Passionate Baker is 12! | A Birthday Sundae
Hi, friends! Happy Sunday! I hope this post finds you relaxing, caffeinating, and in the process of planning a nice walk on this fresh Spring afternoon. At least, that’s what Husband and I are doing. But first! I wanted to drop by ever so quickly to share the sweetest news with you: Passionate Baker is 12 this weekend! I mean, technically, the official birthday was yesterday – but what’s a day between friends? Twelve whole years! 319 posts! 4,383 (okay TECHNICALLY 4,384) days of blogging my little heart out and over-sharing on the internet! What a time to be alive! Whether you’ve been following along for a day, a couple months, a year or two, or even since the beginning, thank you for reading along each week! It means the world to me!
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something exciting to whip up for the blog birthday. At first, I was leaning towards a fancy cake of sorts, but I kind of feel like I’ve been there done that. For example, on PB’s sixth birthday I shared this Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake, on the eighth it was this Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting, and for the ninth I shared my Chocolate Birthday Cake. The only non-cake birthdays were the fourth, for which I shared my Rhubarb Panna Cotta, and the tenth, where, instead of a recipe, I shared a recap of the last 10 years. With all of that in mind, I scrapped my cake plans and started over, trying to think of the perfect comforting, cozy & crave-able recipe. That’s when it hit me: a birthday sundae!!
We LOVE a sundae in our house! Husband whips up the absolute best ones I’ve ever tasted, and there is nothing I crave more at the end of a particularly stressful day. One of the things I love about sundaes is that they can be as fussy or as un-fussy as you like. Every aspect can be homemade, or every aspect can be store bought. You can add extras, like nuts or sprinkles etc., or you can scale it back to just ice-cream and chocolate sauce. You know? A true dessert for all occasions! Shall we sundae together?
a birthday sundae
Listed below is is an almost-recipe of sorts. Dress it up or down, add everything or just go for the ice-cream plain. It’s a choose your own adventure kind of dessert. Enjoy!
When Husband whips us up a sundae, here’s what he uses:
• vanilla ice-cream // chocolate fudge sauce // whipped cream // roasted hazelnuts.
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And here are his very scientific assembly instructions:
• into your favourite dessert bowl, add at least two scoops of vanilla ice-cream. While fancy ice-cream would be nice, whatever you have on hand will do just fine – this is just the base layer of deliciousness. If you’re feeling extra, you can grab my recipe for homemade ice-cream here.
• straight on top of the ice-cream scoops, add a generous pour of chocolate fudge sauce. Husband makes his own sauce with a mixture of chocolate, golden syrup, & cream; it is truly scrumptious. If you’re not feeling up to making your own, store bought would also work well! Usually Husband pours over the sauce while it’s still warm, and honestly, that’s my favourite bit. The heat from the sauce creates the most luscious puddle of ice-cream around the scoops AND the chill from the ice-cream creates a semi-hard shell over the top. It’s such a dream combination!
• we like to add a dollop of whipped cream on top at this stage. Husband expertly beats the cream until it is lightly whipped into almost non-existent soft peaks. Alternatively, spray whipped cream would also work wonders! Mmm, spray whipped cream.
• then, to finish everything off, a scattering of roasted hazelnuts. Whole, chopped, blitzed, whatever takes your fancy. I like them best when they’re chopped up into tiny little pieces, so you get a good crunch in every bite.
• we normally stop there, but once or twice Husband has topped the sundaes off with a lone maraschino cherry. I must admit, the cherry adds a touch of class. It somehow makes the sundae feel less like a bowl of chocolate with ice-cream, and more like a fancy dessert.
That’s all there is to it! Will you join us in celebrating Passionate Baker‘s birthday with a big ole birthday sundae? I hope you do! Here’s to another 12!
Chat next week,
Vicki xo
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