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Vegan Cotton Candy Ice Cream Cake

July 21, 2016 · Natalie 78 Comments

A five layered cold, colorful cotton candy cake! Made with gluten-free cake and vegan frozen desserts, this is a show-stopping (but simple!) summer dessert.

There are not many sugary things I have met and not instantly hit it off with. Naturally sweet or not-so-naturally sweet–I’m usually a fan. But there is one exception that comes to mind: cotton candy.

Do you know where the inspiration came for inventing cotton candy? Me either. But I’m guessing it was those little balls of fur and dust and fuzzy stuff that inhabit the 2 inches of darkness between the couch and the floor. Dust balls. Dust bunnies. Call them what you wish, every house is home to at least a few. Those of us with pets have double the population usually. But it’s those little buggers that ruined cotton candy for me. They are all I can think about when I put that stringy sweet stuff in my mouth. Nope, no thank you. I’ll take my sugar in a more normal texture please.

Aren’t you glad I painted that lovely picture of dust bunny mouthfeel in your head? And on that note, I want to assure you that there is no actual cotton candy in this cake. However, with these two vibrant colors there was no more perfect name for this 5 layer frozen frosted cake feast. So for color and fun factor, it will still be called a Cotton Candy Ice Cream Cake.

Raise a Pint Recipe Contest

When Alisa from Go Dairy Free asked me if I wanted to be a part of the #RaiseAPint recipe contest hosted by So Delicious, of course I said yes in about negative 2 seconds! Come up with a crazy over-the-top dessert recipe using my favorite ice cream? Heck yeah!

I knew I wanted to use So Delicious Creamy Cashew Cashewmilk Ice Cream because its my favorite vegan ice cream. I’m also a big fan of Cocowhip because it tastes just like cool whip only vegan. And cool whip and I go way back.

So then all that was left to figure out was the over-the-top part…

One thing Instagram has taught me is when you want to make things pop and shine, color is the way to go. Lots of color. And layers. And ice cream now that I think about it. People seem to be drawn to cold, creamy, complex, and colorful.

Pitaya is one of the brightest fruits, so I knew that pretty pink puree had to be involved. And what better to pair it with than the rare but beautiful blue! This cotton candy cake is what sparked my entire exploration into the world of natural blue food colorings, so if you haven’t seen my post about how to make natural blue food coloring, you can check it out -> here.

Cotton Candy Cake

The cake. I adapted my favorite Everything-Free Vanilla Cupcake batter to make this 6 inch vanilla cake, with just a few ingredient tweaks for optimal texture. To bake it as a cake instead of cupcakes, you will need to bake it slightly longer at a lower temp to make sure it cooks evenly. You can use your favorite vanilla cake recipe instead, as long as you have 2 layers of 6 inch vanilla cake.

The creamy layers. I had intended for this cotton candy cake to be 6 layers, but I ran out of pan height, so I just had to go with the cake stacking flow and stop after 5. If you are wondering why there are two Cocowhip layers and only one ice cream layer that’s the reason. The blue layer could be made out of ice cream or Cocowhip. You could use homemade ice cream or nicecream and coconut whipped cream for the whole thing as well.

The process. Assembly of this cake is quite simple. All you are doing is adding coloring to your ice cream/Cocowhip, layering, and freezing in between. I suggest letting each layer freeze for about 1 hour before adding the next so you can easily spread the new layer without them mixing too much. After it’s is completely layered, freeze overnight. Then take your cotton candy cake out of the freezer 10-15 mins before slicing and eating!

More About the #RaiseAPint Contest

This recipe is my entry into this summer’s Go Dairy Free Recipe Contest, sponsored by So Delicious Dairy Free. I have a chance to win cash prizes, but I am not being compensated for my time. I only use and recommend products that I truly love, and all opinions are my own.

Twenty one talented bloggers, authors and recipe creators will be creating amazing recipes in this summer’s #RaiseAPint recipe contest using So Delicious Coconut Milk Frozen Desserts or Cashew Milk Frozen Desserts. All recipes will be shared between July 10^th and July 24^th, and then you will be able to vote on your favorites! I will let you know on social media when voting begins, and I would greatly appreciate your votes!

Update: Voting is open!! VOTE NOW

Along with the contest, you can join in the #RaiseAPint Event, which will run from July 11^th to August 5th. During this time, So Delicious will award 20 entries with an ice cream party prize pack. You can share your #RaiseAPint moments on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter! Full details here.

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Vegan Cotton Candy Ice Cream Cake

★★★★★ 5 from 7 reviews

Yield: 6 servings 1x

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

Cake

12 pitted Medjool dates
1 cup water
1 cup oat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp tapioca flour*
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blue Sprinkles

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsps natural blue food coloring

Pink Sprinkles

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsps pitaya puree**

Pink Ice Cream Layer

1 1/2 cup So Delicious Creamy Cashew Cashewmilk Ice Cream
3–4 tbsps pitaya puree

Blue Layer

2 cups Cocowhip OR 1 1/2 cup Cashewmilk Ice Cream
1 tbsp natural blue food coloring

Pink Cocowhip Layer

2 cups Cocowhip
2 tbsps pitaya puree

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Cake: Blend the water and dates until smooth.
Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to combine.
Lightly oil then fill a 6 inch round cake pan 2/3 of the way with batter.
Bake at 325F for approximately 30-35 mins or until the center bounces back when touched.
Let it cool COMPLETELY before slicing off the rounded top and slicing it into 2 layers.
Sprinkles: Mix each color separately until the coconut is well colored and coated. Spread in a thin layer on a plate. Leave out overnight to dry.
To assemble: Use a 6 inch round springform pan so you can easily remove the cake after it is frozen.
Place the bottom layer of cake in the pan.
Mix the pink ice cream layer. Spread on top of the bottom cake layer. Freeze for 1 hour.
Mix the blue layer. Spread on top of the pink. Freeze for 1 hour.
Place the second layer of cake on top of the blue. You can use a thin layer of ice cream to help it stick.
Mix the pink Cocowhip layer. Spread on top of the cake.
Finish with a few dollops of pitaya puree swirled into the pink and a showering of sprinkles.
Freeze overnight.
Remove from the freezer 10-15 minutes before slicing and eating.
Keep in the freezer for up to a week.

Notes

*Optional but makes for a better texture
**I took one Pitaya Plus pack, let it thaw to a liquid, and then used that for the sprinkles and both pink layers.

How To: Natural Blue Food Coloring with Red Cabbage

July 20, 2016 · Natalie 64 Comments

How to make natural blue food coloring with just 2 ingredients: red cabbage and baking soda. Step-by-step guide + VIDEO tutorial + blue smoothie recipe!

The most elusive color in the edible world: blue. Every other component of the rainbow can be created quite easily with veggies and fruits, but blue foods are hard to come by. Well unless you go order a bottle of food coloring gel in the shade royal blue off of Amazon for three dollars, that’s about as easy as it gets. But when an ingredient label has numbers in it, I tend to shy away.

For a while I had heard murmur of using red cabbage + baking soda to create a natural blue food coloring, but it sounded weird and hard and intimidating. Then I got a crazy cake recipe idea that required edible blue and was too fun not to pursue, so cabbage method here I come!

And now that I’ve done it, I have to admit it’s actually not that hard. Not worth procrastinating for this long. A little time consuming, maybe. But not much active time, mostly just watching a pot boil.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been yearning for blue smoothies and frostings and puddings without artificial ingredients and that don’t taste like spirulina, so I thought I would make a video tutorial along with step by step instructions showing you how to do it too.

This method for natural blue food coloring uses two of the cheapest ingredients around and makes about 1/2 cup (which will keep in the fridge and go a long way). So a couple of hours now and you’ll have blue food for daysssss.

Natural Blue Food Coloring Step-by-Step

Step 1: Chop up an entire head of red cabbage. It doesn’t have to be finely diced or anything fancy, just roughly chop.

Step 2: Add to a large pot with enough water to cover it. It took about 8 cups of water for me.

Step 3: Boil for 20 mins. Strain out the cabbage. Return the purple water to the pot. (That is A LOT of cabbage you now have on your hands, so make a salad, make a stir-fry, compost it, put it in your pampered pup’s homemade meals–it’s your call.)

Step 4: Reduce this liquid to between 1/3 and 1/2 cup. This will concentrate the color and allow you to use just a teaspoon as opposed to an entire cup of liquid to get the same intensity of color. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes of boiling for me.

Step 5: Let it cool, then transfer to a glass jar. Glass is important so you can see the color change.

Step 6: Add baking soda 1/8 tsp at a time, stirring in between. If it bubbles up, I suggest letting the bubbles subside before continuing so you can see the true color. Keep adding until the color turns from purple to blue. Try to not exceed 1/2 teaspoon total or it will start to taste metallic and salty.

Step 7: Test the color in a small glass of coconut or almond milk. It’s easier to see the color in something white. If it’s too purple add more baking soda. If it’s getting close to green then you added too much baking soda. You can add a little acid to push it back towards blue.

Step 8: Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. It might be fine for even longer, I just haven’t had time to test it yet.

And here’s a video tutorial because seeing it the process always makes it things simpler!

You can use this natural blue food coloring to make the most beautiful blue smoothies, smoothie bowls, ice cream, coconut whipped cream, frostings, raw “cheese”cakes, coconut sprinkles, and more! Or this little chocolate + blue jar which I will leave the recipe for below.

I will mention, in banana-based things it comes out much more purple than blue due to the slight yellow color of bananas. It is better in things that are actually white, with a base of coconut, cashew, or non-dairy milk.

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