Elliana’s 4th birthday was this past weekend, and we celebrated in style with cupcakes and ice cream. And this momma has to be careful about which ice creams I can eat because of allergies, so Elliana and I made our own! This post is all about how to make Vanilla Rainbow Ice Cream from scratch with only five ingredients.

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Published February 14, 2023
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Cost

Elliana received a gift from a grandma for Christmas this past year. Unicorn Food by Cayla Gallagher. This cookbook is adorable, colorful and is filled with easy recipes. Check it out by clicking the link below to Amazon.

At only five ingredients, including food coloring, this recipe for homemade ice cream is so easy to make and results in such a creamy and smooth texture. This recipe is found on page 133 of Unicorn Food.

The next time we decide to make this recipe, we will try to make mint chocolate chip, strawberry, peach, sherbet, cookie dough, or any other type we desire. Really, the recipe is easy to alter to then add a different flavor or color.

As for the cost, it was actually quite reasonable. As we already had the food coloring, that was not added into the cost. Below is a breakdown of each of the four ingredients and what they cost for this recipe, as of February 2023.

1 3/4 cup whipping cream $2.00
4 large eggs $1.64
2/3 cup sugar $0.30
1 tsp vanilla extract $0.10

The total cost to make this recipe was $4.04.
This made ten cups of ice cream.
Compared to buying vanilla ice cream at the store, you buy 6-cups for around $2.75 at ALDI.

At Walmart, the same size Bryers Natural Vanilla cost $4.97.

How to make Homemade Vanilla Extract

As simple as this recipe is, you can make it so much more flavorful by using Homemade Vanilla Extract.

A few months ago, I blogged and also made Homemade Vanilla Extract and also Bourbon Vanilla Extract.
Click the link below to read how you too can make your own extract.

Homemade Vanilla Extract takes all of ten minutes to prepare, however, the longest is the wait, as extract needs to sit for at least eight weeks till up to six months before you can use it. The hardest part is to be patient and to wait for them to be done.

Homemade Vanilla Extract – How to make it at home

Recipe

Ingredients for Rainbow Ice Cream

1 3/4 cup whipping cream
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp Homemade Vanilla Extract
Pink, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple food coloring

Directions for Rainbow Ice Cream

1. In a KitchenAid mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream until it forms a thick ribbon when the whisk is lifted.
This can take a few minutes and be sure to beat the heavy cream on slow to begin and then slowly work up to medium.

This KitchenAid mixer with the whisk attachment made very short work of this recipe. However, using a hand-held mixer would work just as well. A few years ago, a good friend gifted me this white beauty when she had not used it in over a decade.

It gets used daily and is well loved. Click the link below to see KitchenAid mixers on Amazon and take advantage of their free shipping!

2. Before adding the whipped cream, first place six small bowls on the countertop.

Then divide the whipped cream to each of the bowls being careful to not flatten the fluffiness of the heavy cream.

Add the Colors

3. Measure and then add the food colorings to their own bowls, into the cream, one at a time.
Elliana was so happy to squirt the food colors into the whipped cream!
This Rainbow Ice Cream was just the right dessert for her to help with.

Depending on the color, you may need to add more or less of a color to make it bolder. The yellow, for instance, needed more after the initial mixing.

4. With a spatula, gently fold the cream and food colorings in each individual bowl until it is blended, making sure to clean and then dry the spatula between each color.
By cleaning and drying the spatula between each color, you help to not mix the colors.
Additionally, drying the spatula keeps any water out of the ice cream, which causes ice crystals that form and take away from the creamy texture you are trying to create.

5. Place each of the bowls into the fridge to chill while you make the egg mixture.

6. Clean the KitchenAid bowl, dry it, then add the eggs, sugar and Homemade Vanilla Extract.
Here is where you can alter the flavor you desire for your Rainbow Ice Cream. If you want each color to taste different, add the flavor to each individual bowl instead of the mixer.
For example, you can also choose mint, raspberry, butter pecan, lavender, pumpkin and many more.

Recently, while in a deep research dive on homemade extracts, this site for buying customizable extracts was shown as an add from Amazon. Naturally, the intrigue got to me, and it needed to be looked into.
Bakto Flavors boasts their extensive flavors and how you can pick a specially selected box of extracts, out of 60 flavors. Click the link below to see the selections. A box of 5 is only $24.99 on Amazon!

7. Beat the mixture with the whisk attachment until the mixture again forms a ribbon when the whisk is lifted.
Again, begin by beating on low and then work the mixer up to medium speed.
This step takes a bit of time to get the texture and consistency just right.
You may need to stop the mixer, lift the whisk, and check for the ribbon consistency a few times before it is just right.
The mixture will actually ribbon down onto the surface!

8. Remove the six bowls from the fridge and then equally divide the whipped egg mixture between the colors in the bowls.

9. Gently fold the egg mixture into the cream with a spatula, making sure to clean and then dry the spatula between each color.

10. Place a 12-cup freezer-safe bowl on the countertop, resting on a bowl so it is tilted slightly, then add each color of ice cream into the bowl to create a rainbow pattern.
Begin with purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange and finally pink.

Freeze the Rainbow Ice Cream

11. Cover the bowl and then place it into the freezer for 7-8 hours to chill and set.

Finally, serve the Rainbow Ice Cream and enjoy!
~Monica

For Elliana’s birthday, our family went up by my parents for the weekend. The kids played in the snow, we ate delicious food, had a campfire and the best dinner on Saturday.

Stay tuned for the recipe we had for dinner, Modern Beef Burgundy.

Rainbow Ice Cream Recipe

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