Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

I know it's January....I don't care...

Hello friends!

This week has been exhausting. I’m slowly pulling myself out of this holiday procrastination/doomscrolling/ the world is quite literally burning doom loop I’ve been in through this Runways to Recipes series.

If you haven’t caught up I did a cake inspired by Papa Don’t Preach, and last week I shared some cupcakes inspired by House of Masaba!

This weekend, I’m heading to my very first influencer retreat with SmartPants Vitamins, and I legit can not wait. I learned that we’ll be forest bathing. I don’t know what that is, but I feel like I need it after this LONG , never-ending month. I’ll report back on the experience.

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James Beard Platform Event- March 9th

In celebration of Holi and my newest book, Desi Bakes, I’m going James Beard Platform to create a sweet afternoon of cooking and tasting. I’l be demoing how to make her Masala Chai and Kesar Pista Cream Puffs and you guys will get to taste a selection of decadent treats from my cookbook while sipping chai!

Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

This week I am taking inspiration from Aisha Rao, a high end designer from India. The dress I’m using as my main source of inspiration was inspired by trencadís, or Spanish broken tile mosaics. Aisha Rao made a whole collection with them as the inspiration!

I knew immediately it would have to be some sort of printed cake, similar to my sari swiss roll cake. Mainly due to the fact that there are a lot of colors, and I wanted to make sure the vibrancy and patchwork came through. I freehanded a rough design and used that as my template. You can also print out a template from online if you want to try and make this style of dessert!

I ended up deciding on chocolate ice cream sandwich, with fudgy cake layers and a chocolate semifreddo center.

Now, do you have to get this intense with this recipe? Absolutely not. You can totally make it simple by skipping the design portion of the recipe and just making the fudge cake and ice cream. Maybe toss in some sprinkles if you wanna get lightly fancy. And if you want to go SUPEr simple. Make the cake layers only and use a gallon of softened store-bought ice cream. Just spread it into a thick layer on top of one of the layers and then top it with the other half of the fudge cake.

For the fudge cake layers, I used a mix of black cocoa powder (which I used in last week’s cupcakes) and some regular unsweetened cocoa powder. This gave the cake layer the flavor of a traditional ice cream sandwich!

I chose to make a semifreddo for the ice cream because I wanted an ice cream that was easy to bite into. Semifreddo is a classic Italian dessert whose name translates to "half-cold." It has a texture similar to ice cream or mousse but is typically lighter and airier. Semifreddo is made by combining whipped cream, sugar, and often egg yolks or meringue, then folding in flavors such as chocolate, fruit puree, nuts, or liqueurs. The mixture is poured into a mold, frozen until firm, and then sliced to serve. You don’t need to churn semifreddo, which gives it a smoother, denser consistency.

You can see Part 1 and Part 2 of the series on Instagram!

This recipe is for paid subscribers. If you’re looking for free recipes- check out my blog Milk & Cardamom.