the ice cream cake experiement

A friend of mine here in Addis Ababa entrusted me with the important task of creating a cake for her son's tenth birthday party coming up this Saturday.  It was officially the first special order I received for Ladytroupe Sweets.  The request was for an ice cream cake!  I've never made one but that didn't stop me from taking on the challenge.  I figured, I make good ice cream and great cake, I'm certain I can combine the two.  What I found over the last few days of creating this masterpiece, is that ice cream cake is about planning and logistics...as well as good ingredients!

This cake used the following:
parchment paper
A 9 inch spring form pan
1 batch of homemade chocolate wafer cookies crumbled and frozen
1 batch of vanilla chocolate chip ice cream
1 batch of vanilla ice cream
1 9 inch chocolate cake sliced horizontally
candy for decorating

The spring form pan worked really well for the ice cream cake.  I lined it with parchment paper and pressed half the crumbled chocolate wafers into the bottom of the pan.  Then cover with foil and place a heavy plate on top and freeze overnight.

The ice cream has to be made a few hours in advance.  You want the ice cream to be spreadable but not too soft.  I layered half the ice cream onto the cookie crust, then a layer of my chocolate cake, ice cream again and cake on top.  After each layered addition I froze the cake for a few hours. This is not a cake to rush through.  Patience to let every layer freeze before the next addition is key.

 The sides and top of the cake were "frosted" with the vanilla ice cream just as I would frost a cake with frosting.  The remaining cookie crumbles were pressed into the sides and around the outer edge on top of the cake.  The birthday boy is turning ten so it only seemed appropriate to decorate the top in this fashion.

I hope he loves it!  It was a blast to make.