Izzy's - Lemon Sponge Cake

Lemon Sponge Cake - Lemon Custard with a Raspberry Swirl and Chunks of Spongecake

Today is the next pint in my series to try and explore the People's Flavor Award winners from Izzy's Ice Cream in Saint Paul.  As mentioned in a previous review, I had been frustrated that one of my favorite ice cream shops had a limited selection available in pints.  So, I decided to try getting some of the more interesting flavors hand-packed for me to bring home.  The People's Flavor Award winners seemed like a nice subset of interesting flavors.  In the People's Choice Awards, the people submit flavor suggestions, Izzy's selects several to implement and they have a tasting contest to determine the winners.  Today's flavors is called Lemon Sponge Cake which won the award in 2005.  Lemon Sponge Cake was actually the suggestion of a seven-year-old girl.  She wanted a flavor which reminded her of her favorite TV show SpongeBob SquarePants - the lemon sponge cake was supposed to represent SpongeBob and the raspberry swirl was suppose to represent Patrick, SpongeBob's pink starfish buddy.  The flavor itself was originally called SpongeBob, but it was presumably switched to Lemon Sponge Cake to avoid copyright concerns.  It looks like a fun flavor.  I love lemon and the previous raspberry flavor was excellent.  Let's dig in.

Removing the lid, the lemon custard base looks quite thick.  There is some faint pink marbling evident already on top which presumable represents the raspberry swirl.  Digging in, the lemon custard is simply delicious.  I've written before about how lemon is one of my favorite flavors but it is hard to get it to blend into an ice cream base.  This custard is just perfect.  I can tell by the color and flavor that the raspberry swirl is the same one used in the previous pint.  It is a good blend of sweet and tart and not too strong.  Here it plays more of a supporting role.  The spongecake pieces were fun.  Every other spoonful seemed to have one and they seemed to melt in my mouth as I ate them.

I really loved this pint.  Lemon lovers like myself simply have to try this.  The raspberry and spongecake did a good job of making things interesting without distracting too much from the lemon.  I liked it better in pint form as I was able to focus more on the flavor.  Sometimes a single scoop goes by too quickly.  That said, it was quite filling.  Perhaps eat a light dinner if you're planning on eating a whole pint.  Enjoy!