Rainbow Ice Cream Slice with a Hidden Surprise

A deliciously creamy rainbow ice cream slice in bright rainbow colors with a rich, creamy, heart-shaped chocolate mousse center! And there’s no baking involved in this recipe! This Rainbow Ice cream slice with a hidden surprise  is the perfect way to celebrate summer and all the people we love in our lives! 🙂 (RECIPE + VIDEO).

(PIN IT FOR LATER)

NOTE : This post has been updated.

I have had to change the name of my post to Rainbow Ice cream slice with a hidden surprise due to a request from Amanda from I am Baker, and I apologize for using her trademark “hidden surprise”. This post was about love and being accepting of each other. This post was not meant for anything other than to spread love and tolerance for each other.

That being said, I have honored her request and removed all instances of her trademark phrase.

This is a post that I deliberated on a lot. I try not to dwell on my personal views or personal life too much on here, but at the end of the day this is a blog, my blog, and it’s a reflection of who I am, what I think, what I do. If I can’t talk about something that’s too important to me on here, then I have failed. But you’re more than welcome to click the link below, if you’d like to go directly to the recipe! 🙂

TAKE ME TO THE RECIPE!

Exactly one year ago today, in a landmark decision, the US supreme court guaranteed the fundamental right to marry to same-sex couples across all states.  Love is a beautiful thing that this world could use more of, especially in these current times where ruinous feelings like fear and hate have come to rule our lives. This surprise inside rainbow ice cream slice is a celebration of that beautiful thing called love.

This is for all those who love, who dare to love, and not hate and fear.

To tell you why I feel this strongly about some of these things out there that I see and hear about, let me give you a quick peek into what I grew up with.

I grew up in a beautiful island that goes by the name of Sri Lanka, which was ripped apart by a brutal civil war for nearly three decades. The country itself is one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, but in the last few decades, an unfortunate ugliness had spread its evil tendrils across all facets of life in Sri Lanka. This petty racism, prejudice, discrimination eventually escalated into a civil war, leaving nothing but tragic losses on both sides and horrific memories to deal with, for those who lived through it.

For a long period of time when I was living in Sri Lanka, leaving to go to school or work in the morning, brought no guarantee that your loved ones would return home at night. At least not alive, or in one piece. Terrorists bombed public places with no compunction – malls, banks, temples, public transport, rallies, basically any place where maximum carnage and human lives could be accounted for.  It was an environment where violence became the norm rather than the exception. An environment where, on a day after a bombing, page after page in the daily newspapers, you’d find the most shocking and gruesome images of the darkest deeds that humans are capable of (this was before they started censoring those images in later years). And I saw all of this as a 7 year old. I remember until the time I was in middle school, we never had pockets on our school uniform. And then they required us to have pockets sewn into our uniform, so that we can all carry handkerchiefs that we can wet and tie around our faces to help us breathe through fumes in the event of a bomb, and pencils that we can bite down on, so that gun shots and loud explosions won’t make our ears rupture and bleed. All that was expected, and sadly, all that was inevitable.  And you know what? I experienced all that while living 250 miles away from the primary war zone. To think what those innocent people trapped in the war zone were going through, the hell that they were living through on a daily basis, it rattled me to my very core. It still does, even 7 years after a military end to the war.

And through all of that, there was one realization that kept coming back to me, over and over again. It confused me back then, it confuses me even more now. People can be such shitty assholes to each other, when we focus on all the little things that make us different. Whether it’s what we eat, drink, wear, the language we speak, our skin color, our religion, our faith, or who we love, people seem to crave for conformity. The slightest difference from a perceived (and ultimately pointless) majority seem to tick people off, give them a need to ridicule those others, treat them as less than equals. It’s like freaking high school all over again – and that was bad enough.

As cliche as this sounds, peel away those layers of dark and fair skin, and we are all made alike. All that’s left is bones at the end, and then nothing. So why be dicks to each other, just because we all don’t think, act, love the same way? We all have likes, needs, beliefs and flaws, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Think about how damn boring our lives would be if we were all the same, like an assembly line of robots coming out of a factory? So why not accept those differences, embrace them, and celebrate them? Nothing in life is so black and white and we should all be thankful for that. Even the brightest white light is composed of a spectrum of seven beautiful colors, all blended together! And in the end, that’s what all of this comes down to. We are all a blend of different things. No one person or race or culture is so pure that everyone else, everything else is inferior.

And this is why what happened in Orlando two weeks ago, makes me incredibly sad and disappointed. Yes, it’s not the first time in the US, and won’t be the last time either. My heart sinks, every time I hear about these mass shootings (or any kind of unjustified shooting incident) in the US, because it gives me flashbacks of my childhood, knowing the pain and sorrow that come with such tragedies, the anger that comes with the knowledge that someone has taken away my sense of safety for a really long time. And knowing that these are senseless tragedies that can be easily prevented makes it even worse. Having grown up with it, you would think that I’d be desensitized to such violence. But somehow it makes it harder. It becomes increasingly harder to see peoples’ lives taken away long before their prime, through no fault of their own, when they’re enjoying their lives in an environment where they’re meant to feel safe, and loved – like a school, a religious institution, or a LGBT nightclub.

Does it really matter who we love? How we love? Whether it’s man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, within or beyond your faith or race, or your fellow countrymen, or the rest of humanity, love is love is love is love (in the words of Lin Manuel).

It doesn’t have labels, it shouldn’t have labels.

It’s unconditional. It’s accepting.

Who you love, doesn’t hurt anyone. Doesn’t make you any different. It only makes you human, with a beating heart, and a beating soul. A beautiful soul. So if you have someone who loves you unconditionally, for exactly who you are, treasure it, celebrate it, for it’s a wonderful thing.

One man – a radicalized terrorist, a lone-wolf, a mad-man, a homophobe – whatever we choose to call that person who carried out the Orlando shooting, doesn’t change what he did. He did not, could not, accept that people can be different. That people are different. The result – the loss of 49 innocent lives and dozens of others affected traumatically.

So instead of focusing on what makes us different, why don’t we focus on all the things that make us similar? That make us human? We have made amazing progress over the last century or so, but there’s still a distance to go.

Let’s teach our kids that love is love. It’s not unnatural, it’s not conditional, it doesn’t hurt anyone.

It just is.

People come in different colors, just like a rainbow, and that’s what makes this world a beautiful place to live in.

In times where some people try to use hate and fear to divide and conquer, all we NEED is love. That message of love and acceptance is more important now than ever.

(You can click on this link to visit One Orlando and donate to raise funds for the victims of  the Pulse Tragedy #OrlandoUnited)

Love is love, and a little Rainbow Ice cream slice with a hidden surprise  is the best way I know how to celebrate! 🙂

This rainbow ice cream slice with a hidden surprise was so much fun to make! It’s made with an EASY, no churn vanilla ice cream base that makes up the rainbow colored layers, and the hidden surprise is a delicious chocolate heart, made out of easy chocolate mousse. Yes, the rainbow ice cream slice does take a little bit of time to come together, with the overnight chilling, and layering of ice cream, but the actual making of it is a lot easier. Only that first red layer needs to partially set in the freezer, because in this  “rainbow ice cream cake with a hidden surprise”, we will be placing the chocolate hearts (upside down) on top of this layer, and then layer the remaining colored, no churn vanilla ice cream layers.

And top it all off with a DELICIOUS Chocolate Magic Shell sauce – for which you can get the recipe right here.

(PIN IT FOR LATER)

After that first red layer, the rest of the colors – orange, yellow, green, blue, purple are layered carefully on top. Since they are thick layers, they stay separate. However, if you do want CLEAN lines between the colors, then all you need to do is set each layer (at least partially frozen in the freezer), before you add the next one. I did not do that for this  rainbow ice cream slice with a hidden surprise however, because ain’t nobody got time for that, baby.

Plus, this rainbow ice cream cake is all about sharing with your loved ones, not making them wait forever to eat it.

VIDEO RECIPE

Rainbow Ice Cream Slice with a Hidden surprise

Servings: 1 x 9 x 5 inch loaf pan

Author: Dini from The Flavor Bender

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Ingredients

Chocolate Mousse Heart Center

• 5 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 ¼ cup whipping cream whipped till soft peaks
• 1 tsp vanilla

No-churn Ice Cream layers (leftovers can be frozen to make vanilla ice cream)

• 2 cans of condensed milk 400g x 2
• 4 cups of cold cream whipped
• Pinch of salt optional
• 2 tbsp of good quality vanilla extract
• Gel food coloring - Red Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple
• 1 quantity of Chocolate Magic Shell Sauce

Instructions

Chocolate Mousse Heart Center

1. Melt the chocolate, salt and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until just melted. Add the egg yolks while the chocolate is warm and mix well. Set aside to cool completely.
2. Line a 8 x 8 inch square pan with plastic wrap (you can use a little butter or oil to make sure it sticks to the bottom of the pan. Set aside until the chocolate mousse is ready).
3. Add the vanilla to the whipped cream, and then the cooled, thickened chocolate and gently fold in until thoroughly mixed.
4. Scrape this chocolate mousse mix into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Keep this in the freezer until completely frozen (a few hours).
5. Use a heart cutter to cut out 12 hearts from the frozen chocolate mousse (choose a heart cutter that will fit inside the loaf pan that will be used for the rainbow ice cream cake - about 2 inches in height, in this case).
6. Place the cut out hearts in a plastic wrap lined tin and store in the freezer until needed.

No-churn Ice Cream Slice

1. Line a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with plastic wrap.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cans of condensed milk, whipped cream, salt (if using) and vanilla. Fold gently until the condensed milk and cream have mixed well. This is the vanilla ice cream base.
3. Measure 1 ½ cups of this ice cream base into a smaller bowl, and color it with some red gel coloring. Pour this to the bottom of the lined loaf pan. Spread evenly and place it in the freezer until set - not frozen (about 2 -3 hours).
4. Once set, place the chocolate mousse hearts upside down, along the middle of the loaf pan (see video). Set aside until you have the other layers ready.
5. Mix 1 cup of ice cream base with orange coloring.
6. Mix 1 cup of ice cream base with yellow coloring.
7. Mix 1 cup of ice cream base with green coloring.
8. Mix 1 1/4 cup of ice cream base with blue coloring.
9. Mix 1 ½ cup of ice cream base with purple coloring.
10. Layer each of these in order, around the chocolate mousse heart center, ending with the purple ice cream layer which will cover the chocolate mousse center completely (see video).
11. Cover the top with the plastic wrap and freeze overnight until frozen.
12. An hour or so before serving, dip the sides of the loaf pan in warm water to loosen the ice cream slice from the pan. Unmold it onto a serving tray and smoothen the wrinkled surface using a warm spatula.
13. Keep it in the freezer until ready to serve.
14. Drizzle Chocolate Magic Shell Sauce on top and decorate with rainbow funfetti, nuts, or crushed colored cookie crumbs (optional).
15. Slice with a warm knife. Enjoy!

So go ahead and make this deliciously creamy  rainbow ice cream slice with a hidden surprise with a rich, creamy, heart-shaped chocolate mousse center and share it with all the people you love! Perfect for summer, and to celebrate unconditional love and acceptance! 🙂

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