My Questions are Always About Dessert

March 16, 2016 5:21 PM

What ice cream would you pair with this cake?

I am making this Speckled Malted Coconut Cake for Easter. Some family members like ice cream with their cake and I don't want us at the mercy of the chocolate chip mint in the back of Mom's freezer.

I generally use Jeni's Splendid recipes for ice cream, so the base has cream cheese & no eggs. I'm pretty comfortable riffing on that base recipe with whatever to create my own flavors tho.

So, how about it? What kind of ice cream goes with malted coconut?

posted by hilaryjade to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Mango?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 5:24 PM on March 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

Something fresh, acidic, maybe citrusy. Guava. Passionfruit. Pineapple. Lemon. Lime.
posted by xyzzy at 5:26 PM on March 16, 2016

Ginger or green tea ice cream?
posted by smorgasbord at 5:36 PM on March 16, 2016

Ooo, what about Jeni's Bangkok Peanut Ice Cream? It has coconut in it, which'll pick up the flavor in the cake, but the flavor's mostly just nice and peanut-y and spicy.
posted by damayanti at 5:52 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Are you kidding me? Raspberry sorbet! It's fabulous melted or not, and the colour is gorgeous!
posted by Dragonness at 6:27 PM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I feel like malted coconut could easily get lost under something strong like citrus or berry. I'd lean more to subtle: green tea, salted caramel, lemongrass, maybe toasted marshmallow. Or very milky milk chocolate (or hot chocolate).
posted by Lyn Never at 6:54 PM on March 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nutella and/or hazelnut.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:58 PM on March 16, 2016

I'm voting for salted caramel too!
posted by stripesandplaid at 7:06 PM on March 16, 2016

I'd go for a bourbon or rum vanilla.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:18 AM on March 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I agree the malt is the wild card. If it were just coconut then obviously tropical fruit would be the answer. But malt... malt's different. I would say you want something in the nut family. Hazelnut or nutella. Or a good vanilla. Or white chocolate if you can find a recipe that is not overwhelmingly sweet.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:25 AM on March 17, 2016

My God... that cake is so pretty.

I say mango, unless everybody's right about the malt flavor being strong, in which case I agree with Ruthless Bunny: alcohol. Ooh, I know, make elephant ice cream! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarula
posted by Don Pepino at 10:12 AM on March 17, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks, all - this was very helpful. I've not made this cake before, so I'm not sure how strong the malt flavor will be, but these answers led me to the idea of using Jeni's Banana Ice Cream with Caramelized White Chocolate Freckles (here's a site that has the recipe posted).
posted by hilaryjade at 8:22 AM on March 19, 2016 [2 favorites]