Cheesecake Factory - Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake - Premium Cake Flavored Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Signature Cream Cheese Blend, Sour Cream, Cake Pieces, Swirls of Icing and Candy Sprinkles

 

Today I am continuing my survey of ice cream flavors from the Cheesecake Factory's "At Home" collection of ice cream flavors.  Today's flavor is Birthday Cake.  I bought it locally at either Cub, Target or Hyvee (sorry, I forgot, but I see this brand at all three places regularly).  Like their other flavors, this pint features a cheesecake base made with a cream cheese blend and sour cream.  What is different here are the mix-ins: cake pieces, swirls of icing and sprinkles.  This type of "birthday cake" flavor (based on a sheet cake, frosting and sprinkles) is not uncommon.  I have tried it from McConnell's, Graeter's, Coolhaus, Ample Hills and Ben & Jerry's.  Mostly in limited batch releases.  Let's see how this flavor compares!

Removing the lid, the top of the pint has a bright white color and some of the rainbow-colored sprinkles are visible on top.  Digging in, the ice cream has a thick, creamy and appealingly sweet flavor to it.  It takes like a piece of birthday cake!  There are a few cake pieces embedded in the mix add to this effect.  There is also the occasional swirl of frosting (see the small blue streaks in the photos below).  These are fairly small, so this is not a frosting-heavy pint.  It is quite good.  Some birthday cake implementations are too sweet from all the frosting, but the best ones prevent that.  Here, there is not a large amount of frosting in the mix to begin with and the cream cheese in the cheesecake base also does a good job of muting excessive sweetness.  I like it.  One thing I notice about this flavor compared to other Cheesecake Factor flavors is the lack of tangy-ness from the sour cream.  I noticed it in both their Original and Key Lime flavors and figured it was part of their signature blend.  Here, it either got muted by the extra sugar of the cake and frosting or they chose to de-emphasize it in the mix.  I don't miss the tangy-ness -- I do not think birthday cake is supposed to be tangy -- I am just bringing it up as a notable difference.

This is a solid and delicious implementation of a birthday cake flavor from the Cheesecake Factory.  It tastes like birthday cake and it avoids being too sugary sweet.  My favorite birthday cake flavor is still McConnell's, but this flavor is much easier to find (cheaper).  So, if it's your birthday or you just want to pretend that it's your birthday, go ahead and treat yourself.  I should also note that similar cake flavors are coming soon from both Talenti and Jeni's.  Cake flavors appear to be a thing this year.