Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

I’m not sure there are much better ways to finish a meal than with a nice Irish coffee. That warming whiskey laced coffee drink is just caffeinated perfection. We were given a bottle of whiskey for Christmas, but we’re not the whiskey drinking house we once were, so it’s sat looking forlorn for weeks now. It was time it got used, so this week I whipped up a batch of deliciously creamy Irish Coffee Ice Cream. It’s a no-churn recipe, it takes all of five minutes to throw together and it is so simple. What’s not to like?

This Irish Coffee ice cream is so deliciously rich and creamy, a little goes a long way! If you’re tempted to slosh a bit more whiskey in, you do this at your peril, as adding too much alcohol could prevent it from freezing. Better to stick to 3 tablespoons in the ice cream and drizzle a bit of extra whiskey over the top of your scoop if you think it needs a bit more kick.

Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients:

500ml double cream
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk
3 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee dissolved into 1 tablespoon of hot water, left to cool
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of whiskey, whatever you have to hand

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

How to make Irish Coffee Ice Cream:

Before you start making the ice cream, make your coffee solution. You need a tablespoon of boiling water and three heaped teaspoons of instant coffee. Mix them together and leave them to cool fully. You can speed this up by popping it in the fridge for a little while.

To make the ice cream, whip the cream in a bowl until it forms stiff peaks, this will take a few minutes with an electric whisk, if you’re doing it by hand, it might take a little while. Once you have achieved stiff peaks, gently fold in the condensed milk, vanilla extract, coffee and whiskey until it is well combined. Whip the mixture for 30 seconds to make sure it’s mixed properly.

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Pour into a loaf tin, smooth the top and pop it in the freezer for 6 hours, or overnight if you can.

To serve, remove it from the freezer about ten minutes before you want to serve it. It should scoop pretty well once it’s been at room temperature for a short while.

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Serve it however you like. I like to serve it in a pretty glass, or as an affogato style pudding, with a shot of espresso and a shot of whiskey poured over the top. Just the right kind of dessert for St Patrick’s Day, or any day really. Why limit ourselves?

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like to try –

Recipe: No Churn Irish Coffee Ice Cream

Milkshake Recipe: St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

If you, like my son love mint flavoured things, this minty green shamrock shake for St Patrick’s Day might be the ideal treat. It’s rich, it’s delicious, it’s minty and it’s got a lovely mint green colour which really catches the eye.

These milkshakes are really simple to make if you have a blender. I tend to whip milkshakes up in my Nutribullet, but any blender will work well for this.

The shamrock shake is made with vanilla ice cream, mint flavouring and some green food colouring. It’s important you choose a vanilla ice cream which is as white as you can get. If you choose a yellow vanilla ice cream, it will be harder to colour and it might look a bit swampy.

Milkshake Recipe: St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

Ingredients
200mls milk
3 scoops of vanilla ice cream
3 or four drops of peppermint essence
Green food colouring
Squirty cream
Green sprinkles

Milkshake Recipe: St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

How to make your shamrock shake:

When you add your peppermint essence and food colouring, go easy, a few drops at a time. Taste as you go, you can always add more, but you can’t take any away if you add too much!

Put your milk, ice cream, peppermint essence and a few drops of food colouring in the blender. Whizz it all up together. Taste and check if it’s minty enough, if not add a drop or two more peppermint essence. If it’s not green enough for you, add more food colouring until you’re happy with the shade. Add more milk if the milkshake is too thick.

Pour into a tall glass and top with a generous swirl of squirty cream and green sprinkles, you can even add a cherry if you’re feeling fancy.

Milkshake Recipe: St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

If you enjoyed this, you might like to try my green velvet cake, or this Guinness cheesecake.

Milkshake Recipe: St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shake

Brilliant Bakes: Green Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake has cornered the market in coloured cakes. It’s delicious, but why should Red Velvet have all the fun? This week I’ve been playing around with a recipe for Green Velvet Cake – just like Red Velvet, but green and just the thing for St Patrick’s Day.

Green cake might not be the first thing you think of if you’re baking for a celebration, but it’s certainly eye-catching and it’s absolutely a talking point. It tastes just like red velvet cake, but it’s green. It looks like it should be mint flavoured, if you want to add a few drops of peppermint flavouring then you could do.

Brilliant Bakes: Green Velvet Cake

I made some chocolate shamrocks and decorated my green velvet cake with them. It’s a very simple but effective way to decorate a cake and I’d recommend even novice bakers give it a try.

Green Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

2 eggs
235mls vegetable oil
235mls buttermilk
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Green food colouring
320g self-raising flour
260g caster sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the frosting:
250g cream cheese
250g icing sugar, sifted
110g unsalted butter

How to make Green Velvet Cake:

Pre-heat your oven to 180° and grease and line 3 8 inch cake tins.

Pour the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vinegar and vanilla into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add a few drops of food colouring ad then sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder into the bowl, mix well. Check you’re happy with the colour, if not, add a few more drops of colouring. Remember the shade will darken as it cooks, so don’t make the green too dark.

Pour the green cake batter into the three prepared cake tins. I usually weigh them to make sure they are more or less the same size.

Put the cakes in the oven for 18-20 minutes, until they’re cooked through. Once they’re baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a baking rack.

While they’re cooling you can make the frosting. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy, carefully sift in the icing sugar and combine well. Put the frosting in the fridge to firm up a little before using.

Brilliant Bakes: Green Velvet Cake

To put the green velvet cake together, level out the top of each cake by trimming off the top with a serrated knife, this is so they stack neater. Put a smear of icing on the bottom of your cake stand and put your first cake layer on, dollop on some frosting onto the top, spread it evenly over the layer and put the next cake on top of that. Frost the top of that layer, then turn the final cake upside down, so the top of the cake is absolutely flat. Cover the whole cake and sides with the remainder of the frosting and smooth it all over.

Decorate it however you like. I was making my green velvet cake for St Patrick’s Day, so I made chocolate shamrocks using a Cake Decor Milk Chocolate Writer tube which I’d found in Morrisons. It was really simple to use, I just made the shapes on baking paper, left them to set, peeled them off and put them on the cake. So simple and it looks pretty good too.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like my Turkish Delight Cake.

Brilliant Bakes: Green Velvet Cake

FREE Printable: St Patrick’s Day Colouring Sheet

St Patrick’s Day is on the 17th March each year. In Ireland they have the Monday off as a Bank Holiday celebration. St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and his saints day is one of the most celebrated in the world.

The story goes that St Patrick came to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. Patrick’s efforts against the druids were eventually turned into an allegory in which he drove “snakes” out of Ireland. Ireland never really had any snakes but he’s well known for “driving the snakes out of Ireland” and is often pictured doing so.

St Patrick’s Day usually falls within the Lent period, which is known for fasting and abstinence. Traditionally, St Patrick’s Day was a day off from the Lenten fasting and is known for its boozy celebrations and general excess. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated all over the world and is perhaps the most celebrated Saints Day of all.

St Patrick’s Day is a day of celebration of all things Irish; with parades and festivals all across Ireland and beyond. For me, it’s a great excuse to bake some nice Irish style treats and to do some crafts with my boy. I’ve made this St Patrick’s Day colouring sheet for children to do. It’s free to download, so what are you waiting for?

Download your FREE St Patrick’s Day Colouring Sheet Here!

According to legend, St Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans; which is why the shamrock is one of the most well known symbols of Ireland. The St Patrick’s Day custom of “drowning the shamrock” or “wetting the shamrock” was popular many years ago. At the end of the days celebrations, a shamrock is put into the bottom of a cup, which is then filled with whiskey, beer, or cider. A toast is then drunk to St Patrick, Ireland, or those present.

Sásta Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

If you enjoyed this, you might also like to make this paper shamrock craft.

FREE Printable: St Patrick's Day Colouring Sheet

St Patrick’s Day Craft: How to make Paper Shamrocks

These Paper Shamrocks are so easy and really fun to make. We spent Saturday afternoon making all kinds of crafts and these were our favourite. They’re pretty quick to make, especially if you use a stapler and it wouldn’t take any time at all to rustle up enough to really decorate a room for St Patrick’s Day.

The idea is very similar to the paper heart wreath I made for Valentine’s Day. The 3D hearts are very simple to make with a strip of paper and look really effective when put together into a wreath or shamrock.

St Patrick’s Day Craft: How to make Paper Shamrocks

HOW TO MAKE A PAPER Shamrock

You will need
Green paper or card, A4 size
Scissors
A ruler and pencil
Stapler with staples
A length of ribbon if you’re hanging your shamrock

How to make your Paper Shamrock

Using a ruler measure the long side of your piece of paper and divide that length by five. Measure out five equal widths of paper and carefully cut into strips using a pair of scissors. If you’re doing this with children then you may want to be in charge of this bit.

Fold four of the strips in half, make sure you’ve got a neat, crisp fold here, this will be the pointy bottom of your heart shape. Bend the edges together to create the heart shape and staple the ends together. Do this with all four strips of paper to make hearts.

St Patrick’s Day Craft: How to make Paper Shamrocks

With the fifth strip (see the picture) you want to fold it into a very tall triangle shape with a flat bottom. Staple the ends together.

Lay the heart shapes out with the pointy triangle in the middle. It’s easier to visualise how to put the paper shamrock together. I found it easier to line up the bottom two hearts with the top of the triangle stem and staple them together. Before you staple the other hearts to the top of the paper shamrock shape, make a loop with your ribbon and staple it in place, then staple the other hearts together and your paper shamrock is done.

Hang up your Paper Shamrocks wherever you like and celebrate St Patrick’s Day with pride!

St Patrick’s Day Craft: How to make Paper Shamrocks