I ate 11 Ice Cream Sundaes in 3 weeks

Here is Part 3 of 3 of the events I shared with Deborah Moore this morning on AM1470.

#SundaeChallengeYVR

A month ago I was asked to participate in something that was both delightful and daunting at the same time – to be one of the media judges in this year’s Vanfoodster Sundae Challenge. I was delighted because you know I’m a big, and I mean BIG fan of desserts. On the other hand, it was daunting because I tend to shiver like a little Chihuaha all year round regardless of the temperatures outside. In any group setting, I’m guaranteed to be the one person in the room wearing the most clothes all the while asking for the heat to be turned up or the AC to be turned down. Putting the shivers aside, I have also been trying to stay disciplined on my diet. As you can remember from my recent post about how I lost my 5 pound “dessert weight”, my goal was to eventually lose 7 pounds in total. I did ultimately lose 6 pounds so I was of course a bit weary about eating 11 sundaes in a span of 3 weeks. Nevertheless, this was not called a sundae challenge for nothing. I decided to embrace it head on with a game plan.

How to Eat 11 Sundaes without Gaining Weight

I devoted certain days to eat 2 sundaes in a day. Instead of eating them on separate days, the days when I ate 2 sundaes were my “cheat days”. I made sure they were in the same areas and I would walk to these shops. Most of the time it took over an hour to reach each shop in the sweltering late summer heat so my plan had a two-fold effect. I would burn calories and warm myself up before eating each delicious cold treat. I felt it was a dubious plan but incidentally, my scale ran out of batteries when the challenge started so I had no way to see if I was on or off track with my weight. More on that later.

What makes a Great Sundae Creation?

After tasting each sundae, we were asked to give each creation a score from 0 to 40. 10 for originality/uniqueness, 10 for presentation and most importantly taste which accounted for half the overall score at 20 points.

Every creation had a special name and some even had little stories which added to its originality. For example, the Earth Sun and Stars by Umaluma featured black vanilla ice cream with gold flakes which represents the stars in the sky and the Akbar Mashti ( tradional Iranian saffron ice cream) represents the sun.

An attractive presentation was also important since sundaes are presented as sum of it’s parts – ice cream and fixings like chocolate, syrup, candy, sprinkles etc. And mind you, some were really flashy like the three tiered ice cream bubble waffle creation by Tmix Tea; some had a more elegant appeal like the Summer Pavlova by Beyond Coffee – a dainty pastel colored concoction that featured soft purple blueberry ice cream on top of a snow white meringue nest filled with lemon curd.

Lastly, taste was deemed most important and the sundaes that I finished completely on my own usually received the highest score in that department for me. Calories cannot be wasted when you’re dieting! 🙂

Take a look at each sundae and when you’re done, head over to Vanfoodster‘s page to see if your pick was crowned the winner for this year’s challenge.

Final Weigh-In

I finally bought batteries for my scale and did a little weigh in. I gained 2 pounds from the 6 that I lost. It was worth it and I’m just glad it wasn’t more than that since some of the creations were so good, I finished them all by myself. This post got me thinking again and I think I will be back for another sundae sooner than later.

I hope you enjoyed my sundae journey. Until our next dessert date.

XOXO,

Mimi

This sundae by Beyond Coffee is composed of a pretty meringue nest filled with lemon cream and topped with blueberry gelato and compote.

Beyond Coffee in Century Plaza Hotel

Summer Pavlova

Price: $4.75

Offered: All the time.

1015 Burrard Street, Vancouver Tel: 604-687-0575

“Dat Sundae Dough” from Innocent Icecream features Vanilla ice cream topped with gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie dough, whipped cream and crunchy cookie pieces.

Innocent Ice Cream Parlour

Dat Sundae, Dough!

Price: $9.95

Offered: daily

A: 4895 Main Street, Vancouver Tel: 604-879 8584

This is the Creme Brulee Sundae from Ice Queen – pudding dessert on top of flash frozen pudding ice cream rolls. (Another pudding was broken down and then incorporated into the ice cream mixture, then rolled. The flavours really come through.)

I.ce Queen

Puddilicous

Price: $9.71

2967 West Broadway, Vancouver

2355-4000 No 3 Road, Richmond

I couldn’t have found a more fitting sundae to eat on solar eclipse day 2017 at umalumagelato. The black vanilla ice cream with gold flakes represents the stars in the sky and the Akbar Mashti ( tradional Iranian saffron ice cream) represents the sun.

Umaluma

Earth Sun and Stars

Price: $9.75

Type: Plant-based ice cream

Offered: ask for availability

A: 235 East Pender Street, Vancouver Tel:604 559 5862

Lychee Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream with tiny chunks of water chestnut which adds a nice crunchy texture in a healthy way.

77K Freeze

Snowflake Freeze

Price: $ 8

A: 2240 Commercial Drive, Vancouver Tel: 604-868-2430

I definitely needed back up for this vanilla bean gelato topped with two fresh churros and cinnamon dust adorned by a mini concha.

Hugo’s Churros

Churro y Concha Sundae

Price: $12.50

Offered: All the time

A: 7899 Templeton Station Rd, Richmond

This sundae is made with local organic milk, organic cane sugar, & fresh ricotta from Scardillo Cheese, with an added hint of orange zest. And there’s really a cannoli on top of this sundae along with caramelized Okanagan peaches, candied pecans topped with crushed Sicilian Cannoli shells and chocolate drizzle. Okay, let’s just say it has everything 🙂

Dolce Amore

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli Sundae

Price:$8

A: 1588 Commercial Drive, Vancouver Tel: (604) 258-0006

Sour Cherry and Pistachio ice cream nestled inside a light and crispy waffle bowl. It’s name and inspiration comes from it’s predecessor, the sour cherry chocolate bar with the same name.

Lisa Lou’s Chocolate Bar

Sue Sundae

Price: $8

Offered: Sun, Tues, Wed 12-8 pm; Thurs-Sat 12-10 pm. Closed Mondays.

A: 1007 Main Street, Vancouver Tel: 604 689 8219

This sundae is made with Cocowhip (vegan coconut soft serve) and topped with crunchy oats, hemp seeds and matcha. I hear it’s Canada’s first vegan soft soft.

Kokomo

Crunchy Matcha Oatmeal with Hemp Seeds

Price: $8

Offered: all the time.

A: 611 Gore Avenue, Vancouver Tel:(604) 428-6599

Have you ever had sweet corn ice cream? It’s my first time 🙊 a sundae filled with Salted Caramel and Sweet corn Ice cream topped with popcorn, gummies and chips.

Chocolate Arts

Movie Night

Price: $8

Offered: Monday to Saturday 10am-6 pm

A: 1620 West 3rd Aveuue, Vancouver Tel: 604 739 0475

3 layers of bubble waffles sandwiched in between 5 scoops of housemade ice cream surrounded by mini mochis. It’s meant to feed 2-4 people. What was I thinking trying to tackle this alone? 🙂