What would it take to be entered into a special type of raffle, a raffle with prizes you can’t buy for yourself? In the case of the 2026 Pup Crawl, it would involve petting dogs and drinking beer.
Olivia Ross from the Humane Society for Greater Nashua described the three-day fundraiser. “It’s not a traditional pub crawl,” she said. “We call it our Pup Crawl as a play on words. But really it’s a weekend-long event for folks who want to support local breweries, but also it is a dog-friendly event.”
Every stop along the Pup Crawl is a pro-dog brewery, she said. “We’ve chosen places that allow dogs on the outdoor patios or inside the breweries so that we get a lot of dog lovers who come through. It’s a great time for people to get together to celebrate and enjoy some good beer and some good food.”
It starts by buying a ticket on the Humane Society website, Ross said. “We sell tickets through our website, which is hsfn.org for, $25 per person. You do have to be 21 or older, of course, to purchase them. That money goes straight to the shelter, so it’s helping our animals right now who are currently awaiting adoption. And with that ticket you receive your Pup Crawl T-shirt and what we call our ‘Pawsport,’ which is a brochure with all the brewery and event info located on it.”
Throughout the weekend, each Pup Crawler will visit whichever and however many of the participating breweries they want to, Ross said. “So when they visit a brewery and they make a purchase, whether that’s for food or drink or even merchandise, they will get a stamp on that Pawsport from one of the staff members. And when we have our finale event on Sunday they’ll pass their Pawsport in and receive raffle tickets for each stamp that they’ve got on their Pawsport.”
The prizes for the raffles vary, Ross said, from things you might expect, like branded swag from participating breweries, to things a little harder to come by.
“One of the prizes is four tickets to a pre-season Patriots game,” she said. The most noteworthy prize is something much more personal. “This will be our third year doing this raffle where folks can enter to have their dog featured on next year’s Pup Crawl T-shirt. You can see this year’s T-shirt on our website. Our model is Miss Biscuit. She is an adorable cattle dog mix, and she’s just got a perfect little face for the T-shirt. She and her mom attend Pup Crawl each year, so she was very excited to win the raffle last year and have Biscuit featured on this year’s shirt.”
This year’s Pup Crawl will start on Friday, July 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing in Merrimack.
“Our finale or closer will be at AJ’s Sports Bar and Grill in Hudson,” Ross said. “We used to host our finales at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack, but unfortunately the location closed down. We visited AJ’s in Hudson and met with one of the managers there. They were so kind. They actually offer a doggy-friendly menu. You can order food and drink for yourself, but you can also order dog-friendly items like grilled chicken and plain rice for your dog. During the finale, along with the raffle, we’re also going to have a lure course that the dogs can participate in. Basically it is a white bag that’s attached to this zip line that sticks to the ground. Some dogs stay very focused and they run and follow the bag. It’s great exercise. Some of them will even catch the bag. And then you get the dogs like mine who get distracted and just wander off in the field or they just like to roll around in the grass.”
The Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s annual Pup Crawl When and where: begins Friday, July 17, at 4 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. (31 Columbia Circle, Merrimack, 844-223-2253, ableebenezer.com) and ends Sunday, July 10, at AJ’s Sports Bar (11 Tracy Lane, Hudson, 708-1102, ajs-sportsbar.com). Visit participating breweries in between. More: hsfn.org/pup-crawl
• Lavender date night: Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com) will host a Sunset Date Night in the Field, Friday, July 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. Share a sunset in the lavender fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm picking lavender, eating a curated picnic, and drinking lavender-infused mocktails and Champagne. Tickets are $249 through the farm’s website.
• Sweet summer cookie decorating: Practice intermediate cookie decorating skills in a beautiful garden studio setting in Brookline. This class, taught by Make Sweet Art, is recommended for adults who have basic cookie decorating skills already. This event will take place Saturday, July 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a private garden or an indoor studio, depending on the weather. Tickets are $69.82 through eventbrite.com.
• Cake and gardens are a perfect combination: The Sugar Connection Bakeshop (thesugarconnectionbakeshop.com) will lead a garden party cake workshop Sunday, July 12, at noon, guiding guests through decorating their own garden-inspired cake, sharing tips and techniques along the way. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, this workshop is all about having fun, sharing tips, and getting creative with yummy treats. Tickets are $55.20 at sapphiresocialnh.com.
• Wine, yoga, and Dave Matthews are another good combination: On Monday, July 13, from 1 to 5 p.m., join Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) and Blossom Yoga (120 N. Main St., Concord, 226-9642, blossomyoganh.com) for a celebration in Bicentennial Square of everything Dave Matthews Band. There will be free wine-tasting, yoga, and other Matthewsian celebrations. Visit wineonmainnh.com/event for details.
• Teens, tweens and basil: There will be a meeting of the Teen/Tween Spice Club at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., Nashua, 589-4600, nashualibrary.org) Tuesday, July 14, from 2 to 3 p.m. Discover a new spice or herb each month through tasting simple recipes and hands-on food exploration. This month the club is featuring basil, a versatile herb used in cuisines around the world. Sample a variety of basil-inspired treats, make your own refreshing basil lemonade, and explore the many ways this fragrant herb can add flavor to food and drinks. You’ll also take home a recipe to try in your own kitchen.
• A cupcake and martini explosion: The martini and cupcake pairing at the Copper Door (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) in July is themed around fireworks. The Fireworks Finale Martini is made with whipped cream vodka, white chocolate liqueur, Triple-Eight blueberry vodka, blueberry syrup and cream, with a blueberry garnish, for $14.75. The Fireworks Finale Cupcake is a blueberry cupcake with blueberry puree filling, vanilla frosting, a fresh blueberry, and gold star candy sprinkles, for $12.
The Hillsboro Summerfest will take place from July 9 to July 12. According to the festival chair and creative director, Katherine Charrette, the celebration has been going on in one form or another for 36 years, offering carnival rides, music and community events to raise money for Hillsborough’s Fire Department and in recent years the Lions Club.
”It’s been a few different things over the years,” she said. “We were originally the Fireman’s Muster, so they would get together and compete, and it’s really grown since then. We were the Balloon Fest for a long time, and we’ve recently rebranded in the past seven years as the Hillsboro Summerfest, so we could kind of broaden our scope a little bit.”
“Our proceeds go to the firefighters,” Charrette said, “and their association, which provides lots of medical equipment.and materials that we need. It also splits with the other partner we have, which is the Lions Club. They provide lots of free meals for senior citizens. They do lunches with kids and students at the school. They provide eyewear. We’re completely nonprofit and our goal is to get money from this festival into the pockets of other nonprofits.”
Charrette said that aside from raising money for good causes the goal of Summerfest is to provide affordable entertainment.
“We really try to provide as much free stuff as we possibly can,” she said, “in order to have people not spending a ton of money and be able to really enjoy themselves without a huge price ticket. [What you see] all depends on the day that you show up. If you show up on Thursday, you’re going to see kids and teens running around everywhere, going on all the rides as many times in a row as they can. If you were to show up on Saturday, you could see a 12-foot-tall butterfly, a strongman performance by two-time world record holder Mighty Mike — he’s coming here from Nova Scotia to perform for us — we have stilt walkers, we have a long and very good fireworks show. We have a magic show. We have an RC truck crawler meet-up on Sunday this year — we have a truck that dumps off a bunch of rocks and you can take any kind of RC vehicle that you would like and you’ll be able to just kind of get tips and tricks from other RC enthusiasts … it’s really just about RC vehicles meeting up and learning from one another. And we are doing a giveaway for like a $300 RC crawler truck, which is like … a very tiny version of a lifted Toyota Tacoma.”
Another high point of this year’s Summerfest will be a 5K road race, Charette said.
“We have one of the most beautiful 5K courses in the world. Our route goes along our river and over a beautiful, very old bridge. So that’s a really unique experience.” Another not-to-be-missed event that has become a yearly tradition, she said, is the Women’s Skillet Toss. “All of the proceeds for that go to women’s heart health,” she said. “And this is exactly what it sounds like, which is hucking a skillet as far as you possibly can — only underhand, no overhand. And this year we have added a Men’s Marshmallow Long Drive so we can provide something for men as well. The money raised from that will raise money for men’s mental health.” The Long Drive is golf-oriented, Charette said. “You take your driver and hit a ball as far as you can, only we’ll be using marshmallows because mental health is messy sometimes.”
The Hillsboro Summerfest When: Thursday, July 9, from 6 to 10 p.m.; Friday, July 10, from 5 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, July 11, from 2 to 11 p.m.; and Sunday, July 12, from noon to 5 p.m. Where: Hillsborough Fair Grounds on Henniker Street in Hillsborough. More: hillsborosummerfest.com
A look at the creations that take ice cream to another level
There is, of course, no single surefire guaranteed way to put somebody in a good mood. But ice cream comes close and an ice cream sundae adds even more deliciousness.
Perhaps a sundae even helps sell the idea that ice cream is a meal unto itself? Karissa Grey, a scooper at Cremeland Drive In in Manchester said that while scooped ice cream and sundaes sell about equally well, as the day gets later customers are more likely to order sundaes. “Some days it’s just scoops, other days I get a lot of orders for sundaes, but we definitely sell more sundaes in the afternoon than we do in the morning.”
How to sundae? Here are some ideas from some area sundae purveyors.
• Rhubarb Sundae
$4.35 from Richardson’s Farm (170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com)
“It’s a standard sundae,” owner Jim Richardson said, “two scoops of ice cream, whatever kind of sauce, whipped cream, nuts, and cherry. But in this case the sauce is our homemade rhubarb. Several years ago a woman came running up to the front door, pointing at our rhubarb, going, ‘Is that rhubarb?’ I wondered what was wrong with her — it’s obviously rhubarb, but she said she’d never seen it before. I asked her where the heck she came from, and she said, Maryland. I just shook my head.”
Richardson admitted that rhubarb is a bit old-fashioned.
“When I was a little kid,” he said, “my grandmother always had a rhubarb sauce on the stove in the springtime. And you had to have it to thin your blood. If you didn’t thin your blood in the springtime, you’d overheat in the summertime. So anyway, after the Maryland lady left, I thought, ‘Geez, I haven’t done that in years,’ so I made a big pot of rhubarb sauce.”
The rhubarb sauce was popular enough that Richardson added strawberry-rhubarb and blueberry-rhubarb ice creams into his rotation. “It sells better than plain strawberry does,” he said. “We have a constant demand for it.”
• Strawberry sundae
Strawberry Sundae at King Kone Photo by staff.
$6.75 for a small at King Kone (366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com)
Known for their massive soft-serve ice cream cone, which you can get dipped or with toppings, King Kone also offers banana splits and sundaes, which are equally generous in size. Sundae offerings include hot fudge, peanut butter, pineapple, hot butterscotch, brownie and, for your berry cravings, a Strawberry Sundae, which you can get with your choice of soft-serve. At a recent visit, options included vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, blueberry and, for maximum flavor, strawberry. The strawberry soft-serve was topped with syrupy strawberries, whipped cream, nuts and cherry.
“It’s like a banana split, without the banana,” said scooper Damaris Gilbert. “There’s three scoops of ice cream, and three — all of the toppings match up to the flavors, so there are strawberries on the strawberry [ice cream] and hot fudge on the chocolate ice cream, but what kind of topping matches up to vanilla? Well, pineapples are kind of the same color.”
Gilbert said that in her professional opinion the Dudley’s Special should be split between two or more people. “If I was going to eat a banana split or a Dudley’s Special or either of them, I would bring a team, personally,” she said, “but loads of people eat it by themselves. The Dudley’s Special is one of those mysterious types of things with aura where you remember when someone orders one. You remember the specific person who ordered it.”
• Ice Cream Sundae (bespoke)
A small for $6.50 at Granite State Candy Shoppe (13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com)
“I wanted to make you happy today,” said scooper Tasha Ross, “so I made you a lovely small sundae which consists of two scoops. I added one scoop of fudge brownie and another scoop of our peanut butter cup ice cream. On top, I put a little bit of chocolate fudge, and peanut butter sauce. The toppings I added were mini peanut butter cups and I also added some almonds since how can you have fudge brownies without almonds? And then I finished it off with some rainbow sprinkles and topped it with whipped cream and cherries.”
Granite State Candy sells more than 25 flavors of hard ice cream at any given time, Ross said. “If you order a large [sundae], you can add an extra flavor. We have four vegan flavors that are available in kinder, small, large, pint, or quart-sized. And our sundaes come in micro, small, and large sizes.”
“Because,” she repeated, “we want you to be happy.”
• Medium Three-Topping Sundae
$9.76 at Social Club Creamery (138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com)
At the Social Club Creamery there are two ice cream menus. One menu is permanent, featuring always-there, familiar flavors, like double chocolate, maple latte, honeycomb or gooey butter cake. Additionally there is a second, smaller menu of seasonal flavors that changes each month. In July, for instance, it’s possible to order black raspberry chip, blueberry cheesecake, raspberry-brownie batter, or strawberry lemonade sorbet, which is vegan.
Asked to make a “very good sundae,” scoopers Maddie Dwyer and Chloe MacNevin consulted briefly and made a medium sundae with three toppings — a scoop each of Patty’s peppermint and double chocolate ice cream, with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. This particular sundae has not been named yet, they said, but if it were, it would be a staff favorite.
A Happy Cake Bowl is a sort of hybrid sundae, said Sweet Bel’s owner Jennifer Belmore.
“We cut cake up into cubes, and we put it in the bottom of a bowl and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick your hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you had a birthday and you had your cake and ice cream. We’ve got away from that for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”
• Fried Dough Sundae
$10.95 at Cremeland Drive In (250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook)
“The Fried Dough Sundae is pretty popular,” said Cremeland scooper Karissa Grey, “but not as much as the banana split, which is the favorite, especially in the afternoon. But the Fried Dough Sundae is literally just exactly what it says. It’s a piece of fried dough with ice cream, liquid topping, with cream and a cherry.”
The number of flavors of ice cream Cremeland carries depends on the time of year, Grey said. “It really depends on the time of the season, because we’re seasonal. So sometimes we have just our bare-bones flavors, like at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season. And other times, like right now, I think there’s 27 on the board.”
The secret to making a good sundae, Grey said, is attention to details.
“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said, “making them look nice. It’s important not to rush, honestly. A lot of people, when it gets busy, will just rush to get things out. But you eat with your eyes first, not your mouth, and that plays a big part in — I feel like, that’s one of the things that make people want to come here or not.”
• Large Hot Fudge Sundae
$9.95 at The Big 1 (185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com)
Jeanne Marquis, the owner of The Big 1, said a traditional hot fudge sundae is far and away the most popular of her treats.
“The classic vanilla hard ice cream with hot fudge is the most popular,” she said. “Our parfaits run second to that. We have hot caramel and hot butterscotch sauces as well. They all sell extremely well. And they’re all kind of classics, really.”
• Brownie Sundae
$7.83 at The Inside Scoop (260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com)
According to scooper Courtney Winands, the brownie sundae is the most popular enhanced ice cream dish at the Inside Scoop.
“It’s a fudge brownie on the bottom, with ice cream and a topping,” she said. While you can get any flavor ice cream, she recommends Maine blackberry: “It’s a red raspberry base, with chocolate raspberry truffles. That goes really well with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles.” She said that when ordering for themselves most customers order a single scoop of ice cream or a kid’s size ice cream. Full-sized sundaes are generally a team effort, she observed.
• Classic Banana Split
$11.94 at Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream (27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com)
Moo’s has more than 30 flavors of ice cream — not counting soft-serve, frozen yogurt, sorbets and other frozen treats — all made on the premises. One of its most popular sundaes is a classic banana split, with three scoops of ice cream, a banana, three toppings, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry, according to its website.
• Small Banana Boat
$12 at Hayward’s Ice Cream (364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway in Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com)
You are pretty much spoiled for choice with ice cream flavors at Hayward’s in Merrimack and Nashua. There are always at least 45 flavors of hard ice cream, which is made in house. A small banana boat has two scoops of ice cream, two types of sauce, a banana, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry. Like the ice cream, the sauces can be customized. The choices include strawberry, hot fudge, marshmallow and pineapple.
• Banana Float Sundae
$10 at Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net)
Trombly Gardens is better known as a farm stand and garden nursery but has a steady stream of ice cream customers, said scooper Mackenzie Burke. One of the most popular sundaes is Trobley’s Banana Float Sundae.
“It has three scoops of strawberry ice cream,” she said, “hot fudge, caramel, and butterscotch toppings, with walnuts on it, whipped cream and cherries. Strawberry is our most popular flavor for our banana float sundaes, especially now, during strawberry season.”
Burke said her personal favorite is “chocolate with chocolate on chocolate.”
Cookie Monster Sundae at Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford. Photo by John Fladd.
• Cookie Monster Sundae
$9.75 at Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford (383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com)
A Cookie Monster Sundae is made with bright blue Cookie Monster ice cream, marshmallow sauce, and frozen nuggets of cookie dough, topped with more Cookie Monster ice cream, more marshmallow, and even more frozen cookie dough.
• King Shake
$12.95 at Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery (53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com)
Meaka Cruz is one of the managers at Lickee’s & Chewy’s. She said the store focuses on King Shakes, though the two are very similar.
“We offer a lot of creative sundaes, I suppose,” she said, “but we’re probably more about the King Shakes, which can be made as sundaes. They have chocolate rims on the side and fun toppings to mix with the ice cream, like Nutella, hot fudge, and then nuts and sprinkles. They all have kind of intricate toppings and themes that we typically strive for. A new one that we have right now … [has] Nutella and strawberries. Our chocolatiers decorate the cups with hard chocolate syrup on the side [and] top it with frozen strawberries and a Kinder Bueno bar.”
Cruz has a theory about why ice cream places develop such elaborate desserts with their ice creams.
“I think it’s to be creative and draw people in,” she said. “Everywhere else does something cool and unique, so I feel like each store wants to express themselves and tries to put something great out.”
SUNDAE PANEL The Big 1 185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com Cremeland Drive In 250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook Dudley’s Ice Cream 846 Route 106, Loudon, 783-4800, facebook.com/dudleysicecreamshop Granite State Candy Shoppe 13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com Hayward’s Ice Cream 364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford 383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com The Inside Scoop 260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com King Kone 366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery 53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream 27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com Richardson’s Farm 170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com Social Club Creamery 138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com Trombly Gardens 150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net
Chocolate and raspberries are a classic combination. What makes this particular cake so very raspberry-y is that it is flavored with actual freeze-dried raspberries, not raspberry flavoring. There is lemon zest to brighten the flavor, and actual chocolate for chocolateyness. The rainbow unicorns will appear independently.
Cake
1⅓ cups (300 g, 2 cubes + 5 Tablespoons) butter
1⅓ cups (266 g) granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup (80 g) milk
1 envelope (1.2 ounces or 34 g) freeze-dried raspberries
Ganache
⅓ cup (80 g) heavy cream
8.8 ounces (250 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Another 1.2 ounces (34 g) envelope of freeze-dried raspberries
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and sugar a Bundt pan.
Grind each envelope of freeze-dried raspberries. Sift with a fine-mesh sifter to remove seeds. Set each aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and raspberry powder together. Set Team Pink aside.
Cream the butter, lemon zest and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Spoon the dry ingredients into the mix, then the milk.
Transfer the pink batter to the Bundt pan, one large spoonful at a time, then smooth the blobs out. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake reaches an internal temperature of 200°F. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes or so, then flip it out onto a serving plate, and cool for another hour or so.
After you’ve dusted your mahjong trophies or written a Portuguese love poem, return to the kitchen.
Heat the chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl for a few seconds at a time — 30 seconds, then 20, then 10, etc. — stirring each time, until combined and silky. Stir in the remaining raspberry powder, then spoon the ganache over the cake. Don’t worry if it’s drippy; it’s supposed to be.
Give the ganache a few minutes to set up, then cut slices, and serve with ice cream, or very cold milk.
Featured photo: Raspberry + chocolate. Photo by John Fladd.
“I make cake pretty much every day here,” Belmore said, as she cut a slab of chocolate sheet cake from a baking pan and cut it into cubes. “Right now I have chocolate cake and funfetti to put at the bottom of a bowl. and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick a hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s a hybrid sundae per se — kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you were a birthday boy or girl and you had your cake and ice cream. We got away from it for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”
Belmore opened Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations in Merrimack in April,
“I opened April 18. And business has been good so far,” she said. Her vision is to serve ice cream with a different spin on things. “My background is in baking,” she said. “I was trained as a French pastry chef, and I’ve always wanted to have a bakery. And so, fast-forward all these years later, and I have the attitude of, ‘What goes better with baked goods than ice cream?”
Belmore bought an existing ice cream shop on Daniel Webster Highway in Merrimack. “It already had the right footprint,” she said, “and I just had to add an oven, and voila! Here I am.”
At this point, Belmore put cubes of chocolate cake in the bottom of a bowl, setting several off to the side, and scooped ice cream on top of the bowl-cake. At any given time Sweet Bel’s offers more than 30 choices of ice cream.
“Our ice cream comes from Shain’s of Maine, up in Sanford, Maine,” she said, “a small little place.” This time Belmore chose banana ice cream to go over the cake cubes. Given the choice of chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, peanut butter or strawberry sauces, she chose peanut butter to go over the two scoops of ice cream.
“This is probably one of the best combinations,” Belmore said with a nod. “This and our peanut butter cup sundae; everyone loves peanut butter and chocolate.” She said she really likes making Happy Cake Bowls. “There’s something very satisfying about them,” she said. “My favorite ice cream probably changes by the week, but right now, it’s Turtles — vanilla [ice cream] with chocolate chips, cashews, and swirled with caramel. It’s so good; I like the texture. And then chocolate peanut butter is probably my second favorite.”
Scooped ice cream and sundae’s make up a large part of Belmore’s sales, she said, but her particular specialty is custom ice cream sandwiches.
“We do custom ice cream sandwiches,” she said. “I bake cookies every day and then you can pick your cookie, your ice cream.” Baking two types of cookies per day means that a customer might have more than 60 different ice cream sandwich combinations to choose from.
Belmore covered the sundae in the Happy Cake Bowl with whipped cream, then crumbled the remaining cake over the top. She examined the bowl carefully, then added a cherry, and sprinkles, then nodded again.
Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations Where: 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com When: open seven days a week during the summer, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Featured photo: Happy Cake Bowl from Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream. Photo by John Fladd.
