I realize my last post was of the birthday cake I baked for my husband’s birthday, but Sunday my older son and his girlfriend drove up to see us from LA on their way the next day to visit my younger son and his girlfriend in San Francisco.
And it just so happens that she had a birthday two days earlier. Naturally I wanted to make a special birthday dinner for her so when we spoke I asked what kind of a cake she might like, and before she could answer my son said she would love an ice cream cake!
That was all I needed to hear…even though I have never actually made an ice cream cake ( ice cream cake roll, yes, but not a full fledged ice cream cake).
After looking at numerous recipes online and referring to several cookbooks I decided to try and wing it and make up my own version.
It looked pretty, not perfect, but it was a unanimous WOW in the taste category!
I chose to use some delicious locally made ice cream from Doc Burnstein’s, a unique shop walking distance from our home, and immediately sent my husband off to retrieve a quart of cookies and cream and another quart of mint chocolate chip, the birthday girl’s favorite flavors.
I had purchased some chocolate wafers, heavy whipping cream and a jar of maraschino cherries with stems to have at the ready since I really had not yet decided exactly what I was creating.
And remember Mom’s Chocolate Cake recipe in my previous post? Well, my husband convinced me that an ice cream cake must have actual cake, and that just a cookie crumb crust and ice cream is not an ice cream cake!!!
So I found myself baking a single layer only of that chocolate cake fairly late the night before they were coming, and embarked on my ice cream creation.
Using a 9-inch spring-form pan (easiest way to remove the cake), I layered the bottom with a crust made of crushed chocolate wafers and melted butter.
The next layer was softened (not melted) cookies and cream ice cream. I covered it with plastic wrap and put in the freezer till fairly hard.
I split the cooled single layer cake in half horizontally, and put one half on top of the cookies and cream layer, and placed it back in the freezer to harden.
On top of the cake layer I spread a layer of softened mint chocolate chip ice cream.
This next part was genius…I had made some hot fudge sauce ( just in case I needed it), and spread a layer of that over the mint chip ice cream.
I watched it immediately harden, and wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not… we discovered it was a very good thing.
When biting into the cake later there was this delicious thin crunchy chocolate bar hidden inside! Next time I will add that to all the ice cream layers!!!
After wrapping and freezing that layer I added the other cake layer, froze it again til hard and added the final layer of cookies and cream, wrapped it tightly in cellophane, and froze it overnight. Whew!!!
After our delicious dinner, I began the final prep for my masterpiece.
I whipped fresh heavy cream with some confectioner’s sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract to make those swirls you see on the top.
I capped off each dollop of whipped cream with a cherry, dusted the top with some remaining chocolate wafer crumbs, and finished it off with rainbow sprinkles.
We lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday, and dug in before the ice cream started to melt too much. Delicious!!! Here are some photos…
