Sweet ReciPEAs

Evil Treats from a Nice Person

Treats and bonus recipes right to your inbox every Wednesday.

Not My Circus

Jump to Recipe

This Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream has a sugar cookie ice cream base and filled with Circus Animal Cookie pieces.

Every year I get the same question, what kind of birthday cake did you make for yourself?

I didn’t.

First off, it’s my birthday; shouldn’t that mean someone else is making me one?

Two people in my lifetime have made me a cake.

One was a student years ago and one was my friend A when I had my 35th birthday.

People fear baking for people who can bake.

Which is ridiculous!

We just love that we weren’t the ones doing it.

Second it’s July.

I used to live in Phoenix.

July in Phoenix does not inspire turn on the oven.

And July right now in the PNW is also not saying turn on the oven.

So many years ago I started going to Cold Stone for their cake batter ice cream as back then I didn’t own an ice cream maker.

Nowadays I own this bad boy…which yes I know is steep but really has already paid for itself ten times over.

Because I can make my own now I do (though I will admit I did go to Cold Stone the day after my birthday 😀 ), I wanted a “happy” ice cream for my birthday.

Nothing from my childhood treats makes me happier than Circus Animal Cookies.

Those pink and white blobs covered in nonpareils that were supposed to be shaped like animals.

The cookies that have carnauba wax as an ingredient (don’t care still love them).

Those ones.

For some reason I always thought the pink ones tasted better.

I still think that.

I actually had a really good birthday this year. In recent years my friend D has thrown a birthday hockey tournament but that never falls on my actual birthday.

But since we do have that I rarely get to do anything on my actual birthday (always seems to fall on a workday).

This year my husband took the day off and we got to spend it together.

It was a lot of fun.

I was happy to see 42 go.

It was a rough year for me personally and I will admit it was hard to have my first birthday without crazy cocker spaniel.

I look forward to seeing what 43 has in store.

For I always love a prime number birthday.

This Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream is a sugar cookie based ice cream.

I chose to make it swirl because it’s fun.

If you are thinking of adding more nonpareils to the ice cream…don’t, it will turn it purplish black color.

So save the extra sprinkles for making the cones.

Speaking of the cones to make them you simply take pink colored candy melts, melt them, dip the top of the cones into the melted candy, then dip into nonpareils.

Definitely make this way more fun! If you are wondering where I got the mini cones…Amazon of course.

Here is the link if you want to get them.

They come in a large pack but honestly it’s so fun to eat out of them that most of ours are gone.

It’s a great day to buy my cookbook.

Want More Ice Cream Recipes?

Peanut Butter and Pretzel No-Churn Ice Cream

Monkey Bread Ice Cream

Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Ice Cream

Red Licorice Ice Cream

Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream

Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 4 tsp. cornstarch
  • 1 1⁄4 cups whole milk
  • 2⁄3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 TBSP light corn syrup
  • 1⁄4 tsp. salt
  • 4 TBSP Mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese), softened
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Rodelle)
  • 1 cup dry sugar cookie mix
  • 1 ½ cups Circus Animal Cookies, chopped
  • Pink food coloring (if desired)

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, stir together 1⁄4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside.In a 4-qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk, cream, sugar, syrup, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
  2. Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry.
  3. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes.
  4. Place Mascarpone cheese and cookie mix in a bowl and pour in the hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth.
  5. Add vanilla and mix until fully combined.
  6. Pour mixture into a plastic bag; seal, and submerge in a bowl of ice water until chilled.
  7. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer’s instructions.
  8. Divide out half of the ice cream and add a few drops of pink food coloring.
  9. Mix until the ice cream becomes pink in color.Fold the circus animal cookie pieces into the pink ice cream and the base ice cream.
  10. Pour into a freezer safe container.
  11. Top with more cookies if desired.
  12. Place into freezer and let set up for at least 4 hours.
© Peabody

Stay updated!

My culinary concoctions and bonus recipes every Wednesday to your inbox.
Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.

Comments

  1. I completely forgot how much I loved circus animal cookies! This ice cream is so nostalgic 🙂 And on the subject of birthday cakes, some years I’m having a lazy birthday and I spend all morning baking my cake, go out to dinner, and devour it in the evening. Whereas other days, I’m more than willing to let a local bakery do all the work for me!

    Reply

  3. “People fear baking for people who can bake. Which is ridiculous! We just love that we weren’t the ones doing it.” – YES!! And sugar cookie ice cream? Sweet glory and then you added circus animal crackers! This definitely blows the recipe I had in mind out of the water.

    Reply

  4. It hasn’t even been a week since my birthday so I can get away with making this as a present for myself, right? And by that I mean making it for myself and not sharing with anyone else 🙂

    Reply

  5. Everything you make that is circus animal flavored or involved has been ah-mazing (can you say sweet cheese ball?!?) can’t whait for an ice cream maker to try this bad boy out!

    Reply

  6. So yummy and love the tiny little cones! I wondered if it was really tiny or an optical illusion when you shared that picture on Instagram.

    Reply

  8. Man these are cute. People are always afraid to bake for me too. It makes me laugh. Who doesn’t like having someone else do it? Dinner is especially delicious when I don’t prepare it!

    Reply

  9. I make my birthday cake every year since people always don’t want to bake for me. Instead they go buy it at some bakery…pfft! This ice cream makes me happy…u hit the happiness with it! Glad to hear you had a great birthday!! Here’s to a wonderful year 🙂

    Reply

  10. Aw! I work at Cold Stone and serve up a whole lotta cake batter ice cream. I still love making my own. Believe it or not I made myself a cake batter and sprinkle shake for your birthday as per The Challenge 🙂

    Happy birthday from Cake Batter Land!

    Reply

  15. I love those cookies, too. They’re so horrible if you think too much about it, which is why you should probably just keep shoving them in your mouth until they’re all gone. This ice cream sounds ridiculous!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to Recipe