Cotton Candy Ice Cream

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You know that childhood nostalgia that hits you whenever you smell cotton candy? Well, hold on to that feeling, then turn it into a frozen, creamy mixture and you’ve got homemade Cotton Candy Ice Cream!

We’ve all been fascinated by the pink and blue clouds mounted on top of a fair cart smelling of something out of a delicious, sweet dream. The colorful puffs simply captivate every kid’s attention and imagination.

We dove into recreating this childhood nostalgia as we worked on perfecting our very own Cotton Candy Ice Cream recipe. We even had our neighborhood kids taste test our creation – that sure was a delight!

And now, our Cotton Candy Ice Cream has been hailed by many as the perfect treat for the warmer weather we’re seeing – especially with Easter coming up too!

What Flavor is Cotton Candy?

Most notably, the pink cotton candy is a pink vanilla flavor and the blue cotton candy is a blue raspberry flavor. Well, those sound like they’re from a made up world of Oompa Loompas (ha!).

It’s true – both pink vanilla and blue raspberry are artificial flavors made to dazzle the consumers. Cotton candy was first marketed as “fairy floss,” after all!

What is Cotton Candy Ice Cream?

Cotton Candy Ice Cream is our way of teleporting you back to your first carnival or visit to the state fair!

In all seriousness, though, cotton candy ice cream is ice cream flavored with cotton candy extract. We color the ice cream with the classic pink and blue food coloring. So simple!

How to Make Ice Cream

If you’re a returning ice cream creator, you know how easy it is! If you’re a first timer, get ready to be blown away by how simple ice cream making is! Try our easy Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe to start, or jump right into our fancy Galaxy Ice Cream recipe.

Otherwise, to make ice cream, you just need to churn a mixture of heavy whipping cream and some other ingredients (details in each recipe) with chilled tools, like an ice cream maker or even a KitchenAid stand mixer! KitchenAid stand mixers have ice cream maker attachments that make it so easy to make homemade ice cream too!

Now let’s dive into the nitty gritty of making homemade cotton candy ice cream!

Heavy Cream vs Heavy Whipping Cream

Is heavy cream the same as heavy whipping cream? According to the FDA, we can use the two names interchangeably, which is what we’re doing!

The most important thing to remember for our recipe is that you’ll need to get heavy whipping cream that’s 36% milkfat.

Once, we tried to go premium and bought a heavy whipping cream with 40% milkfat. Bad idea – the extra fat in the cream leaves a fatty aftertaste once turned into ice cream.

In another instance, being experimental, we tried using half and half. Another bad idea – we discovered half and half is not fatty enough since it only contains 10.5-18% milkfat. It left us with a very icy ice cream that no one wanted to eat.

The Ingredients for Cotton Candy Ice Cream

• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 2 Tbsp Condensed Milk
• 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream (36% milkfat)
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Cotton Candy Extract
• 1/3 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 pinch Salt
• 3-5 drops Pink Food Coloring (or as needed)
• 3-5 drops Blue Food Coloring (or as needed)

The Equipment Needed

• Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker (or KitchenAid stand mixer with ice cream maker attachment)
• Stainless Steel Bowl
• Whisk
• Silicone Mixing Spoon
• Bowls for mixing in food coloring
• Stainless Steel Breading Pan or other freezer safe container for ice cream

How to Prep for Cotton Candy Ice Cream

One of the most important steps of ice cream making is chilling or freezing your equipment. Place the freezer bowl of the Cuisinart ice cream maker in your freezer overnight for best results!

First, mix the whole milk, condensed milk, heavy cream, cotton candy extract, vanilla extract, sugar, and salt together, letting the ingredients dissolve into an “ice cream soup” mixture.

Once all ingredients are dissolved, cover the bowl of your “ice cream soup” and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

How to Make Cotton Candy Ice Cream

After the “ice cream soup” has had time to chill, pull out your Cuisinart ice cream maker. Insert the freezer bowl and paddle into your ice cream maker, then pour the mixture into the freezer bowl. Churn the “ice cream soup” for 20 minutes, letting the mixture harden.

After 20 minutes, scoop the ice cream – which should be a soft serve consistency – into 2 separate bowls.

Into one bowl, drop in the pink food coloring and mix until you reach the desired color. Repeat these steps with the other bowl for the blue food coloring.

Once you have your perfect cotton candy pink and blue colors created (go for “fairy pink” and “fair blue” ;p), scoop the mixture in an alternating pattern into a freezer-safe container. Once hardened, we’ll see the pattern create a fun cotton candy swirl as you scoop the ice cream.

After creating the patterns, cover the container and place it in the freezer overnight to let it harden.

Once hardened, scoop your perfect cotton candy ice cream into a cone, cup, or bowl and serve immediately. Now you’ve got a frozen carnival cotton candy to enjoy!

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