Ice Cream Cake How-To

Bake your choice of brownie, cake, or cookie dough/batter in two or three 9″ round cake pans (I did two cake pans of a sort of eggless brownie/cookie). A mix would make it even easier. Remove from pans and cool to room temperature.

Wash out one of the cake pans, as this will be the base for the ice cream cake mold. Trace the bottom of the cake pan onto a piece of corrugated cardboard, and cut out 1/8 – 1/4 inch or so to the inside of the traced line so the finished circle will fit into the bottom of the cake pan with a little bit of room to spare.

Tear off two lengths of plastic wrap and line the inside of the cake pan, one length in one direction and the second in the opposite direction. This will help you lift the frozen cake out of the pan later.

Wrap the top of the circle of cardboard with waxed paper and put into the cake pan on top of the plastic wrap, waxed paper side up.

Cut both sides off of two large cereal boxes. Trim to a height that will contain your completed cake, and fit into your freezer. I trimmed to about about 6 or 7″. Wrap two of these with waxed paper and fasten with masking tape. Don’t forget to fold the waxed paper over the ends of the cardboard, as well, so no uncovered cardboard will touch the ice cream cake.

Curve the two waxed paper covered cereal cardboard around the inside of the cake pan to form a cylinder, waxed paper side innermost. Tape together. The edges of the thin cardboard should fit down in between the side of the cake pan and the edge of the heavy cardboard circle.

Reinforce with the second two pieces of cereal cardboard on the outside, taped together, as well.

(Here’s a picture of the cake after it’s been layered into the mold, and covered with a final layer of waxed paper and an old pan lid.)

Set out the ice cream to soften at room temperature for 15 or 20 minutes or so until soft enough to easily scoop. I used a triple-fruit-flavor (pineapple/raspberry/orange) sherbet, and a cookies-and-cream icecream for the layers.

Scoop, spread and fill the bottom of the cylinder about 1 – 1 1/2″ deep, up to about the top of the side of the cake pan with icecream or sherbet. (I did the sherbet first.) This will be about half of a 1.75 – 2 quart container.

WORK QUICKLY! Don’t be a perfectionist, just get it in there and spread it out. You don’t want it melting into a puddle!

Put in a layer of cake/brownie/cookie. It’s okay if it breaks, just piece it back together and press it down over the icecream (don’t press so hard that it smooshes up the sides, though).

Scoop and spread another layer of ice cream or sherbet over the cake layer, again using about half a 1.75 or 2 quart container, or a little more. (This is where I used the cookies-and-cream icecream.)

Put in another layer of cake and press down. You can stop here, or continue with more layers if you like.

When done layering, put a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap over top of the last layer, and then a flat lid, plate, or another piece of cardboard over the top of that to help protect the cake from drying out or getting frost burn in the freezer.

Pop it into the freezer overnight, or for several hours until firm.

Take out of the freezer and remove cardboard. Just untape and unwrap.

Carefully lift the cake out of the cake pan, using the plastic wrap put there just for this purpose, gently turn over and set down onto a plate. Pop the cake back into the freezer while you prepare the icecream for frosting the cake.

To frost the outside of the cake with more ice cream, take out the ice cream to soften. I used a homestyle vanilla icecream. When softened enough to scoop easily, scoop into a big bowl and stir well (such as with a wide rubber spatula) to a nice, even spreading consistency, but not so soft it’s melting. You will need to work fairly quickly.

Take the cake out of the freezer and REALLY quickly frost the cake with a thick layer of ice cream, using the spatula. Frost the sides first, then the top. Don’t worry about perfection, just get it covered fairly evenly, and don’t let it melt! Pop it right back into the freezer to cool down again.

Add any additional toppings or decorations, as you’re able, either now or when you’re ready to serve, a bit at a time if need be, to prevent melting.

Put any remaining ice cream back into its container and back into the freezer.

After its had a chance to harden up again in the freezer, loosely cover the cake with plastic wrap.

Take out of the freezer about 15 minutes before serving. You can top with sprinkles; candy; chocolate chips, chunks or shavings; whipped cream; maraschino cherries; coconut; whole or crushed cookies; or decorate with gel icing…

I simply topped it with multi-colored pastel sprinkles. And birthday candles, of course.

Slice, serve and eat.

OPTIONS:
- Layer crushed cookies or cut up candy bars between layers of ice cream, instead of the cake/brownie layers.
- Make ice cream cake in a pan (eg. 9 x 13 pan). Leave it in the pan and cut it into squares to serve.

This is the way my young niece does it: She uses a 9 x 13 pan, spreads in a thick layer of icecream, then a layer of broken Oreo cookies and chopped up candy bars, another layer of icecream, and tops it with candy decorations. Easy. And what kid wouldn’t love digging into some of that?!