All you need are cupcake liners, a muffin tin, chocolate wafer cookies, a quart of your favorite ice cream (we like a pint each of chocolate chip or mint chocolate chip, but any flavor is delicious) plus the chocolate whipped cream topping: heavy cream, cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar.

While these “cupcakes” use cookie crumbs to simulate the cake, you can substitute actual cake or brownies, using a cookie cutter to cut rounds that fit into the cupcake wrappers.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

ICE CREAM CUPCAKES RECIPE

1. Leave ice cream on counter to soften slightly (or you can microwave a quart for 20 seconds).

Turn ice cream and cookie crumbs into an
Ice Cream Cupcake. Photo courtesy
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

3. Insert 12 cupcake wrappers into a large muffin tin. Line each cupcake wrapper with cookie crumbs, 2 to 3 tablespoons per cupcake.

4. Scoop ice cream into large round balls and add a ball to each cupcake wrapper. (If you can’t make the scoops round enough, shape them with your hands.) Place muffin tin in freezer.

5. Make whipped cream topping: Sift 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa onto a sheet of waxed paper. Begin to whip 1 cup of cold, heavy cream, gradually adding in the sugar-cocoa mixture. Whip for approximately 4 minutes, until the whipped cream is the consistency of shaving cream.

6. Using a spatula, frost the ice cream cupcakes with the whipped cream and sprinkle the whipped cream with any remaining cookie crumbs. (You can use other garnishes you have at hand: chocolate chips, coconut flakes, nuts and so forth.) Return cupcakes to freezer until ready to serve.

Find more recipes in our Ice Cream Section.

[2] A no-bake savory basil cheesecake (photos © Eat Wisconsin Cheese).

What’s a savory cheesecake?

Using a base of cream cheese—just like dessert cheesecake—it’s an unsweetened cheesecake that combines savory ingredients: herbs, vegetables, seafood, and/or other cheeses.

A savory cheesecake:

 
Try these delicious recipes, courtesy of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, representing the dairy farmers who create some of the world’s best cheeses. Just take a look at the photos: You’ll want to make them all!

 
 
WANT MORE CHEESECAKE RECIPES?

Head to our Cheesecake Section on TheNibble.com, and pull down the Gourmet Foods menu for the blog, above right.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

The honors go to:

• Chocomize Customized Chocolate Bars, Belgian Callebaut chocolate (one of our favorites) and the most food fun you can have when you create your own bars
• eCreamery Customized Ice Cream, where you create the ice cream, gelato or sorbet flavors of your dreams
• Indulge Caramels, affordable, melt-in-your mouth caramels in 9 flavors (gluten-free)
• Sir Francis Bacon Brittle, a combination that rocks at the top of the trend to put bacon in everything
• Tatte Nut Boxes, our favorite pastry of the year, a must-try

If you missed Part I, Best Savory Gourmet Foods Of 2010, here they are.

Wishing you a cornucopia of treats in the New Year!

Indulge Caramels in Cinnamon. Photo
by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.