Red Velvet Ninja Creami

Red Velvet Ninja Creami tastes like the cake turned into ice cream, deep red, fudgy and finished with a light cream cheese frosting swirl. It is just milk, chocolate protein powder, cocoa, Greek yogurt, sweetener, vanilla, salt and red food coloring, blended smooth, frozen solid and spun into thick scoops. A proper high protein dessert that still feels like a bakery treat.

Why you’ll love it

• Tastes like red velvet cake, not like a protein shake that got frozen.
• About 9 g of protein per serving from label values, about 35 g per pint.
• Ten minutes of hands on work, then the freezer and the machine do the rest.
• Spins thick and scoopable, with one re spin fixing the crumbly first spin.
• The cream cheese frosting swirl makes every bowl look like a dessert shop scoop.

Ingredient notes

Chocolate protein powder: the flavor backbone. It adds about 20 g of protein per scoop on most brand labels and gives the fudgy depth that makes this taste like red velvet cake. Vanilla powder works in a pinch, but it needs the extra cocoa and tastes lighter.

Milk: whole milk gives the creamiest pint, and 2% is a close second. The milk adds about 8 g of protein per 1 1/4 cups from standard labels and keeps the base from freezing rock hard. Skim milk is the one version I would skip, since it made the test pint icy.

Greek yogurt: the quiet texture ingredient. It adds tang and body, about 6 g of protein per 1/4 cup from standard labels, and it is what keeps this pint thick instead of thin and icy.

Cocoa powder: this is what separates red velvet from pink vanilla. Two tablespoons deepen the chocolate flavor and the red tone, so do not skip it.

Red food coloring: gel is best, one to two teaspoons for a rich deep red. The color lightens in the freezer, so the liquid base should look slightly bolder than the scoop you picture.

Cream cheese frosting and salt: two tablespoons of light frosting give the signature tangy swirl, and the pinch of salt rounds the sweetness so the cake flavor lands.

The freeze and spin rule that makes or breaks it

Two rules decide this pint, and both are about patience. First, freeze for a full 24 hours on a level surface, with the top smoothed flat. A pint frozen for only a few hours, or frozen at a slant, spins soft and uneven. Second, do not judge the first spin. Protein bases often look crumbly after the first cycle, and that crumbly look sends a lot of people to the conclusion that the recipe failed. It did not. One tablespoon of milk and one re spin turns it thick, creamy and scoopable, and the Mix in cycle with the frosting goes on after, not before. A second re spin takes it softer still, toward soft serve, so stop after the first re spin if you want proper scoops.

Variations

• Chocolate drizzle: finish each bowl with a drizzle of chocolate sauce for a black and white bakery look.
• Oreo crumble: after the Mix in cycle, fold in a handful of crushed chocolate sandwich cookies with a spoon, just twice, for cookies and cream style swirls in the red base.
• Strawberry ripple: fold in a spoonful of mashed fresh strawberries after spinning for a red on red fruit ripple through the swirl.
• Mini chocolate chip: add 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips through the Mix in cycle right after the frosting, so the chips shatter against the cold red velvet.