The Great Seattle Ice Cream Quest Round 3: Cupcake Royale

Cupcake Royale, one of Seattle's most popular cupcake shops, does ice cream as well. There aren't any basic flavors here--the goal seems to be to combine as many types of dessert as possible into a single, efficient package. Nothing reflects this concept better than the cupcake ice cream sundae.

It's about as outrageous as it sounds: a cupcake is placed in a cup, ice cream is scooped on top, and it's finished up with whipped cream and a topping. It's sugar overload. I got July's cupcake of the month, the Blueberry Brown Betty, with honey snickerdoodle ice cream and caramel sauce for the topping.

My boyfriend helped me with it, and with great determination, we managed to finish it. I probably wouldn't get it again--and yet, I would happily get a cupcake with ice cream on the side. I guess something about ice cream on top of frosting was just a little too much. And, you know...the extra sugar drizzle and fluffy fat piles on top.

Up next: Bluebird

The Great Seattle Ice Cream Quest Round 1: Molly Moon's

In Seattle, we take our summers very seriously. We like the outdoors, but the weather isn't always great. So, in that brief window of time called summer, people are desperate to lay in the grass, go swimming, hike Mount Si, and most importantly, eat ice cream.

There are quite a few ice cream shops around for a place that's famous for raining most of the year, and it's my personal mission to visit them all (all the ones I deem worthy, anyway).

Molly Moon's is one of the most popular ice cream establishments in the city, with frequent lines out the door on sunny days. Okay, partly sunny days, too. Or maybe just non-rainy days. Any excuse for an ice cream! I first visited the Wallingford branch years ago while attending the UW and, after a long wait for an unmemorable sorbet, didn't bother going back. Until recently. I now live mere blocks from the Capitol Hill location, and in the haze of frozen dessert insanity that descends upon Seattle on those non-rainy days (okay, maybe just not-the-dead-of-winter days) and my own failing battle with uncontrollable sugarlust, I decided to give it another go.

And so my quest for the greatest of frozen treats has its first contender: earl grey ice cream. With vanilla bean caramel sauce. And walnuts. And whipped cream. Maraschino cherry optional.