Flowing with Milk and Honey (and Blackberries), an Ice Cream Recipe

I know it's a bit early in the year to be breaking out our ice cream makers, but it's never too early for recipes that are inspired. You see, we're in the middle of the lenten season, the 40 days (+Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter when we prepare for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

I like to read Exodus in this season, reflecting on the Israelites and their rescue from slavery from Egypt. They were chosen and promised to be led to "a land flowing with milk and honey." This line has been stuck in my head over the past few weeks of lent, and I wanted to write a recipe, an homage, to the Israelite's salvation from Egypt, and ours, many many years later, soon to be celebrated as Easter nears.

The best food I could think of containing milk and honey was a special ice cream, made specifically for a very dear friend who has been asking me to make her ice cream since the very beginning of her pregnancy. The addition of blackberries to this ice cream adds a bit of necessary tartness to the soft, sweet ice cream made of milk and honey.

"So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey . . ." Exodus 3:8

Citrus Cream Cheese Pound Cake (Gluten-Free)

I wish I could say that this cake came out of some need for a bright and cheery glimmer in the dull gray of a long winter, but I live in Salt Lake, and somehow we remained protected in a sunshiny little bubble while the rest of the country was beaten down with storm after winter storm. I'll try not to throw too much salt in the wounds of those trapped inside for the past few months, but it has been completely gorgeous here, with warm days and the occasional spring rain shower. 

But don't be too mad at us yet, Non-Utah-Dwellers, we are all in solidarity in one thing: Winter (however spring-like ours may have been), still lacks in the produce department (You can only use so much kale, ya know?). So, wanting to embrace what was in season, along came this pound cake, all gorgeous and topped with all the citrus that this season has to offer. Also, I had never made pound cake, and thought this glazed citrus topping would be a perfect excuse to make one to go underneath it.