ice cream cake.

chase turned 26 last week, and anyone who knows the boy knows we had to celebrate with ice cream cake. i grew up eating carvel cakes, but at our ridiculously overpriced grocery store, a small carvel cake is $40, on sale. so, my friend denise & i set off to making an ice cream creation that puts those grocery store cakes to shame: 4 layers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, separated by fudgy mint oreos. it was seriously soooo good! we've been eating it for breakfast ever since. 

it isn't very labor intensive but it does need time--i made the cake a day ahead and frosted it about 6 hours before we ate it. and warning: it took us a real hefty knife (run through fire) to cut this monster when it first came out of the freezer.

ice cream cake

serves one million

(or like 15)

ingredients:

1 gallon vanilla ice cream

1 gallon chocolate ice cream

1 pkg. mint oreos

1 jar hot fudge sauce (i used smuckers)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

food dye and sprinkles or whatever else you want to make it look pretty!

you will also need 4 9" round foil cake pans.

1. first, clear room in your freezer for a giant cake. seriously.

2. trace the cake pans on wax paper and cut out 4 circles. place one on the bottom of each pan.

3. working with one flavor at a time, spoon the ice cream into each cake pan until full, smoothing with a rubber spatula. cover the top with wax paper and stick in the freezer once full. repeat with all four pans.

4. make your cake base. i cut out a slightly larger circle from cardboard and covered it in foil.

5. place the entire package of oreos in a large ziploc bag and smash into little pieces. move to a bowl and add the jar of hot fudge. it might help to slightly warm the fudge first--i didn't, because i don't have a microwave, but it could aid in spreading. divide the mixture into thirds (or just estimate when spreading it).

6. take the first layer you froze out of the freezer and peel off the wax paper. run a butter knife around the edges to loosen, then carefully flip onto the cake base. remove the circle of wax paper from the top. 

7. evenly distribute 1/3 of the oreo mixture on top of the ice cream. place the cake back in the freezer for at least ten minutes.

8. repeat steps 6 & 7 until all four layers are placed, with three layers of oreo in between. smooth the sides as much as you can, and put back in the freezer for at least two hours. i waited about 24 hours before frosting mine.

9. at least two hours before you want to eat it, whip the cream, powdered sugar, vanilla & food dye with a mixer until soft peaks form. (or if you are a poor college student like myself, use a hand whisk. it's ready when your arm feels like it's going to fall off.) 

10. working quickly, frost the cake with the whipped cream using a rubber spatula. place back in the freezer until ready to eat.

ta da! an ice cream cake that looks, and tastes, better than carvel.