Ice Cream Cake

August 31, 2010

Ice Cream Cake

Today is my hubby's birthday. Yesterday we celebrated with a yummy birthday dinner that he requested. What was that yummy dinner? Chicken Cordon Bleu (this chicken Cordon Bleu is absolutely amazing. A bit time consuming, but well worth it), mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beans, artisan bread and for dessert ice cream cake!!

My hubby is not a fan of regular cake and prefers ice cream cake. In the past I've purchased them from Baskin and Robbins, or Cold Stone Creamery, but they are so expensive, so the last few times I've made them myself. For about $6 you get a yummy cake that people ask "did you make this? Wow!"

What you need for a layered round cake. One cake mix (or you could make from scratch, but I went with simple), two tubs of ice cream. I use Breyers and the size of their containers was perfect. If you have 4 round cake pans great! I only have 3 so I needed to wait till my cakes were out before I put the ice cream in.

1. Make your cake in two cake rounds. Let cool, then remove from pans. Taking a knife or a piece of dental floss (which works great and keeps a pretty straight line), cut the cakes in half. You will need the two bottoms and one top. My hubby and Kat ate the other top!

2. Take the ice cream out and let sit for about 10 minutes, or until soft enough to work with. I actually put mine in a big bowl and used one of my Pampered Chef tools (I'm drawing a blank on what it's called), to break it up and soften it faster. Line two round pans with plastic wrap and pour the ice cream into each pan. I used just under the two containers. Place in freezer for a few hours.

3. Remove ice cream from freezer. Place one bottom cake piece on a platter. Remove one ice cream layer from pan (I set the pan in a little bit of water to remove from the pan easier). It really stays together well so I had no problem removing the plastic, flipping it back over and putting on top of the cake layer. Repeat with the remaining bottom cake layer, another layer of ice cream and then the top cake layer.

4. I Nan made a half batch of vanilla butter cream frosting (hubby is not a frosting fan either), and only frosted the top of the cake. If it was my cake, I'd frost the entire thing.

5. Place cake back in the freezer till ready to serve. We were able to cut it pretty easily, but you could let it sit out for a few minutes if needed.

Personally I think doing it this way turns out even better than the store bought kind. I used Devil's food cake mix and cookies and cream ice cream.

I've also done where I've used a spring-form pan (layering cake, spreading ice cream, repeat, etc) and then freeze. However when I did that, I forgot to let it sit or at least add some water to the latch on the pan and it broke, so I no longer use that method.

When it comes to birthday I love making something the birthday guy or gal really wants, and usually it's something we don't have very often, but they really love!