Homemade Ice-Cream Cake

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Most Important Ingredients

Imagination
Creativity
!! -- Patience -- !!

You really do need patience to make ice-cream cake.

Cappuccino and Vanilla Ice-cream with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
and Homemade Butterscotch Drizzle

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1/2 L Vanilla frozen yogurt
1/2 L Vanilla ice-cream
1L Cappuccino ice-cream
1 batch Chocolate chip cookie dough (makes ~ 12 cookies), chilled
Homemade butterscotch

Line a 9x9" square pan with wax or parchment paper.

Soften the cappuccino ice-cream until it is "spreadable".

Warm the butterscotch in the microwave at 10-second intervals until it has a "drizzling" consistency.

Cut the cookie dough into 1 cm chunks.

Once the ice-cream is softened, spread the cappuccino ice-cream onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle cookie dough chuncks on the ice-cream layer and generously drizzle butterscotch on top. Freeze for at least 30 min to harden the ice-cream.

While waiting for the bottom layer of ice-cream to harden, soften the vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice-cream. Stir to mix.

Spread the vanilla ice-cream mixture on top of the frozen ice-cream cake. Generously drizzle more butterscotch.

Freeze the ice-cream cake overnight.

Mint Chip and Vanilla Ice-cream with 
Homemade Brownie Pieces and Mini Oreos

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1/2 L Vanilla ice-cream
1L Mint chip ice-cream
9 mini oreos
1 batch Homemade brownies, pre-baked
1 c. Chocolate chips
2-3 tbsp Milk

Line a 9x9" square pan with wax or parchment paper.

Soften the mint chip ice-cream until it is "spreadable".

Cut the pre-baked brownies into 1 cm chunks. Store in the freezer until ready to use.

Melt the chocolate chips with the milk in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between. When most of the chocolate chips are melted, do not return to the microwave. Continue to stir until all the chocolate chips are melted. If the chocolate is too think to drizzle, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir until smooth.

Once the ice-cream is softened, spread the mint chip ice-cream onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle brownie chuncks on the ice-cream layer and generously drizzle the melted chocolate on top. Freeze for at least 30 min to harden the ice-cream.

While waiting for the bottom layer of ice-cream to harden, soften the vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice-cream. Stir to mix.

Spread the vanilla ice-cream mixture on top of the frozen ice-cream cake. Generously drizzle more chocolate.

Using a spoon or small ice-cream scoop, place 9 mint chip ice-cream balls evenly across the top of the cake. (You may need to use your fingers to gently shape the balls.)

Place a mini oreo cookies on each mint chip ice-cream ball.

Freeze the ice-cream cake overnight.

My comments:

Who doesn't like ice-cream cake?

"ME!", I'd say. I am ashamed. I mean, everyone likes ice-cream cake, right? Am I a freak or what? I don't like the chocolate ice-cream layer and I don't like the fudgy layer between the chocolate ice-cream and vanilla ice-cream.

Oh Wait! That's the DQ ice-cream cake!!

Perhaps the question should be re-phrased: Who doesn't like DQ ice-cream cake? The answer is still, "ME!"

Now, asks me this instead: Who doesn't like ice-cream cake made of all your favourite flavours?

Ah...now you wouldn't hear a peep from me. :D

My friend B. inspired me to make my own ice-cream cake. She's been doing it for 2 years for her son's birthday parties and I've been buying DQ ice-cream cakes for 2 years for Hubby's birthday. Making your own ice-cream cake is cheap and so easy to do. I don't know why I didn't think of copying her idea before!!

I've been thinking about my ice-cream cakes for many weeks. I want to make something Hubby would love but at the same time, flavours you can't buy in the stores. My flavour combos weren't entirely original but they were nothing short of "O.M.G. It's Awesome!".

Aside from the ice-cream itself, everything else was homemade, including the butterscotch. I came across this butterscotch recipe, complete with tutorial, pictures and tips, on Simply Recipes and I have been dying to try it. Butterscotch and caramel are Hubby's favourite ice-cream topping and I thought it'd be nice to be able to make it myself at home instead of wasting money on mediocre quality butterscotch from grocery stores. This butterscotch was simple to make and it tastes divine. Let me tell you this, I will never buy butterscotch ever again!!

The chocolate chip cookie dough and the brownie were also made from scratch. I used this mini chocolate chip cookie recipe because it was what I had in the freezer.  Whenever I make chocolate chip cookies, I always double the recipe and divide the dough into portions for freezing.  This way, I will always have cookie dough ready to bake and I will only bake enough to satisfy my cravings, not to mention leftover cookies are just not as good as warm, gooey cookies that are fresh out of the oven.  For this reason, I highly recommend you use this vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookie instead of the mini chocolate chip cookie I used because the vanilla pudding ones are much tastier as cookies. However, whatever cookie recipe you choose, perhaps you can even try something completely whacky like the Cinnamon Chai Shortbread Cookie, your ice-cream will be super tastey. :D 

Actually, that cinnamon chai cookie idea sounds really good.  Mmmmm...  *drool*

Anyhow, I should probably explain my reason for using a mix of frozen yogurt and ice-cream. Hubby thought this vanilla frozen yogurt a few weeks ago and to be honest, it was crap. It had no taste, no flavour and the lack of creaminess just made everything about it seems wrong. The only good thing going for it is the uber-reduced sugar content. This is not sweet at all. When I did a trial run for my ice-cream cake, I found the cake a little bit too sweet. So I figured if I mix a little bit of the frozen yogurt in with the regular ice-cream, it'd be perfect...and it was. It didn't really change the texture of the ice-cream once they are mixed and frozen, but it did have the effect I wanted - less sugary. If you don't have frozen yogurt at home, don't go out of your way to buy some. You can use just another 1/2L of regular ice-cream.

Finally, as a reward for having the patience to read all my ice-cream babble, I have a really good tip for you: Once your ice-cream cake hardens, remove it from the pan and cut into bars. Then wrap each ice-cream bars with parchment paper (which works much better than wax paper, by the way, but either will do the trick) and freeze them again in a freezer container. This way, whenever you want an ice-cream bar, you just go to the freezer, pluck one out of the box and off you go. No hassle, no mess!! :D

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