Birthdays & Bake Sales (and a recipe to share!)

Every year, our birthday month serves as a reminder of our beginning. This October, we remember our FIRST shop at 2032 South Lamar Boulevard. We share stories of those founding days, the regular customers and friends we made, and the original team of enthusiastic employees who jumpstarted our little family. We look back at everything that's happened in the last 6 years, including opening our second shop at the Historic Pearl in San Antonio, our third shop on North Burnet Road, relocating our South Lamar shop, and opening our fourth shop on Aldrich Street at Mueller. We also reminisce about our flavors and all of the stories behind them while also eating them (of course).

In fact, we probably spent more time thinking about our ice cream flavors than anything else this month! That's because on Saturday, October 21st, we hosted our first ever Birthday Bake Sale at our North Burnet shop.

Yes, y'all, we can bake too!

We don't just churn ice cream every day at our North Austin kitchen -- we spend just as much time churning as we do baking cakes & cookies, cooking curds & custards, chopping fresh fruit, roasting vegetables, and preparing all of the components of each and every carefully crafted ice cream flavor. We make our ice creams in our commercial kitchen just like we would at home (with the exception of the big, fancy equipment!), which means that we use whole ingredients and a whole lot of them!

The recipes that we featured at our Birthday Bake Sale are recipes that we're most proud of. They're the timeless, tried & true recipes that form the foundation for and inspire so many of our ice cream flavors. They're recipes for the things that we grew up eating and the things that we wanted to share with you most!

For example, our Hazel's Pumpkin Pie ice cream may not contain any chunks of pumpkin pie, but the flavor is based on a recipe baked from scratch by our co-owner and chef, Anthony's, Granny Hazel, year after year. Our "pumpkin pie spice," a blend of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, is Hazel's! The ice cream really truly tastes just like Granny Hazel's Pumpkin Pie, but we were still thrilled to finally share her pie recipe -- in pie form -- with y'all at the Bake Sale!

Texas Sheet Cake also made a grand appearance at the Bake Sale. Believe it or not, our co-owner, Chad, a born-and-raised Pennsylvanian, grew up enjoying Texas Sheet Cake just like many a Texan. Our ice cream of the same name features the nostalgic flavors, but recreates this delicious cake in ice cream form: the dark chocolate ice cream takes the place of chocolate cake and the chocolate pecan icing is swirled in rather than slathered on top.

And it is such a decadent treat that we need to offer another gift to y'all for celebrating our 6th birthday with us and for being the most loyal, enthusiastic, and loving customers, friends, fans, and family we ever could have asked for all. So here it is, y'all: Chad's mom, Mary, shares her classic Texas Sheet Cake recipe!

We hope y'all dig into this recipe and -- once it's baked -- this cake, so that it can become one of YOUR most nostalgic food memories too. Chad loves this cake as much as (if not more) than he loves ice cream. And both Chad & Anthony really love ice cream.

Mary's Texas Sheet Cake

CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 cup water

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine

4 Tbs cocoa powder

2 cup flour

2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 10x15 inch pan.

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil, then add cocoa powder and margarine. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda, then add to saucepan. Add eggs and sour cream and mix well.

Pour batter into pan and bake for about 22 minutes or until done!

CHOCOLATE ICING

1 stick margarine

6 Tbs cocoa powder

3-6 Tbs milk

1 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (optional: we recommend pecans!)

Heat margarine, cocoa powder, and milk until simmering and margarine is melted. Remove from heat and add sugar and vanilla. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts if desired.