You don't have to visit your local bakery, grocery store, or even specialty ice cream store to get the perfect ice cream cake for your party. Depending on the type of event you're hosting, you can design your own homemade ice cream cake that will be tastier, more fun, and less expensive than anything you can pick out of a retail freezer. Here's how you can make an ice cream cake.
What you'll need...
Cake pan/mold (get one that reflects the theme)
Plastic wrap
Three gallons of ice cream (mix and match your favorites)
Ice cream scoop
Bowl of warm water
Store bought frosting, optional
Fruit or candies for decoration
Cake plate
Let's say you're making it for a baby shower or infant's birthday. You can get a cake mold in the shape of a teddy bear, rocking horse, baby, building blocks, whatever you can find at the store.
Take the cake pan and spread a very large piece of plastic wrap down on the inside of the mold. Press the plastic wrap into the design.
Allow ice cream to soften to room temperature before working with it. Take the first flavor (we'll say strawberry) and scoop it into the mold until it's completely full. Smooth out the ice cream. Then, dip the scoop into the warm water and remove the inner parts of the ice cream, leaving only a shell around the edges. Return unused ice cream to the container. Place first layer of ice cr eam in the freezer for forty-five minutes.
Remove mold and add your second flavor (we'll say chocolate.) Do the same with the second flavor as the first. Once the mold is full, remove the inner portion and return it to the carton, leaving a second shell of chocolate inside the strawberry. Return mold to freezer for another forty-five minutes.
Repeat steps with third flavor (we'll say vanilla), only fill the entire middle with the remaining flavor. Then let the mold stay in the freezer for two to three hours to get good and solid.
Before you're ready to serve, remove the mold from the freezer. Using the loose ends of the plastic wrap, lift it from the mold. This should come out easily. Flip the mold onto a cold cake plate. At this point, you can frost the cake with a store bought frosting or just leave it as it is. You can also spruce it up with candies, cherries, peppermints, drizzles of caramel, chocolate, or strawberry, or any of your other favorite toppings.
Serve immediately by slicing with a sharp knife dipped in warm water. Your guests will wonder how in the world you managed to make this. They'll think you're a culinary genius. You'll never tell just how easy it was. So whether you are making the cake for a party, like a baby shower or birthday, or just for fun, just follow the simple steps above for a special treat that everyone will love.
