Tangy Ice Creams

• If your cake doesn't already have a cream cheese frosting, cream cheese-flavored ice cream adds tanginess and brightness to the mild-flavored cake.
  Cheesecake-flavored ice cream adds the same zing as cream cheese icing, as would an ice cream with candied ginger, candied citrus peel or even a dash of chili powder along with a dash of cinnamon. For subdued spiciness or earthiness, add milder flavors into the ice cream, such as cardamom or malted milk powder.

Chocolate On Chocolate

• Intensely-flavored chocolate ice creams make up for the lack of deep chocolate flavor in a red velvet cake. Choose any rich chocolate ice cream, such as chocolate fudge or chocolate brownie, or choose a chocolate ice cream with an added tang, such as cheesecake brownie. A white chocolate ice cream would also be a good choice because its more subtle flavor would match the subtle chocolate of the cake.

Color Choices

• Ice creams with bright red colors intensify the red tinge of the cake in a way that creates visual interest on your plate before you even taste the ice cream and cake combination. An intensely-flavored strawberry or raspberry ice cream gives the cake extra visual and flavor appeal. For the 4th of July, create a visual celebration by serving a flavorful vanilla ice cream with the red cake and scatter blueberries on the side.

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies

• Bright fruit flavors or red beets to match the red in the cake pair well with the chocolate in a red velvet cake. Choose a fruit-flavored ice cream with bright red fruit swirls, such as a cherry ice cream, a banana split-flavored ice cream with chunks of bananas and strawberries, or a pina colada-flavored variety with pineapple chunks and bits of coconut. Beet ice cream, with tangy mascarpone cheese and orange zest, brings fresh flavor and an interesting pink-red color.