Grown-up gourmet milkshakes, some spiked and some not, are all the rage. For many adults, a milkshake is an instant trip to childhood, a comfort that can be innocent and inexpensive, like the $3.49 Birthday Cake Milk Shake from Steak’n Shake, or indulgent and decadent, like the The Powder Room’s $500 Velvet Goldmine.
Industry insiders have called the milkshake “the new cupcake,” and many creative chefs and amateurs alike are putting cupcakes into—and on top of—milkshakes. The new “cupcake milkshake,” which lets the indulger drink a milkshake (into which cake as been blended) through a straw impaled in the crowning cupcake, is really a culmination of many years of creative exploration and accompanying improvements in mixers that have made it easy to add cakes, pies, cookies, candy—just about anything—to the classic milkshake.