Homemade Ice Cream Cake
For Ben’s birthday this year he requested an ice cream cake. Since the nearest sore that sells them is a long drive away and since they are expensive to boot, I decided to try and make a cake for Ben.
I was hoping he would ask for chocolate cake with mint ice cream… but he had other ideas.
He recently had cherry chip cupcakes from a box and thought they were awesome. His choice was cherry chip cake with vanilla.
Okay!
After reading through a few recipes online, I was excited to find that homemade ice cream cake SUPER easy. The only trick is to start your cake 1 or preferably 2 days before you will serve it.
Here is how I made Ben’s cake:
You can make a sheet cake or a round caked, whatever you fancy.
Take the pan size pan you prefer and line it with plastic wrap.
Allow a 1/2 gallon of ice cream (your flavor of choice) to soften enough to be spreadable. Spread the ice cream evenly in the pan. Place in the freezer until frozen firm. The next morning I used the plastic wrap to lift the ice cream from the pan, since I needed it to bake the cake.
I used a Cherry Chip cake mix to make 1 round cake and the rest into cupcakes.
I placed the cake layer on an upside down pie plate to make it easier to work with. Layer the ice cream “cake” layer on top of the cake layer. After I added the ice cream, I decided it might have been nice to add one more layer of cake to make a taller cake… but what was done was done. The good news was, it’s much easier to frost the ice cream layer as the top…
….especially since I frosted it with more ice cream, just like Baskin Robbins does. I allowed another 1/2 gallon of ice cream to get soft enough to spread easily. (Keep the cake in the freezer until you are ready to frost.)
The best way I found was to frost a first layer, which didn’t cover it all completely, and put it back in the freezer until frozen firm. After an hour or two, I frosted the second layer and it covered perfectly.
Because cherries and chocolate are a good combination, I decided to add chocolate around the outside. I used this tutorial from Pioneer Woman to make curls. But by this point I was in a hurry and didn’t take pictures or make it look perfect. Perfection is overrated anyway ; ).
I decorated the cake easily with premade soccer balls from Wilton and some gel frosting from the store.
The best part about the cake was how much Ben loved it. It was the “yummiest birthday cake off all time!”
I have to admit, it was pretty darn awesome.
Just a few ideas for what I do for Ice cream cake. I dont take them out of the pan. I make a brownie crust and then a layer of ice cream with fudge and crushed cookies in the middle and then another layer of ice cream. For the frosting I use half homemade vanilla icing and half cool whip. It needs to made ahead of time and it holds up to the birthday singing and such much better when it is left in the glass dish. You can decorate with the icing/cool whip and you can even color it and add sprinkles or shavings as you did on top. Hope this helps you.
Such a handsome boy! And nice as can be too
Quick question…I have wanted to try this before but was concerned about the weight of the ice cream “squishing” the cake…did you use a particular mix? I know some are lighter/use more eggs than others and was wondering if you think that would make a difference.
I like Betty Crocker cake mixes best. I always keep a few in my pantry for quick cupcakes. For Ben’s cake I used Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake mix. It held up great with the ice cream.
what a handsome boy!
I am *SO* using this recipe for my son’s 9th birthday this year. It’s a surprise – but he wants a chocolate cake (going to take your advice on the Betty Crocker) and chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream. INDULGENT. I’m going to use Vanilla Buttercream frosting because I have to transport it 20 minutes to his dad’s house and I think it’ll hold up better in the car for the drive. I plan on decorating it with little star cookies, too. I’m excited to try it! Thanks for posting this…
I am so going to make this my birthday gift. I will be 45 in Sept. and believe me I love ice cream cake. This will be my gift to me… A chocolate fudge cake(Betty Crocker Style) with mint chocolate chip ice cream and/or cookie dough ice cream and vanilla butter cream frosting… decorated “Lisa’s Style”.
I always say there is no better gift than sharing….but this one is “ALL MINE”… ;) Thank you for sharing.
Just got done making this…chocolate cake with raspberry sherbet. A couple of extra tips, just from my one experience – when making a layer cake, shear off the rounded top of each of the cake rounds with a long knife, so that they are parallel with the bottom. If you have a round pan that has the bottom that pops out, those work very well for the ice cream portion – just run a warm knife around the edge, and the whole thing pops right out! And when you’re softening the ice cream for the “frosting”, put it in the fridge for a few hours. I did that, and it spread like a dream – I got full coverage with the first layer! Thanks for this – it’s a great recipe!