Cauldron Ice Cream

I’m so excited to share this ice cream shop with you today. Located in Orange County, Cauldron Ice Cream serves liquid nitrogen ice cream and, most importantly, is the creator of the puffle cone. The creation has become a huge sensation on social media and has been featured in numerous national media outlets. I’ve also already seen many copycat versions.

A puffle cone is Cauldron’s take on egg waffles, a popular Hong Kong street snack made in a special egg shaped mold. It’s sometimes referred to as egg puffs because of the way the individual spheres puff up, which you can break off and eat one by one. I’ve always been obsessed with egg waffles (check out my recipes here and here), so you can imagine my excitement when I discovered the puffle cone.

When we visited recently, it was everything I could have imagined and more.

The ice cream flavors offered are exciting–think cookie butter, Vietnamese coffee, cereal and milk, etc. The ice cream itself is super creamy. Liquid nitrogen ice cream has been trending in Orange County, though it hasn’t quite reached San Diego. When we first tried it in San Diego years ago, it was more gimmicky than tasty. But it seems like the ice cream shops in the OC have figured out the right formula as the liquid nitrogen ice creams we’ve had have all been really good. Creamy, and similar to heavy-cream based homemade ice cream, but without the long wait time for the ice cream to freeze.

The puffle cone, was also great. Baked to a uniform golden brown, the cone really holds together well. I tried making my own version at home, but my cone was a little too soft. The ones served at Cauldron are quite sturdy. They definitely hold up through your entire ice cream eating experience, but the waffle itself still remains puffy and soft on the inside (though maybe not quite as moist as traditional ones, but that’s too be expected since they have to bake them to be sturdier).

The Cauldron (Cinnamon vanilla ice cream, Oreos, thin mints)

This is their signature creation and a good one to start off with if you like Oreos, cinnamon and thin mints.

And if that wasn’t enough, they can even shape your ice cream like a rose (upon request). So pretty! We were wondering if we had to get the rosewater flavor to get the rose shape, but were told we could do it with any flavor. Mr. K though the rose looked more special, so we asked for rose shaped ones for all our other ones.

Earl Gray Lavender (earl gray tea, lavender, topped with honey)

Rose H2O (essence of rose garnished with rose sugar)

Cookie Butter

We absolutely loved our first visit here and immediately were back soon after to try some more flavors with a friend. We found the price to be very reasonable too. A puffle cone with ice cream is $6. Egg waffles served at cafes are usually $4-6 just by themselves and a small ice cream is usually a few dollars as well. After I shared my post on Instagram, I had quite a few people ask me about it and it seems like everyone else who visited really enjoyed it too. We’ll definitely be back to try more of their ice cream flavors, which rotate often.

Cauldron Ice Cream
1421 W MacArthur Blvd, Santa Ana, CA 92704
https://www.cauldronicecream.com/