Welcome, Foolish Mortals to the 52nd anniversary of the Haunted Mansion. We’re celebrating a touch early with something sweet: Haunted Mansion Wedding Cake-flavored Ice Cream. Since the attraction’s birthday is actually tomorrow, August 9, this gives you time to freeze your ice cream bowl and cake cube mix-ins to have a spirited dessert for its anniversary. Keep an eye out for hitchhiking ghosts, playful spirits have been known to run off with this treat if left unattended.
Haunted Mansion
It’s no secret that I love the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. It’s my absolute favorite attraction, and I’m always looking for a way to incorporate it into my life. I even decorated my husband’s home office to look like it belongs in the Haunted Mansion. It’s lovingly adorned with the stretching room portraits, recreations of attraction icons, and even copies of the Haunted Mansion books.
For the attraction’s 50th anniversary in 2019, I hosted a Haunted Mansion-themed tea party for my friends and they were all encouraged to dress as their favorite Haunted Mansion character. All of the tables were set to look like the attraction’s dining room and my guests dined by candlelight.
Last year, I shared with you the Haunted Mansion faux wedding cake that I made as a centerpiece, as well as the copycat recipe for the ghoulishly popular wedding cake at French Market Cafe that sells out nearly every day.
If you’re looking for that duo of ideas, take a look at the article below. You’ll have some happy hauntings ahead.
Happy Haunts at Home: How to Make a Real & Fake Haunted Mansion Wedding Cake!
This year, I am sharing a Haunted Mansion Bride’s Wedding Cake Ice Cream. I hope you will find it frightfully delicious!
Haunted Mansion Bride’s Wedding Cake Ice Cream Recipe
Homemade ice cream can be a little finicky but it’s definitely worth the trouble. And I’ll walk you through it so it’s not nearly as scary as it seems. But once you’ve added the raspberry jam “blood,” that’s an entirely different story. This recipe makes 4 pints.
INGREDIENTS
Bride’s Cake Pieces
- 1 box white cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
- Egg whites (per cake mix instructions)
- Buttermilk (per cake mix instructions to replace water)
- Oil (per cake mix instructions)
Ice Cream Base
- 6 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup extra fine granulated sugar, divided
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Raspberry Swirl
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
Almond Buttercream
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons whole milk
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
DIRECTIONS
- For cake, follow instructions on cake mix box for a 13 x 9-inch pan, replacing water with buttermilk. Bake until done. Let cool, then cut 1/3 of cake into bite-size pieces. Freeze 2 cups of cake pieces. Set aside the remainder of the cake to enjoy later or use for a different project.
- For the ice cream base, whisk together egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Prepare an ice bath by filling a larger bowl halfway with ice and water.
- In a saucepan, stir together cream, milk, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Heat over medium-low just until mixture comes to a bare simmer. Reduce heat to low. Slowly whisk 1 cup hot cream mixture into eggs. Careful, you don’t want to make scrambled eggs!
- While whisking, gently pour egg mixture into cream in saucepan. Heat over low, stirring 2 minutes. Pour mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl.
- Place bowl with hot ice cream base into ice bath. Do not let ice water spill into ice cream base.
- Stir occasionally until base is cooled. Remove from the ice bath carefully, cover, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Before churning, stir vanilla and almond extracts into ice cream base. Pour into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- While ice cream is churning, make almond buttercream. Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract, mixing on low until combined. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl, increase speed to medium and beat about two minutes.
- Place raspberry jam and almond buttercream into separate piping bags.
- Once ice cream is churned but still soft, spoon into a freezer container, adding frozen cake pieces and swirls of jam and frosting as you go so they are distributed throughout. Press a piece of plastic wrap onto ice cream and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Before scooping, let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.
I made little chocolate axes and served them in Spode Blue Italian tea cups that match the china in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion dining room. Don’t forget a little splash of raspberry jam to mimic a bit of blood.
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Let’s Hear From You
How will you honor the Haunted Mansion? Do you have a favorite Haunted Mansion treat? Are you as passionate about the Haunted Mansion as I am? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. And if you enjoyed today’s recipe, be sure to share!
More Haunted Mansion Reading
Odds are that you’re interested in more Haunted Mansion articles. Here’s some of our favorites:
We’re Baaaaack! First Look at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Updates
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion: 50 Years of Magic, Mystery and Weirdness