Thursday, May 21, 2009

How to bake an icecream cake

Did I get you? Now, did I? Did I? Ha! You can’t bake an ice-cream cake (and please refrain from pointing me in the direction of Baked Alaskas, I am trying to make a joke here). So, yeah. You can’t bake an ice-cream cake. You can only make one. Geddit? Geddit? No laughs? None at all? Dang. Entonces, creo que, tus estan muy inteligente por este blog. And before someone shouts foul, hey, we live in the Americas. We don’t do ‘estais’.
Making an ice-cream cake es muy facil. Anyone can do it. Let’s make a..umm…let’see. How about a chocolate-french vanilla-strawberry triple layer cake with oreo and fudge?
For the hardware, you will need
1 spatula, preferable silicone
1-2 large and deep vessels.
Like cake tins.
1 hair dryer
Zip-top bag
Rolling pin
Plenty of room in your freezer
Icing comb or a painters plastic spatula (you can buy in hardware stores)
Offset spatula
– this will make your life easier. You can always use a butter knife instead.
Medium star-tip for decorating
Icing bag or zip-top bag
Lazy susan
– again, not needed, but you will be glad you have it
A plate/platter/fancy board to turn the cake onto. Make sure it goes into your freezer.
I used 2 9” round regular cake pans. Select pans with straight edges for a professional -out-of-a-fancy-cookbook-look. Wilton brand professional aluminum pans are not expensive and are good quality. Make sure the pans/other vessels you choose to make the cake fit into your freezer. You don’t want to assemble the cake, only to find you have to eat it right now, all by yourself, before it melts, with nothing but small dessert spoons. No, m’am. That’s not fun.

Now for the ingredients
12-15 chocolate cookies like oreos
2 tbsp melted butter
1 jar off-the-shelf chocolate fudge sauce
1 ½ cups mini marshmallows
Sweetened flaked coconut

1 pint each of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice-cream – get full-fat version
Don’t try to be healthy here. This is not the time. If you choose the low-fat or fat-free versions, you are going to get bits of ice in your ice-cream cake. They are very annoying. And can have disastrous effects. Say, you eat a low-fat version of the ice-cream cake, get annoyed by the ice-crystals and in that state sit in your car and back out of your drive way only to hit the neighbor’s car. That’s far unhealthier than eating a slice of a full-fat ice-cream cake, verdad?
5 cups whipped icing – you can buy an instant powder by Wilton’s or making your own is easy. A pint of Whipping/Heavy cream,1-2 egg whites or meringue powder and a bit of confectioner’s sugar. Whip until stiff peaks form. I bought Wilton’s because it’s egg-free knowing Chip’s allergies.
Gel food color of your choice – I made a lovely pale blue by combining royal blue and moss green.

How-tos
Set the ice-cream on the counter to soften a bit. For how long? Well.. that depends on your geographical location. Tropical climates 2-3 minutes, subtropical – 3-4 minutes.. you get the drift. You should not be left with a puddle, obviously, but the ice cream should be soft enough to spread.

While the ice-cream softens, put the Oreos in a zip-top bag, add the melted butter and crush with a rolling pin until they resemble crumbs. Pat down those crumbs firmly into the base of cake tin #1. Add a layer of softened vanilla ice-cream. Cover with a layer of marshmallows. Heat the jar of fudge sauce in a microwave until soft. Scoop the fudge sauce and spread it over the marshmallows. Add a layer of strawberry ice-cream. In the second cake tin, add strawberry icecream at the bottom, layer with fudge sauce and then a layer of coconut and a layer of chocolate ice-cream. Pat down very firmly. If you have parchment paper, you can use that to level the top edges. Cover and freeze for at least 8 hours. Make sure your freezer is set at its coldest setting.

The next day, armed with your hair-free hair dryer set to warm; blow air on the sides and the bottom of the cake pans. The ice cream will soften. Turn the cake onto a plate and turn it right side up on your serving platter. Repease with cake tin #2. Make sure the layers align properly. Freeze again for 8 hours.

To decorate

Make the whipped icing and ice the cake. Work fast because the ice cream will melt. You may have to keep it in the freezer a few times before you can ice it fully. The turntable, the painters spatula will make your life easier. If your ice-cream cake is all chocolate, I will suggest to cover it with a coating of vanilla ice-cream before you frost the cake. Freeze the frosted cake for a couple of hours before you enjoy. Here is a picture of the ice-cream cake I made for Chip’s birthday.

19 comments:

Nat said...

you multi-faceted woman you.
your post on reading was just terrific. you hit the nail.

Unknown said...

Now I know what my next project is :)
Really, what a novel idea ,especially for a kiddie -party.

Jira said...

Thanks a lot for the recipe, complete with ice cream thawing timings and fat content and for the mini espanol lecci'on!

BTW, chips' monster cake looks fabulous with the fire truck on top!

Monika said...

wow would love to try my hands on this

Anonymous said...

Wow! Amazing cake....I am sure the guests had a great time, indulging in it...the oreo base sounds yum!

Also, I moved from Blogger to Wordpress....link is
http://mybabynaren.wordpress.com/

DewdropDream said...

I had to come by after Rayshma mentioned an ice-cream cake of two tiers. Should say that is some feat!

Oh I also read back for quite a bit and I really enjoyed reading your posts... very very entertaining!

Yet Another Mother Runner said...

I was wondering how come there was no pic of the cake in your previous post! now i know :)

@All: Totally worth all that effort! It was awesome!! I loved how the oreos ended up with a cake's texture!

oh, and terrific tip about the low-fat ice cream! Made a note to self to never eat low fat ice cream and drive - sounds more harmful than DUI ;-)

Mamma mia! Me a mamma? said...

Ooohhh mamma! That is some cake, lady! The picture shows it to be professional perfection and the recipe sounds divine!

Should definitely try it some time! Wish me luck!

aie said...

THANK GOD MY KIDS ARE GROWNUP AND DO NOT ASK SUCH FANCY THINGS.I WOULD LIKE TO TEST IT BUT I WILL NOT MAKE IT. TOO MUCH WORK!!!

rayshma said...

yeah... i was wondering how it would fit in my freezer... then realized... i'll have to empty the packed freezer first! :D
erm... who is lazy susan?

Anonymous said...

OMG...NOT even going there, but am all admiration...

M

Anonymous said...

Standing ovation for your efforts & talents...
I am going to dare to try it and pray that it comes atleast half as good looking as yours.

-Nithu

B o o said...

I knew it! Entry to mommy heaven cant be that easy as I said in my recent posts. No way in hell am I going to get in! :D *bows to the baking Goddess*

Shilpa said...

Great looking cake, and what an idea!

DotThoughts said...

Nat: thanks! glad you agree with me!

Munchkin: Its a nice change from cakes, I think..

Jira: thanks!

Monika: Please do and post piccies!

shoba: they did! Thanks for keeping me updated on your move!

DDD: welcome and thanks much!

gnd: this is definatyelt a low-fat fail scenario :)

m4: Hey its really easy!

aie: oh come on! its not THAT much work. and they are 4 only once, no?

raayshma: what a ncie treat after spring cleaning then :)

M: you are soo like my mom :)

Nithu: It will be better than mine, I am sure!

Boo: Remember the room we reserved in hell ;-)

Shilpa: thanks :)

Sue said...

Yes, of course. You should have full-fat stuff so as to not drive into your neighbour. I see the logic there.

:)

DotThoughts said...

Sue: :P

Mama - Mia said...

for a second i thought you gonna put the whole recipe in spanish! :p

ofcos leme be honest and confess i didnt read thr recipe bit because baking to me is pretty much what spanish is! unfathomable!

i can just eat it! and that cake of yours is totally drool owrthy! :D

why didnt you put bigger picture tho?!

cheers!

abha

Mystic Margarita said...

Thanks, Dottie. Probably too much work for a lazybum like me, but maybe some day! :)