This Bailey’s Cookies and Cream Milkshake is deliciously decadent and boozy but incredibly simple to make.
Hey, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day this week, so let’s make something fun and festive. Time to put some Bailey’s in our milkshakes.
Creamy Bailey’s Cookies and Cream Milkshake
If you’ve never tried a Bailey’s cookies and cream shake before, friend, you’re going to love it. Cookies and cream is such a good combo with a bit of Irish cream.
I topped mine with whipped cream and fudge sauce because I had them in my fridge, but dressing this shake up is so not necessary.
It’s just fun.
Making a Shake Without a Blender
And quick note before we get to the recipe: If you don’t have a blender or have already had a little too much Bailey’s and don’t want to operate heavy machinery, 😉 you can actually make this milkshake without a blender . It won’t be as thick and creamy as a blended shake, but it will still be boozy and delicious.
- Simply crush the Oreos in a plastic bag with a meat mallet or rolling pin.
- Scoop your ice cream into a large (quart-size works well) mason jar or other microwave-safe jar with a lid.
- Microwave ice cream for just 15 to 30 seconds (WITHOUT THE LID) until it is softened but not fully melted. Then add the milk and Bailey’s, screw on the lid, and shake shake shake until blended.
- Add cookie crumbs and use a spoon to mix, and to smoosh any stubborn remaining bits of ice cream.
- Then drink (responsibly!) and enjoy.
More Milkshake Recipes
- Oreo Milkshake
- Chocolate Milkshake
- Strawberry Milkshake
- Banana Milkshake
- Caramel Milkshake
Ingredients
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream about 3 scoops, slightly softened*
- ▢ 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk any percentage*
- ▢ 2 ounces ( 1/4 cup ) Bailey’s Irish Cream or any Irish cream liqueur
- ▢ 4 Oreo cookies plus 1 or 2 extra for garnish if desired
- ▢ Whipped cream optional for topping
- ▢ Fudge sauce optional for topping and drizzling inside the glass
Instructions
- Combine ice cream, milk, Bailey’s and Oreo cookies in your blender. Blend until pourable.
- Drizzle a little fudge sauce inside of your glass(es) if desired, and pour in the shake.
- Top with optional whipped cream, more fudge sauce, and extra cookie for garnish if desired. Serve and enjoy responsibly!
Notes
My mom’s famous carrot cake recipe that makes the BEST carrot cake with creamy, decadent cream cheese frosting.
This easy carrot cake is a family favorite. It’s simple to make, pretty much fool proof, and perfect for parties or potlucks. I can’t wait for you to try it!
A couple of years ago, I shared this Small Carrot Cake recipe , which is a miniaturized version of my Mom’s (amazing, wonderful, perfect) carrot cake.
Since that post went live, I’ve had SO many people email me asking for her full-size recipe. And since we’re coming up on carrot cake season, today I’m sharing her version on the blog.
This recipe will make a 9×13-inch carrot cake, and it’s my absolute favorite carrot cake in the entire world.
The Best Carrot Cake Recipe (Perfect for Potlucks)
This carrot cake recipe makes a wonderfully moist and soft carrot cake with just the perfect level of spice and sweetness.
Growing up, it was my Mom’s go-to potluck dessert, and to this day, I maintain that it really is the perfect dessert for parties and potlucks because aside from being irresistible:
- You can make it a day or two in advance, and if you bake it in a 9×13 casserole dish with a lid , it’s already packaged for travel. Just pop on the lid and go.
- It’s pretty fool-proof and easy. You don’t need a stand mixer, just a whisk, a couple of bowls, and a box grater for the carrots.
- Zero decorating skills needed. Just spread on a (slightly excessive) layer of cream cheese frosting and you’re good to go.
Some Carrot Questions
And before we get to the recipe, let’s have a quick chat about carrots, because this is the one place I see people get hung up when making carrot cake.
Do I need to peel my carrots for carrot cake?
Yes! Peel your carrots before shredding them because the skin can have a bitter taste and unpleasant texture after baking.
How to grate carrots for carrot cake?
Use the large-size holes of a box grater to grate the peeled carrots. You can also use the shredding/grating disc attachment of your food processor if you have one.
Bonus tip: When shopping for carrots, try to get medium-to-large carrots as they are much easier and quicker to grate than small skinny ones!
How to measure carrots for carrot cake?
Measure your grated carrots by piling them loosely in your measuring cup. Do not pack them in for measuring.
Cream Cheese Carrot Cake Frosting
Cream cheese frosting for carrot cake is a must, and this carrot cake has some really good cream cheese frosting to top it off. It’s rich, tangy, and everything you could possibly want from a cream cheese frosting.
There are two secrets to getting a perfectly smooth and silky cream cheese frosting:
- Start with truly room temperature butter and cream cheese and beat them until smooth before adding the powdered sugar. If your butter and cream cheese aren’t mixing nicely, stop beating and let them sit for another 10-15 minutes before trying again.
If you add powdered sugar before the butter and cream cheese are smooth, you might end up with lumps of cream cheese in your frosting that you won’t be able to get rid of.
- Sift your powdered sugar. Lumpy powdered sugar can also lead to lumpy frosting. Though if you don’t mind some powdered sugar lumps, by all means, skip sifting.
Bonus tip: This is quite a lot of powdered sugar to sift, so I like to use a fine-mesh strainer to sift the sugar over a flexible cutting board so I have more space to work with and can sift the sugar more quickly.
Storing Carrot Cake
Before frosting, this cake can be stored covered at room temperature. As soon as it is frosted, if it’s not going to be eaten for a couple of hours, it should be stored covered in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese.
You can allow the cake to sit for about an hour to come to room temperature before serving or serve chilled.
Recipe Notes
- This cake contains allspice, which not all carrot cake recipes include. You can omit it if you don’t have any or don’t care for it. If you’re not sure if you’ll like the flavor in carrot cake, smell the spice before adding and skip it or cut the amount in half if it doesn’t appeal to you.
Ingredients
Carrot Cake
- ▢ 2 cups ( 240g ) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ▢ 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ▢ 2 teaspoons allspice *
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 4 large eggs
- ▢ 2 cups ( 400g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- ▢ 3 cups loosely packed peeled and grated carrots *
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ▢ 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 4oz ) salted butter softened
- ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 3 3/4 cups ( 1 16-ounce box) powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
Carrot Cake
- Preheat your oven to 325°F and lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt.
- To a large bowl, add eggs and whisk until lightly beaten. Add sugar and vegetable oil and beat until well-mixed. Add flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to stir until just mixed.
- Add carrots and stir until evenly distributed, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure all of the batter is mixed.
- Pour batter into prepared baking dish and smooth the top. Bake for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the center of the cake looks set and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool cake in the pan until completely cool.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until well-combined and smooth. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar and beat until all the sugar is incorporated and frosting is smooth and creamy.
- Spread frosting over the top of the cake. Chill before serving if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
A big round up of Easy Freezer Meals that you can make now and eat later.
Hey, friends. I had some regular recipe posts scheduled to go up this week, but with everything that’s going on, I wanted to publish something a little more immediately useful today.
So I compiled a (long) list of my favorite make-ahead freezer meals with recipe notes to make those meals the best that they can be.
Recipes you can freeze are handy because they allow you to cook with fresh ingredients once and store/eat them for months. So if you’re say trying to limit the number of times you hit the grocery store right now, freezer meals have you covered.
Freezing Tips
Freeze things flat when possible. It’s much easier to store and find space for foods that have been frozen flat since you can file them upright or stack them.
When using a freezer bag for storage, first freeze food in the bag on a flat surface like a cutting board or baking sheet. Once frozen solid, you can store it neatly away with your other frozen foods.
Don’t forget to label!! You think you’ll remember what you put in your freezer, but take it from someone who just last week poured frozen tomato soup over her tortellini thinking it was pasta sauce, you won’t. Use a sharpie or sharpie + a piece of painter’s/masking tape to label your food and never wonder what that bag of red stuff in your freezer is ever again.
On freezing potatoes and pasta in soups/stews: Potatoes and pasta are two ingredients you can freeze but you might not want to, as both degrade in quality once frozen and reheated. Potatoes tend to get a little mealy and pasta can become mushy.
If you don’t mind that (some people don’t!), you can freeze and reheat soup recipes that include these ingredients with zero recipe modifications. Just be sure to defrost your soup/stew in the fridge before reheating in the microwave because the amount of microwave time needed to reheat everything from frozen would reduce your potatoes/pasta to mush.
For best results when making soups and stews containing pasta and potatoes, just omit the pasta/potatoes during the initial cooking and then cook and add them to the reheated frozen recipe right before serving.
For example: my Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup calls for 4 ounces of pasta for 4 servings of soup.
- I’d cook the soup without the pasta and freeze it either all together or in individual servings.
- When ready to eat, if I froze the entire pot of soup, I’d defrost and reheat the soup, separately cook 4 ounces of pasta according to pasta package instructions, and add them to the reheated soup just before serving.
- If I froze the soup in four individual portions, I’d defrost and reheat one serving of soup, cook just 1 ounce of pasta, and add it to the bowl just before serving.
The same goes for recipes with potatoes. To cook potatoes to add back into soups, start the potatoes in a pot of generously salted cold water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 to 20 minutes depending on potato size, or until potatoes are fork-tender. Drain and add to soup or stew.
See my post How to Freeze Soup for more tips and tricks.
The Recipes
All the recipes I’ve included here are ones that I regularly cook and freeze myself. They freeze extremely well with minimal to no loss in quality.
Some of them can be cooked, frozen, and reheated with zero changes, and some of them need a couple tweaks for best results. For these recipes, I’ve included notes with best freezing practices.
Easy Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup – I almost always have a couple servings of this soup in my freezer during the colder months of the year because it’s warming and comforting, but not too heavy. If you don’t like the texture of frozen and reheated pasta, follow my instructions above on omitting the noodles and cooking and adding them back in after reheating.
Mom’s Sunday Simple Beef Stew – This is one of my favorite comfort food meals and a great way to use a chuck roast if you find one on sale. I don’t care for the texture of frozen potatoes in stew, so I recommend keeping a few potatoes on hand and following the instructions above for cooking potatoes separately when you’re ready to eat the frozen stew.
Easy Tomato Soup Recipe for Two – This fantastically tangy soup can be frozen and reheated with zero recipe changes. However, the recipe’s written to make one huge serving or two smaller ones to go alongside a sandwich or bread, so you might want to double the recipe if you’re making it for freezing.
Easy Chicken Peasant Soup – One of the OG Baking Mischief recipes and still one of my faves. This is another recipe where you’ll probably want to omit the potatoes and add them in after freezing and reheating.
Also, don’t worry about the potatoes in this recipe. Since they’re small and wrapped in flakey pie crust, any texture change won’t be noticeable.
This recipe is written for two and makes 2 to 4 waffles depending on the size of your waffle maker, so if you want to stock your freezer with more, just double or triple the recipe.
Desserts
And a little dessert bonus for you. These are a handful of my favorite desserts for freezing, though honestly, most cakes and cookies and candies do just fine in the freezer and don’t need any special treatment to freeze well.
Just make sure to eat them sooner rather than later, preferably within 2-3 months, as they will very slowly begin to dry out in the freezer.
Freezing Cakes
My favorite way to freeze cakes is to slice them into pieces and lay the pieces on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet/cutting board/plate that will fit in your freezer.
Freeze just long enough for the cake and frosting to be frozen solid and then wrap each piece individually in plastic wrap. Store the wrapped slices in a freezer bag for 2 to 3 months.
When you’re ready to eat, unwrap the cake and let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 20 minutes or while you eat dinner and then enjoy.
Freezing Cookies
Most cookies can be frozen in a freezer bag with no other preparation as soon as they’ve finished cooling.
If you have a cookie with soft frosting or glaze, freeze solid the way you would a piece of cake (so that the frosting doesn’t get smooshed and the cookies don’t stick together) and then store in an airtight freezer bag.
Defrost on the counter for 10 minutes before eating or just enjoy frozen on a warm day.
Easy Cheesecake Recipe – Cheesecake freezes particularly well, and you will never not be thrilled when you find a forgotten piece of frozen cheesecake in the back of your freezer. The sauce included in this recipe also freezes nicely. If fresh strawberries were used, they will have a softer texture after freezing than fresh, but not in an unpleasant way.
Bailey’s Cookies and Cream Milkshake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream about 3 scoops, slightly softened*
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk any percentage*
- 2 ounces ( 1/4 cup ) Bailey’s Irish Cream or any Irish cream liqueur
- 4 Oreo cookies plus 1 or 2 extra for garnish if desired
- Whipped cream optional for topping
- Fudge sauce optional for topping and drizzling inside the glass
Instructions
- Combine ice cream, milk, Bailey’s and Oreo cookies in your blender. Blend until pourable.
- Drizzle a little fudge sauce inside of your glass(es) if desired, and pour in the shake.
- Top with optional whipped cream, more fudge sauce, and extra cookie for garnish if desired. Serve and enjoy responsibly!
