Mushrooms in dessert: hell yeah! Far West Fungi, a mushroom store in San Francisco (and source for CHOW’s mushroom
guide), is making ice cream out of candy cap mushrooms.
I tried some, and it was maple-y and delicious. Candy caps are sweet, and do taste just like maple syrup. A web search turned up a thread on Chowhound about candy cap cheesecake,
different recipes for candy cap cookies, and one for candy cap bread pudding.
You can purchase candy caps dried, at Far West Fungi’s online
store. These dishes would definitely be conversation pieces.
Colleen’s Creamery in Fort Bragg has mushroom ice-cream during mushroom season. While it does taste good, it also as you said tastes just like maple ice-cream. So while I can understand why a business would go to the trouble of finding and using expensive candy-cap mushrooms for desserts, I don’t understand why anyone would use them for home cooking as maple syrup is easier to find and a lot cheaper for exactly the same flavor.