Matt turned 34 last week and when I asked him what he'd like for his special birthday dessert, he asked me to surprise him. His only requirement was that it included some kind of homemade ice cream. I decided to go very classic birthday, which to me means lots of fun colors! I whipped up a batch of M&M cookie bars and we ate them with a sweet, smooth, and creamy birthday cake ice cream.

You can never go wrong with sprinkles - they make everything happy and fun!

When doing research for any new recipe I tend to pick and choose things from different sources. One tip that kept popping up over and over was the suggestion to use Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Butter Cake Mix, as that would yield the best "cake batter" flavor.

The first time trying this I only used ⅓ cup cake batter (some recipes called for more) but then I bumped that to ⅔ because though on its own this is a delicious sweet cream ice cream with a perrrrrfect creamy texture, it just needed more of that cake flavor that I was longing for.

In addition to the extra cake mix I also saw a tip on a few food forums to toss in a teaspoon of butter extract to further bring out the cake flavor. I haven't tried that particular version but I added it as an optional ingredient in the recipe. Let me know if you try it!

Add a candle and bam, you've got a birthday!

Homemade Birthday Cake Ice Cream

Author: Erin Browne
Yield: 6-8 servings 1x

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Ingredients

Scale

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp good vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract, optional for extra "cake" flavor
⅔ cup (heaping) butter cake mix
5 egg yolks
sprinkles

Instructions

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.
In a second bowl, add one cup of the heavy cream and place a strainer on top.
In a saucepan on medium-low heat, combine whole milk, remaining 1 cup of heavy cream, sugar, salt, vanilla, butter extract (if desired), and cake mix. Cook, stirring frequently until smooth until heated through and just starting to steam.
While constantly whisking the yolks, drizzle a quarter of the hot mixture into the yolks. Then pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan. Cook until thickened - mixture should coat the back of a spoon when dipped.
Pour hot liquid through the mesh strainer into the cold heavy cream. Cool over an ice bath and then cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.
Churn ice cream according to manufacturer's directions. In the last few minutes of churning, add sprinkles. Transfer to freezer container and freeze until desired consistency is reached.

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Oh, and if this recipe doesn't already have you craving a big bowl of smooth homemade ice cream, check out this video of the churning process in action. I love grabbing bites of the ice cream when it's still in this super soft stage before putting it into the freezer. It's totally okay to eat it like this too if you like it like that. Is there really a wrong way to eat ice cream? I don't think so!