It's rare for a press release to accurately capture my personal reaction to a product, but the Cuisinart marketing department nailed it this time: the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker really is the sundae station of my dreams.
The machine has just hit the UK market (it's also available in the US), and it's like someone took a Pizza Hut Ice Cream Factory and shrunk it down to countertop size, which is specially good news for adults who might feel they're too old to really enjoy that all-you-can-eat, candy-packed extravaganza in public, but would like the opportunity to do so in private.
It's primarily an ice-cream maker, and you can whip up 1.42 liters / 1.5 quarts of soft-serve in as little as 20 minutes – although don't leave it until you're hanging out in the sunshine to get started, because you will need to chill the mix in its double-insulated bowl, in your freezer, for 16-24 hours before that. However, unlike other perfectly good ice cream makers (say, the Ninja Ice Cream Maker NC300, which we were fans of when we tested it), it doesn't stop there.
First, it's a soft-serve machine, which means it'll dispense a satisfying swirl of ice-cream at the pull of a lever. Second, Cuisinart has taken care of the extras too, and turned the whole thing into a complete sundae station. On one side you'll find three topping dispensers, for sprinkles, chocolate chips, or whatever, and on the other side, a hoop for safely stacking your cones, like a pro. Finally, there's a warming plate and a tiny little saucepan for hot-fudge drizzle. I mean come on. It's adorable.
As well as ice cream (regular or dairy-free), Cuisinart says you can use the Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker to make sorbet, frozen yoghurt, and slushies. Intriguingly, the picture to illustrate that last option appears to show a bottle of wine, so while frosé isn't specified, it looks like a strong possibility – I'm not sure what you'd do with the sprinkles there, but I'm sure you could figure something out.
If you're in the UK, and you can't wait to start whipping up your own ice cream, you're in luck, because there's £40 off the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker at Amazon right now, which takes the price down to £160.
