I’m afraid the days of me baking the children cakes for their birthdays might be over. Both of their birthdays are in November and it’s hot and they’re busy with after school activities. They only ever eat the icing and decorations so it’s a waste of time and money. From now on it’s an ice cream cake so I’m going to show you how to make an easy ice cream cake at home.
It really couldn’t be any easier. The only trouble I have is that in our hot summer, it’s melting as soon as you put it on a plate so you’ve got to be quick. To buy an ice cream cake from the store could be anywhere from $10 PLUS and you control just how big to make it and what flavour to make.
Easy Ice Cream Cake
First job is to choose your ice cream. I prefer a better known brand as the cheaper brands are more water than cream so they won’t refreeze as nice. I asked my son, who’s 10th birthday it was coming up, and he chose a Cookies’n’Cream flavour. Leave it out on the bench to soften.
Next choose your add-ins. I don’t like to buy special candy or ingredients when I’m cooking, rather opting for using what I have but it was a special birthday so I let him choose his favourite chocolate bars. You can add anything you like.
- Fresh, frozen or canned fruit
- Chocolate chips
- Leftover candy
- Nuts
- Cookie dough
- Crushed cookies
- Nut butters (like Nutella or peanut butter)
- Crumbled cake
- Sprinkles or 100s & 1000s
Next step is to choose your mould. It doesn’t have to be anything special. I used a cake pan. It can be a plastic container, a baking dish, plastic or silicon mould, just about anything that can be lined with plastic cling wrap.
Pour the contents of the melted ice cream into a mixing bowl and add all your extras. I also found a few cookies in the cookie container so crushed them up and added them.
Pour it into the mould. You can also add a swirl of ice cream topping if you like or something like fruit puree or melted chocolate.
Ready for the Freezer
Cover with plastic cling film and return to the freezer, preferably overnight.
When ready to serve, turn onto a plate and remove the plastic cling wrap. I added chocolate shell topping and more crushed chocolate bar to serve. It was really yummy. The best part was everyone ate this. No cake wasted and it was easy for me. The premium ice cream was on special for $4.50 for 2 litres and the chocolate bars were $2 so for $6.50 I got this huge ice cream cake which lasted quite a few nights. I know a cheap version of an ice cream cake from one of our supermarkets is about $15 and it doesn’t even taste nice.
Save yourself some time and energy for your next celebration cake with this easy ‘make at home’ ice cream cake. Your kids will love it!
Recipe
- quantity of premium ice cream in your favourite flavour
- suggested add-in ingredients (as above)
- extra chocolate shell or ice cream topping
- extra candy or nuts for decorating
- Leave the ice cream out to melt.
- Pour into a mixing bowl.
- Add your extra flavourings.
- Return the melted ice cream mixture to a mould which has been lined with plastic cling film.
- Cover with plastic cling film and return to the freezer until required, preferably overnight.
- Top with extra chocolate shell topping or ice cream topping and candy or nuts.
