Cape Coral doughnut shop makes select nights a little sweeter with ice cream creations

Divine Donuts just made select nights a little sweeter in Cape Coral.

In addition to its daytime hours, the Del Prado shop is now open from 6-10 p.m. Thursday to Saturday nights.

And to sweeten the new schedule, gourmet doughnut milkshakes and hot-pressed doughnut ice cream sandwiches have been added to the menu.

“We’ve been kicking the idea of opening nights around for a while,” said Eddie Nobles, who co-owns this and the original Fort Myers store with his wife Mitchelle. “This (Cape Coral) store is a little larger and this area is a little younger, so we thought we’d see how it goes.”

In November, the Nobles opened in Cape Coral after launching their College Parkway location in 2018.

“We were ready to open before (Hurricane) Ian,” Nobles said, referring to the Cape shop. “We’re doing all our baking here now. It has almost caught up with our Fort Myers location in terms of numbers. On holidays, it does better than Fort Myers.”

The two new products, with ice cream provided by Cape Creamery, should only help pad those stats.

Hot-pressed doughnut ice cream sandwiches in six flavors

For the doughnut ice cream sandwiches, a scoop of chocolate or vanilla is placed in the middle of a horizontally cut doughnut of your choosing, then placed in a press.

“It’s only pressed for about 15 seconds,” Nobles said. “Just long enough for the ice cream to soften. It makes the doughnut good and hot and the ice cream stays tight inside.”

Once done, it’s cut in half vertically and additional toppings and drizzles are added.

There are six original flavors, including Birthday Party, Coco Loco, Chocolate Lovers Dream and Peanut Butter Perfection.

Cookie Craze is the most popular “by far” according to Nobles, and consists of vanilla ice cream, Oreo and chocolate chip cookie pieces pressed and topped with more Oreo and chocolate chip cookie pieces and chocolate drizzle. S’more Than a Donut with pressed vanilla and chocolate ice cream topped with marshmallow sauce, crushed graham cracker, chocolate chips and drizzle is also selling well.

“We and the kids all come up with the flavors and vote on them,” Nobles said. “These are the original flavors and we’ll probably add to them.”

Don’t see one you want? Then create your own with one scoop of ice cream, your choice of doughnut, any two toppings and a drizzle.

New milkshakes feature matching doughnuts

If you want dessert in a drinkable form, there are five signature milkshake flavors and a build-your-own option. They all consist of vanilla or chocolate ice cream with cake doughnut chunks, a topping or sauce mixed in, plus a corresponding doughnut on top.

The Romantic Getaway shake, for example, has vanilla ice cream, red velvet cake doughnut pieces, chocolate chips and pink sprinkles with a red velvet marble iced doughnut, whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and more pink sprinkles.

“It’s been popular along with Cookie Craze and S’more The Merrier,” Nobles said.  “The red velvet looks nice with the pink sprinkles mixed in. If this takes off, we will do flavors of the week or the month for the ice cream and pair doughnuts with them. Maybe do a Divine ice cream.”

It’s Your Birthday and Chocolate Indulgence shakes are also offered.

Doughnuts and more on the menu

Divine Donuts has about 200 different yeast and cake doughnut varieties with 40-60 available every weekday morning and 120 on the weekends. It also has breakfast sandwiches, biscuits & sausage gravy, chicken & doughnuts, kronuts, cinnamon rolls, bagels and more.

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“Everything is made in-house,” Nobles said. “It’s a lot of work, but we’re having fun.”

Divine Donuts, 1110 Del Prado Blvd., Cape Coral (239) 672-4907 and 9131 College Parkway, Suite 145, Fort Myers, (239) 672-8390.  Open 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (or until sold out) Monday to Friday and 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (or until sold out) Saturday and Sunday. The Cape shop is open 6-10 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. Go to mydivinedonuts.com or follow along on Instagram and Facebook

Robyn George is a food and dining writer for The Fort Myers News-Press. Send news to rhgeorge@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Divine Donuts in Cape Coral adds cool ice cream creations, night hours