Monday Munchies - Ben & Jerry's Fair Goodness Cake! (Limited Batch)

I've an interesting relationship with German Chocolate Cake.  When I was a kid I loved it.  Ma Serpico would occasionally make a German Chocolate Cake (usually for my birthday) so it was always a special treat.

But one of those times, I ate entirely too much of it.  So much so that I effectively burned myself out the notion of German Chocolate anything.

So you can imagine my internal conflict when I found out that Ben & Jerry's was releasing the German Chocolate Cake inspired Fair Goodness Cake as a limited edition flavor.  On one hand it's a new Ben & Jerry's flavor; but on the other hand it's German Chocolate.



Over a month and a half ago, my former Vegas roommate began rubbing my nose into the fact that Ben & Jerry's had a new flavor that was beyond my reach.  They describe Fair Goodness Cake as chocolate ice cream with German Chocolate Cake pieces and a coconut caramel swirl.

So in actuality Fair Goodness Cake has an additional strike against it; it's chocolate ice cream.

It's not to much that I don't like chocolate ice cream.  It's just that chocolate ice cream is literally one of the things that I've got to be in the mood for, to enjoy it.  Sometimes I crave chocolate ice cream, but more often than not I tend to shy away from it.

As a flavor, Fair Goodness Cake is completely acceptable.  It's chocolate ice cream, which isn't really a complimentary ice cream flavor because it tends to overwhelm the taste buds.  But since the cake pieces are German Chocolate Cake pieces, they stand up pretty well to the ice cream flavor.

Also the cake pieces are plentiful without being cumbersome.  You don't have to seek them out and you can generally get one in each bite.

Another plus is that Ben & Jerry's have again created a "cake" flavor that isn't sickeningly sweet.  It's really quite a balanced flavor.

The caramel coconut swirl tends to be lost in the double dose of chocolate components.  Actually only the caramel gets lost; the coconut shavings linger around.  Coconut is divisive.  Some people don't like the texture and that you've got to actually chew it, while others love those two things.  I'm in the latter category, so the addition of coconut almost saves the flavor.

Sadly Fair Goodness Cake just doesn't do too much for me.  Ice cream is awesome during the dog days of summer and on a very basic level Fair Goodness Cake filled a need.  But it's not a flavor that I'll be looking for or really feel a need to return to.

If you're a a fan of chocolate or German Chocolate Cake, Fair Goodness Cake might be up your alley.  But if you're like me, it'll just be a brief summer fling.