So did you make cake for the Fourth? Did you eat it all?

I hope you did, or at least shared with friends, but what about those cake scraps? You know, the trimmings from leveling the cake, or that extra layer I told you to save for snacks, or, if you decided to be ambitious after all and try your hand at rendering the American Flag in dessert form, you probably have a pile of blue and red velvet cake pieces that you don’t know what do you with.

Based on the levels of food dye you’ve likely consumed while living your best red, white and blue life, I should probably tell you to just toss those. But, really, they are delicious and what a waste of sugar and butter, right? And anyway, isn’t it so fun to have to remember what you ate every time you go to the bathroom, to reassure yourself that those strange colors don’t mean you are dying?

(If you’ve ever eaten blue food dye, you know what I’m talking about. Also, sorry I brought the bathroom into this.)

If you want to keep living on that knife edge of red and blue dye, I have a solution for you! Take some of those scraps and toss them into a freshly made batch of cream cheese ice cream!!!

Ta daaaaa!

It’s genius. You get the flavors of that red and blue velvet cake and cream cheese frosting, but in ice cream form, and you are minimizing food waste at the same time. What good citizens we are! You can even sub in the scraps from that simpler cake I told you about last week, and I promise it will be equally delicious with cream cheese flavor. There is no losing here.

And, should you be wondering what red, white and blue occasion you could have coming up to pull this out for? Whip up a batch and serve it up on Sunday for the World Cup final! I think it would make an excellent celebration for those American ladies kicking ass in France right now.

Red & Blue Velvet Cake Ice Cream

Cream cheese ice cream base adapted from Bravetart

For the ice cream:

• 8 oz cream cheese

• 5 large egg yolks

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/8 tsp kosher salt

• 1 cup whole milk

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 1 tbs vanilla

• 1 tbs fresh lemon juice

• leftover cake red & blue velvet cake scraps or any bits of cake or cookie you prefer

1. Place the cream cheese in the bowl of a mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed until soft and fluffy. In a medium-sized pot over medium-low heat, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and salt, then the milk and the cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard is steaming and hot. This should take about 8 minutes. Pour the custard through a mesh sieve over the cream cheese , add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix on low speed to combine.

2. Cool the custard and cream cheese mixture to room temperature, chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

3. When ready to churn, pour the custard into your ice cream maker and churn according to the machine instructions. While ice cream is churning, chill whatever container you plan to store the ice cream in the freezer (I use a loaf pan).

4. When the ice cream is churned up, add crumbled pieces of cake to the mixture and churn for a few seconds to combine. Layer into the chilled container with more crumbled pieces of cake and chill until firm. Serve and enjoy!