Easy Mini Reeses Ice Cream Cakes [Plant-Based, Vegan, Healthy]
So you know I have a thing for healthy treats. We love our chocolate cream pie, decadent chocolate dip, chocolate ice cream and Mint Moosetracks Ice Cream is one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
I LOVE the way we can continue to celebrate birthdays and still feel good. I love celebrating another year of life by eating things that will improve the years to come!
Quick PSA: Our meal plan membership is available for $5/month this week only. It’s an amazing value for anyone looking to eat healthier in less time and for less money. Check it out here.
It’s amazing how naturally sweetened treats can hit the spot when you are craving a little treat, but don’t have nearly the addictive power that a lot of traditional treats do. You know how you keep going back for more and more Halloween candy even when you don’t even like it that much? Those candy companies invest in a lot of research to make sure we keep coming back for more!
Thankfully Mother Nature has our best interests in mind, and when we eat foods closer to their natural state instead of highly refined ones, our body thanks us.
However, I have had too many birthday celebrations which ended up with unnecessary stress because I was trying to make healthy treats they would be excited about instead of defaulting to the traditional ones.
We all enjoyed homemade ice cream and brownies, but it was a project. The brownies I could make ahead and freeze when I was on top of my game (a trick I had to learn after having my first two kids birthdays almost ON Thanksgiving and Christmas), but whole-foods, plant-based ice cream just didn’t work that well.
You could make it a couple of hours ahead of time, but any more than that and you had a brick of ice cream that would take 45 minutes to shave into individual servings.
Further, my go-to whole foods ingredients of cashews and dates can get a little expensive. All of this got me thinking about alternatives. Was there some treat I could make in advance, that didn’t take a whole lot of time and didn’t cost as much?
Enter these amazing mini-ice cream cakes. They solve nearly every dilemma of homemade, healthy treats because they:
- Require just a few simple ingredients
- Are easily made in advance
- Don’t require an ice cream maker
- Are small portions but don’t feel that way
- Don’t cost a lot to make
Now, who doesn’t love the idea of ice cream cake? It sounds like such a special thing, one that I never really got adventurous enough to make but always drooled over when I happened to see one in the Baskin Robbins ads.
But as I had a surplus of bananas to start out our quarantine with, I had some time to experiment with some banana brownies. I tried this recipe for 3 ingredient brownies, and LOVED the way they turned out in individual muffin cups with a beautiful shiny top. When ditching traditional sugar and butter, often my brownies ended up with a pretty dull appearance.
I baked them in muffin tins to create the perfect base for our ice cream cupcakes. After they had a little time to cool, I froze them to help the ice cream set up quickly.
For the ice cream, I’ve made them both with the mint moose tracks ice cream (amazing) AND with this peanut butter ice cream. A Reese’s in Ice Cream Cake form, yes please!! And the dates give the ice cream a slight caramel taste which almost make them like Snicker’s.
The best part? These are all set to go, so all you need to do is pull them out of the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to let them soften just a bit. Even though they are a small serving, they hit the spot.
Who needs a plate packed with cake and frosting no one really likes and kids always leave behind anyway? Isn’t it crazy at how kids birthday parties you’re often left with plates and plates of uneaten food? I love how they can try a little and come back for more if they want to.
Treats like these made the no-sugar challenge quite doable for my kids! I love the challenge of seeing if we can stick to only natural sweeteners for a set amount of time, and when my husband did it for a year we saw a dramatic improvement in his cholesterol, which seems to be genetically high for a young and healthy runner.
Did you know the free Quit Sugar SummitI is coming up April 27 – May 3? They have a line up of experts speaking on topics such as“Why We Are Drawn To Sugar & How-To Stop” and“The Effect Sugar Has on Your Body & Brain”. I’m excited to learn–I always say a little knowledge goes a long way in helping us make good decisions.
But the synergy of these tasty bites is magical! I hope you make them soon and enjoy them as much as we do!
| Servings |
mini cakes
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- 3 large bananas, very ripe 310 grams
- 1/2 cup natural peanut or almond butter 128 grams
- 1/4 Cup cocoa powder
- 1-2 TBSP pure maple syrup to taste
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Cup natural peanut butter 256 grams
- 2 cup almond milk
- 1 cup packed pitted dates deglet noor or medjool are my favorite
- 1 TBSP vanilla flavoring
- 1 cup ice + water
- 1 cup chocolate chips optional, dairy free if needed
- 1 tsp coconut oil optional
Ingredients
Brownies
Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Magic Shell Topping
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- First pour 1 cup almond milk over dates and place in refrigerator. Double check to make sure they are pitted! Preheat oven to 350. Add muffin papers to a standard size muffin tin.
- Mix bananas, nut butter, cocoa powder and vanilla. I like to do this in my small blender jar to get it super smooth, but it can also be mixed well by hand. Taste and add maple syrup to desired sweetness.
- Spoon 1 generous tablespoon of batter into each muffin cup. Bake for about 15 minutes or until fragrant and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Allow brownies to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes then place in freezer for at least 10 minutes before making ice cream.
- Blend dates with remaining 1 cup almond milk, nut butter and vanilla until smooth.
- Fill a liquid measuring cup with ice cubes, then cold water (from your fridge if available) to make 1 cup ice + water. Add to ice cream mixture and blend until just creamy.
- Pour on top of brownies and return to freezer to set for 4-6 hours or overnight. Remove to a large plastic container and store in freezer until your party!
- Once ice cream has frozen, melt chocolate chips with coconut oil if using. The coconut oil makes the chocolate a little softer and easier to work with and eat, but can be omitted. Stir until smooth and spread over the tops of the peanut butter ice cream.
- The ice cream cakes need to sit out for 10 or so minutes to soften slightly. The magic shell topping can be added at this time and they do not need to be returned to the freezer. Or you can do it in advance so they are ready to go!
Most nut butters have a small amount of salt in them. If yours is salt free, a pinch of salt in both the brownies and ice cream will do a lot to enhance the flavor.