AI Ice Cream - Make Mine A Melting Cone!

So what, you might ask, has AI got to do with enjoying an ice cream cone? 

Well, when you're not eating ice cream, you might want to find some great ice cream images to send in social media messages to friends and loved ones or to print on a homemade card for someone's birthday or other celebration.

You can of course use Pixabay which is a great free platform but the time has arrived when it's easy to make your own ice cream images using AI bots and text prompts just from ideas in your own head.

AI and the Virtual Ice Cream Cone

The other day I decided to have a go and see what kind of AI ice cream I could conjure up. With so many real photos of my own, I looked through my archive and realised that the one type of photo that is always difficult to capture is of  melting or dripping ice cream. To me, the idea of scoops of ice cream topped with sauce all melting together down the side of a cone is a simply delicious prospect! So, I worked out the text prompts that would work best in one of the AI image bots and here's what I came up with .....

 

 

Wow! A vanilla cone with strawberry sauce topping all melting yet still edible.OK, thought, so how about taking it a step further and adding more flavors of ice cream and sauce. 

 

This was the result  ....

For my first attempt I was rather pleased. 

AI is likely to change people's lives in the same way the mobile phone has. Many people will doubtless conjure up lots of delicious ice cream recipes and photos with AI. However, the one constant in any REAL kitchen will be the freezer or ice cream machine that allows us to readily enjoy creating REAL  homemade ice cream to enjoy.

Ice Cream Man & His Ice Cream Van

It doesn't matter what age you are, one of the most popular and timeless features on our streets today is the ice cream van - or ice cream truck as it's known in the USA. 

I found this out for myself just last week when I went walking with my family on a Northumberland beach. As we finished our walk, I spotted an ice cream van which had just pulled up in the nearby car park. 

Ice Cream Van Cones

A woman with two young children was being served. The kids were like statues as they stood motionless and silent, watching intently as the ice cream man prepared their creamy gelato cones and then carefully topped them off with a chocolate flake. 

In the UK this is called a 99 cone - a classic! If you're not familiar with it, there's a fascinating history behind the name 99 ice cream cone. Check it out courtesy of Quora.

Directly the children had been handed a cone each they became animated with smiles of joy and excitement and I immediately recalled the same feeling from my childhood days. Delicious! 

Whilst deciding whether or not we should treat ourselves to a delicious cone, an elderly couple presented themselves next at the ice cream van counter. Again, smiles all round when they received their ice creams. This time it wasn't ice cream cones - they had chosen an ice cream tub each, one with what looked like chocolate ice cream and the other with strawberry. That was it, we were next! What did we have? Not a cone, not a tub but a chocolate ice cream sundae!

Ice Cream Music

So why should this ice cream experience be worth writing about? Well, by sheer coincidence a friend sent me a video of their latest song - it's called 'Ice Cream Man'  !!!
 


Of course, Paul is not the only musician to write about ice cream. Here is Van Halen's famous Ice Cream Man song ....

Now back to the ice cream van I saw in Northumberland .... 

The only disappointment that day was that I didn't get to hear any actual ice cream music playing from it! That's another fun thing about ice cream vans and trucks - they all play different tunes when they are going down the street. Needless to say, the music that ice cream vans and trucks play varies from country to country. For example, in the USA the most popular ice cream truck tunes are “The Entertainer” and “Home On The Range". By contrast, in the UK it can be one of several songs such as the famous piece from the medieval music era - Greensleeves. Another UK favourite is O Sole Mio which of course Elvis Presley recorded as It's Now Or Never. Such fun!

3 Ingredients Ice Cream - A Nod To Georgia's Peanut Growers

Looking for a tasty, easy ice cream recipe? This 3 ingredients ice cream is really easy! 

Banana Custard and Peanut Butter Ice Cream Recipe

Ice Cream Ingredients:

• 1 x carton of ready-made custard (400-500g size / 1 pint)
• 1 x large ripe banana
• 3-4 tablespoons of peanut butter(smooth or crunchy whichever you prefer)

How To Make Your Ice Cream

• First, chill the custard well before you start, so put it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Mash the banana in a bowl using a fork OR blend it in a food processor.
• Stir the peanut butter into the banana puree.
• Pour the chilled custard on top and mix in gently.
• Pour the mixture into your electric ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Why This 3 Ingredients Ice Cream Recipe?

There are lots of ice cream flavours you can make at home just using 3 ingredients, but I chose to publish this one today because of its relevancy to the time of year, a special crop and as a tribute to a great comedian.

The time of year? Summer
The special crop? Peanuts
The comedian? Oliver Hardy

Have you connected the dots yet?

Well, Hardy loved food and cooking at home and I'm sure enjoyed his fair share of ice cream. He also loved his homestate of Georgia where he was born in 1892 in Harlem.

One of the most famous foods to come out of Georgia is the peanut. In fact, the peanut is the official state crop of Georgia and produces over half of the peanuts grown in the USA. The crop actually generates well over half a billion dollars per year as income for the state of Georgia. For more on the humble peanut and its amazing relevancy to Georgia click here.

So I figured .... what better in the summer months than to promote the honest peanut and how it can be enjoyed in an easy ice cream recipe!

Check out more ice cream recipes at the home of ice cream making since 2001.