Ice Cream Cake

I have a confession to make....I'm not really a big fan of cake. Sure, I like it. Of course I'll eat a piece. Obviously I enjoy making it...but I would much rather have a pie. Or ice cream. Or (wait for it) ice cream IN cake. No, INSTEAD of cake, but still in cake form.

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday, and he asked for an ice cream cake instead of regular. I planned to pick one up from DQ (the middle fudge/cookie filling? Come on!) But he said "You know, if you made it yourself, you could use Turtle ice cream, wink wink nudge nudge".

I was a little apprehensive, having never made one before, but people, this was probably on my top 5 list of easiest desserts I have ever made. Just a handful of ingredients and about 10 minutes to put together, let's all get together and have one big giant un-birthday party and have some ice cream. Cake, of course.

Ice Cream Cake

2- 2 litre tubs of ice cream, your flavour (I used turtle and peanut butter rolo)

1 box of oreos (or enough crumbs to make a crust)

3 tbsp melted butter

2 cups coolwhip or 1 cup whipping cream, divided

1 cup chocolate fudge (like the ice cream topping kind)

• Leave the ice cream on the counter for about an hour until it's nice and soft
• Preheat oven to 350
• Crush up your oreos and combine with melted butter
• Press into bottom of 9 inch spring form pan
• Bake for 5 minutes
• Dump one flavour of ice cream onto crush and spread it/mush it down until it's nice and flat
• Spread cool whip on top of the ice cream, reserving one cup for the top (if using real cream, whip it until soft peaks form and then spread on top of ice cream
• Pour your hot fudge on top of that
• Dump the next flavour of ice cream on top, and spead until it's nice and flat again.
• Freeze for at least 8 hours
• Put reserved cool whip into a piping bag with a star or flower tip and pipe along the top.
• Keep in freezer until ready to serve (obviously). Remove side of spring form pan.



*This can be made a few days in advance

-Jessica

Triple Berry Trifle

Do you know what I think of when someone mentions trifle? That episode of "Friends" when Rachel was helping Monica for Thanksgiving dessert. She was making trifle and got the recipe mixed up and added beef, peas and onions. Gross. Unless of course the whipping cream was mashed potatoes. I think I'm on to something...

Anyway, this trifle has much better dessert ingredients. Berries. Pudding. Whipping cream. Let's be honest, people, there is really no way to take those ingredients and mess them up. (Unless you overwhip the cream, with sugar and vanilla already added, and it turns into sweet butter. I did that once. It was good on bagels.)

Best thing about this dessert? It's a snap, even for novice bakers (note..no baking involved!). And it's crazy impressive. People will think you slaved all day. Don't correct them.

Triple Berry Trifle

One store bought angel food cake (you can make it if you feel like it)

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract (or 1/4 tsp almond oil)

1 box instant vanilla pudding mix

Milk (whatever the pudding box calls for, mine was 3 cups)

1 cup fresh blueberries

2 cups fresh raspberries

3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions:

• Make pudding according to directions on the box.
• Whip up your cream. After 30 seconds or so, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond extract.
• Whip for a few minutes until it forms soft peaks (don't make butter!)
• Combine pudding and whipping cream
• Cut your angel food cake into three layers.
• Slice strawberries and set aside.
• Put one layer of cake into the bottom of a trifle dish.
• Pour pudding mixture on top- about 1 1/2.
• Layer on 1/3 of your berries
• Continue in this pattern, finish with berries on top. Put them on however you think looks pretty.
• Refridgerate until ready to serve!

note: Cool whip would work in place of whipped cream if you are looking for a lower cholesterol option! Use the big container.

-Jessica and Leah

 



 

Baby elephant for a baby boy

My sweet, darling little nephew was born last week. 11 days late. And let me tell you, that extra week and a half in the oven really made him smushy. His hands are the same size as my 7 month olds. And his feet? He'll be running by next month, most likely. He was 23 inches long. Yowza. Basically, he was a baby elephant. My poor, tiny little sister in law, with her 5 foot 3 inch frame and a baby elephant inside.

So, for the baby shower that we had last night, this cake seemed a fitting one. He really is a sweet little bundle. Happy birthday baby boy!

This cake was made with my classic chocolate cake recipe, the one I love and use for everything. You can find it here, just omit the lime.

I used a standard chocolate buttercream and added some orange, and covered it in fondant. The store bought kind -hello Wilton, thank you for making my life easier. If you want a fondanting tutorial, just give a shout out and we can do one with pics. I did this one solo, and it's hard to take pictures of yourself fondanting when you only have two hands.

-Jessica