Sometimes while partying through the summer and lighter nights after eating all those nibbly bits from your barbecue, your simply looking for a simple dessert to satisfy both those savoury and sweet tooths amoungst all of your guests.

Recently, while gathering friends and family were busy munching away at my homemade burgers, my friend Claire disappeared to my freezer to find out what homemade icecreams I had on the go. I tell you there are no secrets in my house. Followed closely by Mel the 2 of them emerged from my garage with wide beamed smiles.

One icecream variety each, before chaos persued in my kitchen. But hey, in my house thats normal, and we always end up in the kitchen! Funny that, all these rooms in my house and suddenly all your guests try to fit in one room!

Anyway, Claire having a savoury tooth loves my pistachio nut icecream and after finding the biggest spoon she could lay her hands on; both Emma and Claire dug in to the icecream to make themselves a big bowl full. Before they disappeared up my garden with bowl in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, before they ate all their icecream and started on the cheese and fruit.

However, Mel has a sweet tooth and she had my vanilla and honey homemade icecream, which by now everyone was having a taste of. So I decided, lets make some sweet fruity kebabs and serve them with this delicious sweet icecream.

Brilliant, just like “can’t cook won’t cook”, everyone wanted a go. So preheating the grill so some people could use the barbecue and the others my grill & griddle, we set about making our kebabs. Your going to need for my sweet fruity kebabs - 75ml freshly squeezed orange juice, 15ml honey, 30ml water, 16 strawberries, 1/2 mango peeled, stoned and cut into 8 pieces, 1/2 pineapple, peeled, cut into 16 pieces, 1 banana peeled and cut into 8 pieces and of course a tub of icecream (whether thats homemade or from your local farm shop).

First preheat the grill as I had above, then slowly bring the water, orange juice and honey to the boil, stirring until the honey is dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes, until slightly thickened. Meanwhile thread the fruits alternately on to 8 wooden skewers. Place onto a grill rack or barbecue and cook the kebabs for about 8 minutes, basting them occasionally with the honey syrup. Once golden serve the cooked fruity kebabs with a scoop of your favourite ice cream and drizzle with any extra syrup. A dish to delight any sweet tooth, trust me and loads of fun to do!

Never the less to say, I spend nearly an hour making batches of kebabs and syrup for everyone, before joining the rest of them now all under the glowing lanterns in my garden where all was in full swing with a great game of pictionary, (while a bit tipsy) in teams which was hilarious! and while I am thinking about Jacob you owe me a meerkat statue!!! Nothing can beat a great night of good food, good company, great friends and family and loads of memories!

What games do you get up to at your barbecues, and whats your favourite party dishes? Check out my blog the big dipper for some more party gadgets. Why not have a look at some of my ice cream recipes in my blog dark, delcious chocolate icecream and homemade icecream in a flash plus many more too.

Not all homemade ice creams need to be made in a ice cream maker. This particular one dosen’t need constant stirring and whisking to obtain a smooth and creamy ice cream. Made with cream cheese which dosen’t need whipping but gives the cream density this chocolate delight ice cream just couldn’t be easier for you to make so have a go.

A great appliance to have handy in your kitchen is this great Kuhn Rikon 300w hand blender shopper & whisk, with its high power 300w  with 2 Speeds. It also is a great price and comes with measuring cup and chopping container Whisk attachment and stainless steel rod and blade. Its uses in cookery are endless you will be using in most recipes. 

Your going to need: 500g vanilla Custard ( you could use a ready made version if you wish for quickness too), 400g light cream cheese, 100g icing sugar sifted, 300g plain chocolate broken in the pieces and 100ml milk (remember to use the variety to suit your diet like soya etc if needed).

First start by melting 200g of your chocolate in a bowl with your custard over a saucepan stirring until smooth. PLace the cream cheese and icing sugar in a mixing bowl and gradually whisk this into the warmed chocolate custard mix. Then whisk in the milk and chill in the refridgerator. When chilled pour this into a freezer grade plastic tupperware container (at least 1.5 litres in size) covering with a fitted lid or clingfilm if you don’t have a lid and freeze in your freezer for at least 2 hours, (until almost frozen). You can if you have a ice cream maker follow the instructions and use your appliance if you wish as in my previous blog  homemade ice cream in a flash. 

Put your remaining chocolate into a microwave proof food bag, seal the bag and microwave for 1 minute on high to melt. You can then snip of the corner of the bag and drizzle this chocolate in to the readymade ice cream in it tupperware container. Leave to set and stir the set drizzled chocolate into the ice cream which gives you small slithers of chocolate throughout your icecream. Finally freeze your icecream for around another 2 hours until completely frozen.

Then serve as required whether thats with a scrummy hot chocolate pudding, with fresh local strawberries, on top of a delicious homemade dessert or even as my kids love to do sandwich digestive biscuits with a scope of ice cream and enjoy.

Another idea might be to fill profiteroles with this instead of fresh cream see my previous blog chocolate profiteroles with chantilly cream made in your mixer for a great dessert and recipe.

Tell me your ideas of how you serve ice cream and what you favourite variety of ice cream is?