Dad's Homemade Birthday Ice Cream Cake

In honor of my Dad's birthday I decided to regale his carnivorous tummy with a vegan ice cream cake, inspired by and courtesy of The Discerning Brute's recipe. You guys on the west coast have Maggie Mudd, but I've yet to convince the incomparable Lula's to move into the cake business (I admit they don't have to since they do what they already do so damn well). So, it was a do-it-yourself job that could have gone either way (like most of my cooking).

Anyhoo, the DB assured me that I did not need a spring-form cake pan to make an ice cream cake at home, just some waxed paper. So, I lined my pound cake loaf pan and went to town with my layers:

#1, the bottom crust: crumbled vegan thin mints mixed with Holy Kakow which, by the way, is the best chocolate sauce ever. They should really reconsider calling it "syrup" because it is so much more than that; I don't even like chocolate syrup! And, besides being TBCSE, I took the liberty of comparing the ingredients to those in my Dad's non-vegan standby: U-bet syrup. Holy Kakow's list was- of course- organic and completely impressive, while U-bet's ingredients actually made me shudder. Tossed! Sorry, Dad; I know it was your birthday. Instead, enjoy the better sauce with a half naked man on the front!

#2, first layer of ice cream: Dark Chocolate Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss ice cream (pure chocolatey, coconutty goodness)

#3, center topping layer: crumbled Vienna fingers (I know, but it's the Dad's favorite cookie and it is vegan by default. I will note, though, that the Magic Bullet completely pulverized the Vienna fingers so they didn't make an impressive filling and will thusly not be re-used for this purpose.)

#4, top-most ice cream layer: Naked Coconut Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss ice cream (coconutty and the creamiest CB flavor yet...& that's saying A LOT of creaminess)

#5, pizazz: ye old standby...rainbow sprinkles

I have to say that I was utterly impressed by how easy it was to make this cake and how much "fancy" credit you get for creating an ice cream cake (and serving it drizzled with more Holy Kakow). I wasn't prepared for the adoration! Ok, the adoration was from the vegetarian Mom, but carnie Dad did eat it.

I just want to share one suggestion about the cake assemblage: be sure to "sprinkle" your dry topping layers so that the ice cream layers can merge at various points in between. Otherwise, too much tightly packed dry topping will cause your layers to involuntarily and, quite spontaneously, disassemble! Also note that the waxed paper very easily peels away from the cake, so you may want to go crazy and even try an ice cream layer as your bottom so that all of your toppings are neatly sandwiched (my bottom layer was a little crumble-a-fied). All in all, you really can't mess up this recipe. Enjoy.

Hungry Tiger Too: Vegan Corn Dog

Our delayed arrival in Portland prevented us from partaking in Hungry Tiger Too’s $1 corndog Wednesday (not to mention drag queen bingo at Crush bar). Luckily, the gal we met at Potato Champion on our first night warned us that it would have been a madhouse, and that it was worth the extra $$ to leisurely enjoy a corndog on any other day. That I did.

In my defense, I had already eaten breakfast, but still I admit my foolishness: I only ordered one corn dog. I was so excited that I couldn’t even read the menu (separate for vegans and extensive), just begged the waitress for a vegan corndog! I should say that I have never had a corn dog before: vegan or otherwise. Why didn’t anyone tell me how good they are? Oh my goodness, this thing was delectable. Not only was the outer “shell” crunchy, corny, and delicious, but somehow the preparation of the corndog made the inner dog the most succulent vegan dog I’ve ever had. Condimentally speaking, I chose plain ketchup. The cold, sweet, tomato taste really lent itself to the warm, fried creation and I was a happy camper. Why aren't there vegan corn dog vendors on every corner of every city on every coast, I wonder?

Bonus: While in the vegan mini-mall I thought I spied the infamous Isa Chandra Moskowitz walking by. Then, when I entered HTT there she was in the flesh (as opposed to on the cover of my cookbook looking knowingly at me as if to say, “I couldn’t have made it any easier for you, you cooking reject.”) Alas, I was too embarrassed to say hello because 1.) I was afraid she might quiz me on one of her recipes and 2.) I didn’t think it was fair to say I was a fan of her cookbooks whilst being handed an unhealthy (albeit vegan) corn dog. Anyhoo, “Hi Isa, your recipes are literally the only ones I can follow!”

I can only speak for the corn dog, but Hungry Tiger Too is a DEFINITE must stop for vegans on its merit alone. I can’t say anything about the service or the atmosphere because first I was too excited to notice, and then I was too satiated to care.

Anyone know where else in the country one can find a vegan corn dog? Must. Get. More.