English Seaside Ice Cream, Hogwarts Castle & Craster Cornets!

Ice cream has lots of traditions - from the way it's made to the way it's served and lots more. What I find interesting is to look into what makes ice cream 'traditional' to any particular geographical area. It might be the quality of the local milk, the type of locally grown fruit that is available or, if it's an area that attracts tourists, it might even be that the ice cream is produced especially to cater for the tastes of the 'incomers'. The truth is, like with all things ice cream, there are many variations on a theme.

In England, for example, ice cream is produced by a wider variety of people than ever before. You have the traditional, small, local companies whose family have been making ice cream for generations but also there are many dairy farmers now turning to producing their own ice cream which they sell direct to retailers and sometimes even directly to the public from their own ice cream shop. One tradition, however, that is thankfully still alive and kicking is that of the ice cream parlour though it is by no means thriving. The most common and indeed most popular is the traditional 'seaside' ice cream parlour (in the States they're called ice cream parlors of course). I have many happy childhood memories of them on the Yorkshire coast (Scarborough especially) and in more recent years have found others such as when I visited Alnwick Castle - or Hogwarts Castle as many now call it (the Harry Potter movies were filmed there) in Northumberland.

Alnwick Castle is not far from the beautiful Northumberland coast with its sandy beaches, great vistas and fascinating history and wildlife. So a lot of visitors to the area, especially from the USA, enjoy the best of both worlds by staying in Northumberland cottages. After visiting Alnwick we called in at Bamburgh to see the magnificent Bamburgh Castle and then at Craster where we took the wonderful walk up to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, a fabulous medieval castle in a location that defies description (once up there the views take your breath away!).

After Craster it was Seahouses and there we found some great traditional English ice cream, produced locally and served from an old fashioned ice cream trailer (see photo).

We plan to go back some day, possibly staying in one of the many Northumberland cottages that are available in the area. It might be a Seahouses cottage or a Craster cottage or even something in Alnwick or Bamburgh.

The history and scenery is well worth going back for but the ice cream on top of that, well need I say more? :)

A Chocolate Ice Cream Bath? No It's Mud Running!

When I write about people or places in A Blog Of Ice Cream I often follow up later to check on any additional news.

In September I featured a super little ice cream cabin at Eastnor Castle selling locally made ice cream to the many visitors to the castle and its grounds. You may have read my Castle Ice Cream blog post.

Well, yesterday I read with fascination about Mud Runner 2009 - a special race event held earlier this month at Eastnor. And muddy it definitely was! Some of the runners became so caked in mud that they looked like they'd taken a chocolate ice cream bath!

If you want to see for yourself just how much fun this event is, take a look at this fantastic Mud Runner video on YouTube.

It was an undeniably tough race but the smiling faces of the runners confirmed it was a really enjoyable and exciting challenge.

So if you're a keen runner and enjoy a challenge, look out for Mud Runner 2010 next October. There are rumours there might even be an earlier Spring Mud Runner too such was the success of the event.

You might yet get to look like a chocolate ice cream!

Hello Halloween With A Fun Ice Cream!

Having read the title of this post you might be given to thinking that I have started writing poetry! No, give me a scoop in preference to a pen any day! It's just that Halloween is all about fun for children and I'm a great believer in "The Fun Of Ice Cream". Put the two things together and you can enjoy a fabulously, fun Halloween with ice cream as part of it.

My ice cream recipe idea for this Halloween?
Licorice toffee ice cream.

It's a creamy, sweet and sticky ice cream with a gloriously, ghoulish grey color - what I call "Gothic ice cream". I was thrilled when I first had the idea to make this ice cream because I wasn't quite sure what the color and consistency would be. Would it be too black? Would it be too sticky? Not a bit .... it worked out superbly.

Here is my Gothic ice cream recipe if you would like to try it.