PhillySwirl's New Ice Cream Cupcakes

Last week I got an e-mail from a PR agent for PhillySwirl, a Tampa-based company that makes ice cream and ice pops.  PhillySwirl was releasing a new product, Ice Cream Cupcakes, and they wanted to know if I would like some samples.  Long-time readers of CupcakeFetish know that cupcakes aren't actually my all-time favorite dessert -- that distinction goes to ice cream cake.  I've spent years fantasizing about how to make individual-sized portions of ice-cream cake, and though I've tried ice cream cupcakes before, they were far inferior to the full-sized cakes from Ben & Jerry's and Baskin Robbins that I love so much.  I was pretty skeptical about PhillySwirl's product -- if the hand-made ice cream cupcakes I had were that bad, there's no way factory-produced ice cream cupcakes could be good.  Nevertheless I immediately wrote PhillySwirl back and told them I'd be thrilled to try their new ice cream cupcakes.

They packed a cooler with a 12-pack of their ice cream cupcakes and a couple of pounds of dry ice and overnighted the whole thing to me.  The package left their offices in Renton, Washington at 5:40 last night and arrived on my doorstep in Pittsburgh at 10:10 this morning.  Who knew that you could mail ice cream?!

I decided to tackle the chocolate ones first.  They had a base of chocolate cake dipped in a chocolate shell topped with a layer of vanilla ice cream and a swirl of chocolate frosting.

The chocolate frosting was light and fluffy with a silky smooth texture; almost exactly like an italian meringue buttercream but a bit sweeter.  It had a rich, high-quality milk chocolate flavor.  Honestly, I was pretty shocked to taste such a high-quality frosting on a factory produced cupcake.  The vanilla ice cream was classic -- cool and sweet, nice and smooth, with a refreshing vanilla flavor.  It was lighter and cooler than the thicker, fattier ice creams, like Breyers.  The thick chocolate shell surrounding the cake melted quickly on my tongue, revealing a sweet dark chocolate flavor that wasn't too bitter.  The chocolate cake itself was denser and a bit sweeter than standard gourmet cupcakes, and tasted exactly like a Tastykake (which I happen to love).  It was good, but was the only part of the dessert that tasted "manufactured".

Overall the cupcake ice cream cake had an initially nice, sweet vanilla flavor that was quickly replaced by a deep, rich chocolate flavor.  The combined texture was nice and smooth and surprisingly silky (probably owing to the vanilla ice cream and silky buttercream frosting), but the chalky sprinkles were an unwelcome interruption.  If I were them I'd just ditch the chalky sprinkles -- they don't add that much aesthetically and they really detract from the smooth texture and gourmet flavor of the buttercream and ice cream, cheapening the high-class taste of the confection.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by PhillySwirl's chocolate ice cream cupcake.  It was really amazing, especially given the fact that it came off a factory line and was shipped across the country.

A few days later I tore into one of the vanilla cupcakes.  It consisted of vanilla cake covered with a dark chocolate shell covered in a thick layer of vanilla ice cream and topped with a large swirl of vanilla frosting.Like the chocolate frosting, the vanilla frosting was exceptionally silky and smooth.  It was also light and fluffy, making for an incredible texture that was very cloud-like.  The vanilla taste was fairly subtle, mostly the flavor of the frosting was just "sweet".  The vanilla ice cream was the same as the one found in the chocolate cupcake -- cool, sweet, and refreshing, instead of the rich, creamy, fattiness of most gourmet ice creams.  The dark chocolate shell covering the cake was also identical to the one on the chocolate cupcake; it was creamy with a rich, slightly bitter, yet sweet dark chocolate flavor.  The vanilla cake was dense and moist with a sweet, vanilla flavor.  It was almost like a pound cake, except a bit sweeter and not as buttery.  Yum!

Overall the flavor of the cupcake was sweet and vanilla, with a hint of chocolate from the shell.  It was much better than I was expecting -- usually vanilla/vanilla cupcakes come off as a bit flavorless and bland, but the contrasting butteriness of the cake and cool, refreshing quality of the ice cream really jazzed it up.  The combined texture of the cupcake was extremely smooth -- almost too much so.  The frosting was so silky and creamy, while still being somewhat dense, that it was almost like eating heavy marshmallow fluff on top of the cupcake.  More so than in the chocolate cupcake, the frosting seemed sort of redundant with the ice cream.  It's as if you only really need one or the other, and having both makes it a bit too sweet and hides the texture of the cake.  My personal preference would be to just reduce the amount of frosting by half.  Again, I'm not a fan of the chalky, crappy sprinkles.  They just distract from the creaminess of the cupcake.

Six-packs of the ice cream cupcakes and a variety of other PhillySwirl products are available at Walmart, Winn Dixie, HEB, Giant Eagle, Topps, Sure Winner and independent grocers around the country. Party-sized 12-pack cupcake trays can be found at Costco, BJ’s and Sam’s Club. The swirled variety is available at Sam’s and BJ’s, and a combo pack of both all-vanilla and all-chocolate versions is available at Costco.  Check out their store locator to find a retailer near you.