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We've been featuring a lot of baked goods leading up to Dessert Wars 2015, but we can't forget about everyone's favorite cold treat - ice cream.

I sat down with Rachel Franko from Furniture City Creamery today to talk about her shop and what they'll be offering up for us to taste test Thursday night. 

The visit came ahead of Dessert Wars, which is Thursday night at Amway Grand Plaza hotel’s Ambassador Ballroom in downtown Grand Rapids.

Furniture City Creamery creates homemade, small-batch ice cream. Rachel uses her background as a process engineer to scientifically calculate the percentage of each ingredient to create unique flavor combinations.

Rachel first learned about small-batch ice creameries by reading about a west coast company in a magazine.

Initially, Furniture City started working out of the kitchen at The Mitten Brewing Company and even started using some of their beer in their recipes, like the Peanuts and Crackerjack porter ice cream.

Serving up frosty treats to thirsty beer drinkers took off and now they've opened up their own brick and mortar location in the heart of East Hills (at 958 Cherry St. SE).

For Dessert Wars, Furniture City will be serving up ice cream sandwiches made with red velvet cookies and their Chocolate Overload icecream, which is actually one of the 4-6 vegan ice creams they usually have on their menu. (This makes my lactose intolerant self VERY happy.)

Flavors such as Salted Caramel, Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip, Lime in the Coconut, No Bake Cookie, Mint Chocolate Chip, or Strawberry Lemonade are often featured.

The waffle cones at Furniture City are also vegan, as well as any sauces they have (think caramel or chocolate). This is done by design. Rachel and Matt want their products to be enjoyed by all, so making things that appeal to the masses and delicious is a focus of the business.

Rachel from Furniture City Creamery Talks Dessert Wars with Wendy

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