chocolate ice cream cake

my coworker's birthday was last week and i promised him i would make something. he wasn't around for when i distributed my christmas goodies, which is why i promised i would make him something yummy. i asked him what he wanted and he said 'something you haven't made yet.' so i suggested ice cream cake. he was excited.

i did some research online to find the best method. a lot of recipes said to just use ice cream sandwiches, but that is lazy to the max. then i found a few that said to bake cake, then freeze ice cream in the cake pans and layer it all together. now that's what i'm talking about.

first i baked the cake. the recipe i used made enough batter for 3 cake layers. that would mean i needed two ice cream layers. i was creating a 5 layer cake - holy moly.


once my cake pans were available again, i could put the ice cream in. had to make sure to cover the pans with foil so i could easily get the ice cream out once it was frozen.


i let everything sit in the freezer over night and assembled the next evening. i took everything out of the freezer, unwrapped it, and started layering.


then i threw that back in the freezer for about an hour or two, just to firm up. i read in a recipe online that cool whip is a good icing for ice cream cake, since it freezes so well. and it turned out really nice, i have to admit. it was a perfect icing for the cake - it wasn't too heavy and it was a nice compliment to the heavy cake and ice cream.



the cake was a big hit with the birthday boy and everyone else at work. i think everyone is expecting an ice cream cake for their birthday now. i wouldn't mind being the designated work baker, as long as they put a little something in my paycheck to pay for all this stuff! maybe one day..