Deliciously Naughty Ice Cream Cake

So my grandma makes a mean ice cream cake, and in true grandma fashion, it is about as unhealthy as can be.  Full of ice cream, cream, meringue, chocolate and raspberry sauce, I'm about to share the recipe for this beauty with you. 

Oh yes!

This recipe is incredibly simple, and all you'll need is:

A decent sized tub of vanilla ice cream

4 cups of whipped cream, and whip it well

100g of chocolate sprinkles or shavings

Approximately 200g of meringue

50g sugar

50g almond meal

2 - 3 tablespoons of cherry or raspberry liqueur

Aprroxmiately 300ml raspberry sauce 

A decent amount of ice cream magic/magic shell chocolate sauce

At this stage I have to point out that quantities do not need to be exact.  My grandma, being a grandma, doubles the amount of chocolate and sugar in this easily.  It is completely up to you how you want to tweak it, this is just the basic recipe which we use. Now the next bit is the really challenging part - mix all your ingredients (except for the rasberry sauce) together and pop it in a springform cake tin (grease that up a bit beforehand to make your life easier later) and voila!

Crush up the meringue before you mix it all together.  I just mashed them up in their little bags.

 

Found this guy in the kitchen, ready to whip some cream!

This is the mixture of meringue, chocolate, almond meal and sugar, with the ice cream just going in.

This is what the mixture should look like once you've mixed everything together well.

Now for the last part - drizzle the entire cake with raspberry sauce.  It doesn't really matter how you do this, so don't worry about being careful.

Once you've done all this, pop it in the freezer overnight, or at least for quite a few hours.

For the finishing touch, just add some of that chocolate sauce that freezes when it goes on ice cream in any pattern you wish.  And then it's done done done and you're ready to tuck in! 

Best enjoyed outside in the sunshine and with friends and family!  Oh who are we kidding, also enjoyed inside and with anyone you trust not to eat too much of it.

Viasko Vegetarian Restaurant, Berlin

Having quickly googled 'vegetarian restaurants Berlin', I soon realised that the hardest thing would be choosing where to go.  So.  Much.  Choice.  

One evening, Chewy, his parents and I set out to Viasko in Kreuzberg.  

How good are the covers of the menus? Every menu seems to have a different cover.  (And they have menus in both English and German by the way, just incase you were getting worried). 

Just as a side note, everything at Viasko is fully vegan.  And things that are gluten free are clearly marked on the menu too. Nice!

So here goes.  I decided on the gyros plate.  It was soy gyros, turkish bread with herb 'butter', cabbage salad, tzatziki, hommus and olives.  The plate was enormous, and I couldn't even finish it all there was so much food!  It was beyond delicious though, and I'm not normally a huge fan of the soy 'meats', but this was incredible.

 

Chewy's dad went for the seitan medallions in mushroom sauce, with beetroot, cellery and violet potatoes.  I am told this was also very tasty!

 

Chewy had the homemade cheese spätzle with smoked tofu and fried onion, alongside baby spinach and radish salad.  I had some of the spätzle and they were also scrumptious!  I was only allowed one mouthful though, no more. 

Last but not least, Chewy's mum chose the sesame risotto with asparagus, and aubergine-walnut rolls.  Chewy managed to nab one of the aubergine-walnut rolls and raved about how tasty it was.  Lucky him.  Apparently the risotto itself was also delightful.

Unfortunately we didn't manage to sit outside, even though it was a lovely summer evening, because we arrived a little bit too late and the place was full.  We got this cute little seat in the corner though, which was hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the restaurant.

 

Viasko was absolutely great!  The waitress was knowledgeable and very friendly, and the food was incredible.  If you find yourself hungry in Berlin, I highly recommend grabbing a friend or 2 and taking them here!  You can find Viasko at Erkelenzdamm 49 by the way.