Ice Cream Cake

June 20th, 2010 by justJENN

I make a lot of ice cream bombes, but see…it’s cake that I love.

It’s amazing how easy it is to make an ice cream cake. You can do it in steps and take all the time you want – just keep going back to the freezer here and there. Take an hour, take a week – it’s dessert for the lazy!

chocolate cake ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

chocolate ganache ingredients:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 quart ice cream, softened (homemade or bought)
2 cups crushed chocolate cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9″ round cake pan, line it with parchment, and butter the parchment. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Stir until combined.

Pour into prepped cake pan, and bake for 15-20 minutes, checking with a toothpick until done. Let cool in the pan, for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

When the cake is cool, even it out so you get a flat surface.

Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.

Line a 9″ cake pan with plastic wrap. Pour the softened ice cream into the lined pan, spread evenly – then place in the freezer to chill.

Now you can do this step within the hour, or heck, the next day – who cares. When you are ready – make the ganache. In a small saucepan combine the chocolate chips, heavy cream and vanilla. Stir over low to medium heat until everything is combined. Keep stirring! Keep your eye on it! You will magically get an amazing ganache in a matter of minutes. Set it aside to cool down.

Once the ganache has cooled, take the frozen cake out of the freezer, place it on top of the ice cream in the cake pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Simple!

In cake they don’t stack evenly, take a paring knife and just go around the edge to even it all up.

Pour HALF the ganache onto the TOP of the cake and spread evenly, just to the edge.

Now pop the cake back in the freezer. WHOA, hold up, why are there TWO cakes in my freezer? Cause I couldn’t decide what ice cream to use and I just went for it and did one mocha and one mint. Don’t judge.

Wait about 15 minutes (or the next day), for this next step. See? Do it now, do it later, no one will know the diff.

When you are ready for this last step, take the cake out of the freezer and using the remaining half of the ganache, go around the edge of the cake, following up with the crushed cookie crumbs on top, going around the edges.

One last time, place the cake back in the freezer until you are ready to serve. Honestly – this is a really easy recipe and people think you worked so hard on it. Just do it in steps, if you have a party on the weekend, do a step a day – don’t sweat it. You’ll have an impressive dessert at the end of the week to show for it.