ice cream cake – AT-AT Everywhere

Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake

In celebration of Shirley’s birthday last month, we decided to do a potluck/wine tasting. Shirley, Spencer, Leslie, Tri, Kevin, and I contributed wine from our favorite vineyards, and everyone brought something for dinner.

Leslie and Shirley's App Spread — Leslie and Shirley’s App Spread

I volunteered to do dessert, and an ice cream cake seemed like a great idea to cool us off in the midst of the crazy heat wave.

Shiriley's Roasted Garlic Chicken — Shiriley’s Roasted Garlic Chicken

I knew Shirley liked tiramisu, so why not combine the two and do a tiramisu flavored ice cream cake? I ended up combining various parts of three different recipes from Martha Stewart and The Delicious Life.

Shirley's Sausage and Penne — Shirley’s Sausage and Penne

Here is the combined recipe, which was a big hit with our group:

Vanilla Sponge Cake

INGREDIENTS:

softened butter, for pan
1/2 C all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 C cornstarch
4 large eggs, separated
1 t pure vanilla extract
3/4 C sugar
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.
In a small bowl, sift together flour and cornstarch.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/2 cup sugar on high speed until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Transfer the egg/sugar mixture to a large bowl. Wash and dry the mixer bowl and the whisk attachment.
Sponge Cake Batter
Beat egg whites and salt on medium speed until whites hold soft peaks (about 2 minutes). With mixer running, slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute.
Stiff Peaks!
Fold the egg whites into the egg-yolk mixture. In three additions, fold the flour mixture into eggs. Pour cake batter into prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into middle comes out clean, about 40 minutes (start checking on the cake at about 35 minutes).
Vanilla Sponge Cake
Cool cake in pan for about 15 minutes, then invert to remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake

INGREDIENTS:

1 C sugar
1 1/2 C strong, freshly brewed espresso (I used espresso powder and hot water)
1/3 C coffee liqueur, such as Kahlua (optional)
1 recipe Vanilla Sponge Cake (above)
1/4 C finely ground espresso beans
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1.5 pints coffee ice cream (I used Haagen Daaz)
1-1.5 pints chocolate ice cream (I used Haagen Daaz)
Chocolate curls or unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 C mascarpone cheese
1 C heavy whipping cream
2-4 T sugar (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Place sugar and 2/3 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in espresso and Kahlua. Let the syrup cool.
SO. MUCH. CAFFEINE.
Using a serrated knife, cut sponge cake in half horizontally, making two layers. Place one layer in the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Using a pastry brush, brush with 3/4 cup cooled syrup. Sift 2 tablespoons ground espresso and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder over cake.
Brush Syrup Over Cake
Place coffee ice cream in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed with the paddle attachment until spreadable. Spread ice cream over cake; top with second layer of sponge cake and press down gently. Brush with remaining syrup. Transfer cake to freezer for 20 minutes. If your springform pan leaks liquid like mine does, be sure to put your pan on top of a baking sheet or foil first.
Sift Cocoa Powder and Ground Espresso
Remove cake from freezer; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons of ground espresso and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder. Place chocolate ice cream in a mixer bowl. Beat on low speed until spreadable. Spread ice cream over cake, forming large swirls. Return to freezer; freeze until completely hardened.
Spread Softened Ice Cream
While cake is freezing, make the marscarpone cream. Beat mascarpone cheese until light and fluffy, about 60 seconds, and then transfer to another bowl. In the same mixer bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form, slowly adding sugar if you want to sweeten it. Fold whipped cream into mascarpone cheese. Keep chilled until ready to serve. Then spread over top of cake, and garnish with chocolate curls or sift 1-1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder over top.
Whipped Marscarpone and Cream

I started with two pints of ice cream, but my springform pan was not big enough to hold everything so I really think 1 pint each is enough. I also topped my cake with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder just to create an even layer with no marscarpone showing through (as below), and all six of us took turns choking on the cocoa powder. Unless you want the same affect, perhaps scale back to about 1 tablespoon overtop.

You can also sub the chocolate ice cream for espresso ice cream if you want more of a very strong coffee flavor. For the ground espresso, I went to Intelligentsia for their Black Cat espresso which is the best espresso in LA in my opinion. It turned out that the barista helping me was an avid baker as well, and we ended up having a lengthy conversation about the wonders of adding coffee in chocolate desserts. Long story short, she gave me about $8 worth of ground espresso for free!

Banana Split Ice Cream Cake

I recalled having Baskin-Robbins ice cream cakes on quite a few birthday celebrations for Crystal throughout the 10+ years I’ve known her. And any time she had a chance to bring dessert to a potluck, she brought ice cream cake. I thought it might be somewhat of a no-brainer to see if she’d want one for her birthday potluck a few weekends ago, but I wanted to make sure she’d be into it. This is literally the conversation we had verbatim:

Allison: hi friend, do you have room in your freezer if i made an ice cream cake for saturday?

Crystal: hey

Allison: or is it pretty packed?

Crystal: OMG YES

Allison: otherwise i can do cupcakes or something haha

Crystal: NO we have room hahaha

Allison: did i hit the mark? i feel like ice cream cake is your fav

Crystal: umm it’s alright…UHHHH YA LOVE IT hahahaha

Off I went looking for some ideas – I didn’t want to make something you could easily buy. I found an AMAZING-looking recipe for a Banana Split Ice Cream Cake on Brown Eyed Baker (which is the same blog I found my favorite cupcake recipe on).

The full recipe is a little long, so bear with me. I didn’t include the ice cream recipes, since I used store-bought ice cream on this cake. I don’t have an ice cream maker, but Dreyer’s Grand (not the slow-churned stuff!) has great consistency for spreading the ice cream. I will leave the links for the sauces that I made to shorten this post a bit. I used Brown Eyed Baker’s strawberry and pineapple sauce recipe, but I used Food Network’s Tyler Florence’s version for the chocolate sauce (I generally just don’t like using corn syrup).

Since we were expecting 25 people at the potluck, I made two cakes in a 9×3 springform pan and a small loaf tin for the second cake, using 1.5 the amount of the suggested ingredients. This ended up being a 5-day process, given my day job. I got nervous the ice cream would freezer burn being out that long, as I’ve had frequent freezer burn problems with my freezer. After lots of Googling, I found that using parchment paper helps prevent it. Each time I finished a layer that would be in the freezer overnight or while I was at work, I cut out a 9″ round piece of parchment paper to keep in contact with the top layer of ice cream or sauce. This recipe is just for one 8×3 inch springform pan’s worth of awesomeness.

INGREDIENTS:

For the Crust:

20 Oreo cookies, crushed into crumbs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 to 3 bananas, sliced ½-inch thick

For the Strawberry Layer:

1 pint strawberry ice cream
1 cup strawberry ice cream topping (make sure it’s a pourable consistency, warm briefly if necessary)

For the Chocolate Layer:

1 pint chocolate ice cream
1 cup hot fudge sauce, at room temperature (make sure it’s a pourable consistency, warm briefly if necessary)

For the Vanilla Layer:

1 pint vanilla ice cream
½ cup pineapple ice cream topping

For the Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To Garnish:

Maraschino cherries
Chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Spray an 8×3-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom and sides with parchment paper; set aside.

2. Assemble the Crust: Combine the Oreo cookie crumbs with the melted butter, tossing until all of the crumbs are evenly moistened. Press into an even layer in the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with the banana slices. Place the pan in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.

3. Assemble the Strawberry Layer: Top the banana layer with the strawberry ice cream. Use an offset spatula (or the back of a giant spoon) to spread the ice cream into a smooth, even layer. Place the pan back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

4. Pour the strawberry topping over the strawberry ice cream and gently spread so that it covers the entire ice cream layer beneath. Return to the freezer for at least 1 hour, or until completely frozen. This is where I took a break and froze the cake overnight, so I put a layer of parchment paper down to prevent freezer burn.

Parchment Paper - My BFF — Parchment Paper – My BFF

5. Assemble the Chocolate Layer: Top the strawberry layer with the chocolate ice cream. Use an offset spatula to spread the ice cream into a smooth, even layer. Place the pan back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, or until firm and set.

Laying Down the Chocolate Ice Cream Layer

6. Pour the hot fudge sauce over the chocolate ice cream and gently spread so that it covers the entire ice cream layer beneath. Return to the freezer for at least 1 hour, or until completely frozen.

7. Assemble the Vanilla Layer: Top the hot fudge layer with the vanilla ice cream. Use an offset spatula to spread the ice cream into a smooth, even layer. Cover with plastic wrap, return the assembled cake to the freezer and freeze overnight. Don’t forget the layer of parchment paper!

Main Part of the Cake - All Done! — Main Part of the Cake – All Done!

8. Final Assembly and Garnishment: At least 1 hour (and no more than 12 hours) before serving, unmold the cake. To release the cake from the pan, invert the cake onto a plate or cardboard round the same size and wrap a hot kitchen towel around the cake pan, keeping it there for 30 seconds, or until the cake loosens and slide the pan off.

Remove the parchment (and bottom of pan if using a springform). Top with a serving plate and turn the cake right side up. Return to the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

Flip and Place Cake Board on the Bottom Side of Cake

9. While the cake is in the freezer, make the whipped cream. Combine the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip on medium-high speed until the cream is light and fluffy and holds a medium to firm peak, 2 to 3 minutes.

10. Just prior to serving, pipe the whipped cream into mounds around the outer edge of the cake, making sure the mounds touch so that no pineapple sauce leaks down the top. Place a maraschino cherry on top of each whipped cream mound.

Pipe Whipped Cream Around Perimeter of Cake

11. Fill in the space in the middle with the pineapple topping and top with chopped walnuts. A hot, dry knife will yield the cleanest cuts. Dip your knife in a glass of hot water, wipe it clean with a towel, and cut a slice. Repeat between every slice. Store leftover slices in airtight containers (or covered with parchment paper and foil) in the freezer.

Note: If you are making homemade ice cream, your best bet is to time the assembly so that you can add the freshly-churned ice cream right onto the cake. It will be the perfect consistency. If you will be using already-made ice cream, put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before you plan to need it and then mix it really well with a spatula so that it is smooth and spreadable.

After work the day before the BBQ, I pulled the cake out of the freezer to check on it and saw this:

My dad had accidentally left two heavy WARM ice packs on top of the parchment paper layer of cake the night before, and the packs had melted the already soft ice cream and pushed it down, causing the top layer to get a little foamy and spill out the sides of the pan. My 4 days of work leading up to that had been ruined. I could only think of one thing to say, but it was already too late. After a good hour of wanting to take a wrecking ball to my kitchen, I calmed down tried to figure out how to salvage the cake. I re-froze the cake, and then scraped off as much as I could of the vanilla layer without breaking the chocolate sauce layer. I put another layer of parchment paper down and froze it for a few hours. I reapplied the vanilla ice cream layer, put another layer of parchment down and froze it overnight. The next morning, I made the whipped cream and piped it on to the cake, and filled the top with the pineapple sauce.

The cake layers definitely weren’t as perfect as I had hoped, but there was no time to start the cake over. Thankfully, Sho-Yu is definitely not a crowd to judge based on appearances as we tend to just inhale sweets however imperfect they may look.

I do think Crystal was a happy camper with the cake, and there were no leftovers which is always a good sign.

Strawberry Sauce – Strawberries, Sugar, Lemon Juice

Hot Fudge Sauce – Chocolate, Butter, Heavy Cream

Parchment Paper Prevents Freezer Burn on Ice Cream

Pineapple Topping – Pineapple, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon

Whipped Cream – Heavy Cream, Vanilla, and Sugar

Peaches and Cream Ice Cream Cake

Doing something to celebrate your significant other’s birthday is a bit like taking your car to the carwash. The basic bronze package (e.g., birthday dinner and maybe dessert) is what you opt for most of time, while you “level-up” once in a while and get them the silver package (e.g., everything from the bronze package plus a gift and/or planning a get-together with their friends, etc.). But on “milestone” birthdays, you splurge and treat your car (or boyfriend) to the platinum package, which is includes all of the above in addition to a surprise party and an exterior carnauba wax and polish.

In planning the birthday basketball tournament, I had to spin an intricate web of lies and to keep KJ from getting suspicious since I wanted it to be a surprise. However, this meant pretending he was just getting the bronze package to deflect any suspicions while actually procuring the platinum in secrecy.

In the middle of the week, he gave me the Puss in Boots eyes and told me that the ONE thing he wanted for his birthday this year was a half-batch of the peanut butter cookies I had made a few weeks ago for a coworker’s birthday. Obviously, I couldn’t A) say no to those eyes and B) tell him I was too busy making a surprise birthday cake and planning a surprise party. So, on his actual birthday, I frantically cranked a full batch out in between work and servicing a bronze package a la dinner at Rustic Canyon to sample the “Best Gourmet Burger in LA”. I put chocolate chips in the other half-batch for him to bring to his fantasy football draft, where the birthday cake would also be served.

Since he loves ice cream cake, I decided to try my hand at making the frozen treat. I didn’t want to make any ordinary ice cream cake that one could buy from Baskin Robbins (i.e., Mint Chip Ice Cream with Chocolate Cake, etc.). So, I thought I would take advantage of it being peach season and whip up a peaches and cream ice cream cake.

Chopped Fresh Peaches and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

I made it upside down and in a 9” springform pan so I wouldn’t have to worry about prying the frozen concoction out of a normal pan. The first layer was vanilla bean ice cream with chopped fresh peaches mixed in, and the middle layer was peach sorbet.

The final layer was a white cake. The recipe I had made enough to fill a 13”x9” pan at about two inches thick. I anticipated needing to cut it down to be 9″ round, and then cut it shorter to about an inch or so. However, the cake ended up being a little on the dryer side when it came out of the oven, so it crumbled when I tried to put it on top of the sorbet layer. It didn’t taste dry, but it just wasn’t moist enough to stay together.

Since it was already late on a work night and I couldn’t pick out all of the pieces from the softened sorbet, I instead ended up piecing everything together and pushing it down in hopes that it wouldn’t fall apart once it came out of the fridge. Thankfully, it ended up working out because if the cake had actually been very moist, it would have gotten soggy and icy once frozen. I wish the peach sorbet had been a bit brighter in color so that the layers would really pop when looking at the cake as a whole.

I picked up a cake box and the gold cake round at a specialty cooking store in Culver City, along with a couple of smaller baker’s boxes for the PB cookies and maybe a future project. Despite the sorbet layer being a bit light in color, I did really like the way the cake looked when sliced.