make. My Valentine LOVES mint chocolate chip ice cream so I wanted to find a very rich and creamy one unlike the store bought kind he eats every night. This recipe definitely delivered. With egg yolks and actual mint leaves (aka no mint extract) added to the recipe, I knew it was going to be fantastic. AND IT WAS. It tasted exactly like Sweet Rose Creamery's mint ice cream - and when I first tried Sweet Rose's, I was blown away. The ice cream is refreshing and completely different from the artificially flavored kinds that most people are used to. Honestly, the first bite is always a bit weird because you're not used to it, but then you find yourself wanting to eat more and more because the aftertaste is that good. The fact that this was my first time making ice cream and that I was successful with such a difficult recipe, I believe I will be making many more batches in the future.
Next up, I made this raspberry almond cake. I had a lot of trouble with this recipe and I was worried that I was going to hate the final product. I wasn't a fan of the raspberry jam I bought; I had never tried almond extract before and was iffy about the smell and the taste of it; and the directions for the frosting are definitely incorrect! I ended up using more milk (like 3 tbs) and it was just so sugary that I had to keep adding salt to balance it out. And then, after throwing a fit about hating basically every aspect of the cake, I remembered that my Valentine doesn't really like nuts... and I made an almond cake... yeah, I'm dumb. BUT. It was incredible. I don't know how it happened, but everything decided to come together after sitting in the fridge over night and the end result was insanely good; something I had never tasted before. I didn't feel like documenting the entire cake process because I was so fed up at that point, but I still have a few pictures.
So if you are into very unique flavors and desserts that you're not used to having, try these out! I was very pleased with the outcome of both, but more importantly, my Valentine finished eating all the ice cream and cake before leaving (with my help of course). Apparently he enjoyed it as well.
