The sun is shining this weekend.

It’s a bank holiday weekend.

It’s Mr Whippy time!

No sunny weekend passes without a trip to the park to feed the ducks, to go down the slide 50+ times and have an ice cream sat on the park bench.

This was the first one of the year.

Either I have shrunk or Mr Whippy’s have got bigger!

My ‘medium’ 99 appeared like a mountain.

White and velvety.

Skillfully swirled round to achieve maximum height.

I was almost defeated by my good old friend but I could not give in!

I hadn’t even made it down to the cone when I started to struggle.

I had just eaten the flake.

A slightly sick feeling started to build in me.

But I had come this far, I couldn’t give up now.

My (nearly) 2yr old had eaten his.

Albeit a very small one but he was looking expectantly at mine.

I knew once I made it to the cone I would be OK.

There would be respite then.

I stared in disbelief at the young girl on the swing with her double cone.

A few deep breaths.

I considered taking some off but no, I could do this.

I should have gone for the sauce.

At least some raspberry sauce or some nuts would have changed the texture.

That’s what Adam Richman would have done.

Thrown something else into the mix to fool his brain he had not had enough.

Another deep breath.

And I reached the cone!

Oh the relief of the light crispy crunch!

It would be downhill from here.

Easy peasy!

I had made it.

Well done me!

5hrs later I think I have just about recovered.

Note to self…..

Go for the small one next time!

Although it could be some time…….

I am reflecting on my experience.

What’s happened to me?! I am weak!

My Whippy is mostly air!

The more air they add, the whiter and smoother the appearance.

Typically it can be anywhere between 35-60% air.

It is frozen quickly at the point of sale (as it comes out of the machine). This ensures the ice crystals are tiny, so it is smooth and flowing.

Reading that it can be made from a ready-made mix, or a powder to which water is added is not making me feel any better now.

The fact that typically this ice cream is a haven for bacteria is really not helping either.

I hope my local Mr Whippy looks after his stuff and keeps his ice cream refrigerated at the right temperature!

I have been trawling the internet to find out what exactly is in this soft serve ice cream.

It is proving very difficult to find anything that is sold in the UK! You can go onto Mr Whippy’s website and learn how to hire one of his vans but nothing tells me what’s in his ice cream.

Probably best not to know.

I did find this though:

It’s made with skimmed milk or skimmed milk powder, sugar, thickeners, stabilisers and emulsifiers. Yum!

One small cone contains 211 Cals, 5g saturated fat and 23g sugar. No data on a ‘medium’ size! It must be ~ 300 Calories. I don’t even want to think ab out the sugar. My teeth are creaking at the thought of more than 6 teaspoons of sugar. That might explain the nausea!

To make myself feel better, I could always have gone for the Magnum Gold. This beauty has 280 Cals, 18g fat, or which 14g are saturated fat, combined with 24g sugar.

Mr Whippy is almost a ‘diet’ choice then! 🙂