Bake With Bree: Ice-Cream Dream Delight

A recipe inspired by The Dreaming Hour

"You must be dreaming with open eyes,

Take what you wish but please be wise.

Some dreams are sweet but soon turn sour,

Be careful in this Dreaming Hour."

White walls reflected the shimmering light from the tiny candles on countless chandeliers. Beneath them, banqueting tables stood laden with food. There were sweet pastries, ice-cream sodas, butterscotch sundaes, fondant fancies and marzipan bonbons shaped into miniature pieces of fruit. In the centre of the room was an overflowing chocolate fountain.

"Is it just me," said Honey, "or is this weird?"

"Weird? This my dream from last night!" laughed Sandy..."We can do anything we like! For an hour, I suppose."

So, what would you do if you were free to do anything for an hour? No consequences, no repercussions. It's an interesting question and one which I've asked in my workshops with children over the years. The answers are varied, interesting and thought-provoking and quite surprisingly they often include food!

My Ice-Cream Dream Delight (the title was given by my son because the ingredients include Angel Delight and Dream Topping - clever, huh?) is the stuff that dreams are made of. It's fluffy and sweet and kind of feels like swallowing pink clouds. My first mouthful took me right back to my childhood when I suddenly remembered these...

People of a certain age will now be going, "Aah, yes!"

The filling for this cake is half cheesecake, half mousse and tastes very similar to these little blasts from the past. Once taken out of the freezer the pink whipped filling melts fairly quickly into a delicious, soft, creamy texture. The crispy, chewy base gives a bit of bite and compliments the strawberry mousse perfectly. On reflection, I thought you might substitute the strawberry Angel Delight for any flavour. Butterscotch! That was always my favourite. And the chocolate kind would probably resemble another 80's ice lolly...

Chocolate Mini Milks! A walk down memory lane today :)

Play around with this recipe. You can add anything you like to the filling. Chop some strawberries and add them to the mix or some chocolate chips for a spotty effect. It's up to you.

Here's what you'll need to make my recipe. Have fun licking the bowl!

Ingredients

For the crispy base:

20g butter

3 Chomp bars (approx 70g)

40g Marshmallows

2 tablespoons of syrup

30g of milk chocolate chips

100g of Coco Pops

For the fluffy filling:

120g of cream cheese

200g of condensed milk

3 fluid ounces of strawberry syrup (from tinned strawberries)

1 packet of strawberry Angel Delight

1 packet of Dream Topping

Milk

Before I started on the cake, Junior and I got busy making some decorations. What could be more dreamlike than gooey marshmallows and glitter? We selected an equal number of pink and white to go around the outside of the finished cake. I melted a small amount of white chocolate and a small amount of pink (I bought Pink Candy Drops from Lakeland but you can just as easily add a few drops of pink food colouring to the melted white chocolate). I topped the wide end of each marshmallow with chocolate and Junior got busy dipping them in edible glitter and shredded coconut. This is what they looked like when we'd finished...

Like little Fairy mushrooms :)

It was nice team work and the reward was to lick the bowl. Smiles all round.

I also thought it would be a nice idea to continue with the 'dream' theme and make some dark chocolate 'Zzzz's' These were quite easy to do. I simply melted some dark chocolate, prepared a sheet of greaseproof paper then, using a chopstick as a pencil, I carefully 'wrote' some different sized letter Z's onto the paper and let them set.

I put all these little beauties in the fridge to harden while I got busy preparing the chocolate crispy base for the cake.

In a large saucepan add 20g butter...

Three Chomp Bars, chopped up...

40g of Marshmallows...

Melt everything on a low heat until smooth and glossy...

Add the 100g of Coco Pops.

Junior helped with this.

Stir well until the Coco Pops are covered in the sticky toffee mixture.

Transfer the crispy mixture into a greased springform baking tin and press down well so the base is completely covered. Like this...

Pop into the fridge to chill while you prepare the filling.

Drain the syrup from a tin of strawberries. Reserve 3 fluid ounces...

Weigh out 120g of cream cheese. I used full fat Philadelphia.

To this add 200g of condensed milk...

...and the strawberry syrup.

Beat these together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.

Now it's time to prepare these.

Sprinkle the contents of the Dream Topping packet into the whisked Angel Delight and beat for another minute, until everything thickens. Fold the Dream Delight mixture into the cream cheese mixture...

Now spread this over the crispy base which should have set nicely by now.

While the filling is still soft and wobbly, carefully place the decorated marshmallows on top, pressing them lightly so they submerge a little. Scatter the chocolate Z's evenly.

Pop the cake into the freezer. Try and keep the tin as flat as possible during the freezing process. Allow to freeze until hard.

When it's time to serve up the Ice-Cream Dream Delight remove it from the tin and let it thaw at room temperature for around 10 minutes. Cut and serve. Yum!