Van Leeuwen - Royal Wedding Cake

Royal Wedding Cake - Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Chunks of Lemon Sponge Cake and Layers of Elderflower Frosting

 

The second flavor from my recent shipment from the Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream -- a shipment which included their Macaroni & Cheese flavor is called Royal Wedding Cake.  I bought it online so it is not available in Minnesota grocery stores.  This is a classic cake-based flavor.  Wedding-cake flavors are usually a little fancier than birthday-cake flavors and this follows that pattern.  Instead of simple yellow or white cake pieces, it has lemon sponge cake.  Instead of a simple buttercream frosting, it has elderflower frosting.  I have had a wedding cake flavor once before from Jeni's earlier this year.  Izzy's had a couple of flavors from their scoop shop days which have had similar ingredients.  They included elderflower in their Swedish Garden Party flavor (which I mentioned at the time was used in Harry & Megan's wedding cake) and Lemon Sponge Cake was one of their Flavor Award winners.  Also, Ben & Jerry's had a limited batch flavor a few years ago called Cake My Day which felt more like a wedding cake than a birthday cake.  OK, let's see how Van Leeuwen's flavor turns out!

Removing the lid and peeling back the protective seal, I see that the cream cheese base has a golden white color to it.  Digging in, I can taste the cream cheese base is a bit thicker than the normal base but it does have have that distinctive cream cheese aftertaste that you sometimes have.  Quickly, I encounter the lemon cake pieces.  These are excellent and there are so many of them then they almost feel like they are half-blended into the base.  The elderflower frosting has a nice flavor to it -- a bit berry-like in flavor but milder and more fragrant.  Overall, the taste is quite good.  It really does taste like a slice of wedding cake.

This is excellent ice cream!  A wedding cake flavor is a simple idea, but this is implemented very well.  It's all about the balance of the ingredients and I love the blend between the lemon and the elderflower here.  The flavor was refined enough that I felt like I should eat it with cloth napkins.  One of my personal favorites from Van Leeuwen so far.  Check it out if you have access to it.