Today my oldest child turns 18. He discovered the joy of ice cream cakes several birthdays ago, so his birthday tradition involves me making an ice cream cake. Normally, it’s only two layers of ice cream, but this year he’s requested three: chocolate, mint chip, and cookie dough. Because I make them gluten free so that I can enjoy a slice, too, I was a bit more challenged this year. The solution? Vanilla ice cream with homemade cookie dough!
I’m about to take you on a pictorial journey, so let me give you the ingredients first.
Cake Ingredients:
1 carton chocolate ice cream
1 carton mint chocolate chip ice cream
1 carton vanilla ice cream
2 packages of gluten free chocolate sandwich cookies
2 bottles of Chocolate Fudge Magic Shell
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
For the frosting:
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of gelatin
2 tablespoons of cold water
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
I learned the basics of ice cream cake making from an Instructables tutorial. Start by softening and stirring your bottom flavor — which is usually chocolate if you’re a Carvel fan!
Once it feels like soft-serve, spread the ice cream along the bottom of a spring form pan lined with parchment paper. Pop the pan into the freezer.
Next, take your first package of gluten free chocolate sandwich cookies and crumble them up in the food processor. If you don’t have one, you could always toss them into a zipper bag and smash them that way.
Shake the bottle of Magic Shell really well, then dump all of that chocolate-y goodness into your cookie crumbs.
Stir the Magic Shell into your cookie crumbs until not a single crumb is uncoated.
Some recipes require you to wait 2 hours before added the next layer. I say, take your cookie magic and add that layer earlier so they can meld into the bottom layer of ice cream! Spread them evenly across your ice cream, then park the pan back in the freezer for about 2 hours.
While you’re waiting on the ice cream to set, now is a good time to make your gluten free cookie dough! If you have no issues with gluten, you could probably spend the time crying and staring at the clock wishing the cake was already done!
Bake your cup of flour at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to kill potential bacteria. Flour is apparently raw — who knew?
While your flour bakes, cream together the butter and brown sugar until nice and creamy.
Next, add your salt and vanilla.
Dump in the flour now that it’s cooked. Add it slowly if you hate when the mixer starts its nonsense again.
Once you have a crumbly dough that forms together when squished, you are ready to add your mini chocolate chips.
Knead the dough until the chocolate is well combined.
Gently pinch and squish bits of cookie dough to set on a pan. There are no eggs in this dough, so it won’t roll very well without crumbling. Put the cookie dough bits into the fridge to chill.
Once time’s up, take your second flavor of ice cream out to soften and stir. In this cake, I used mint chocolate chip because it’s one of my son’s favorite flavors.
As with the bottom layer, spread the softened ice cream evenly to coat the cookies. Then, put the pan back in the freezer.
Make your second batch of cookie crumbs mixed with chocolate crack Magic Shell. Spread it evenly across your second ice cream layer just like with the first, then let it set another 2 hours. Order Chinese, slurp up noodles, and browse the Internet.
Now comes the extra work part if you’re like me. You could just use regular cookie dough ice cream. You could just use plain vanilla. If you’re me, though — you want to enjoy the ice cream cake with zero consequences! Start softening and stirring your top ice cream layer.
Turn that vanilla ice cream into chocolate chip ice cream with the remaining chocolate chips. Stir it up well!
Slowly add your cookie dough bits in batches, stirring carefully so as not to break your bits.
Spread the cookie dough ice cream layer across the top, then pop the pan back in the freezer for another 2 hours. Go take a walk to burn off the taste tests of ice cream. And cookies. And Magic Shell. And cookie crumb layers. And cookie dough. Yeah…
For the frosting, you have to have stabilized whipped cream. This is neither the time nor the place for buttercream! I learned how to make stabilized whipped cream here.
Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and set aside for about five minutes to let it bloom. Then pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds and set aside to cool.
Dump the rest of the frosting ingredients into a mixing bowl or cup.
Now it’s time to whip it! Whip it good!
When it’s stiffening up, add the cooled gelatin slurry. Whip it until stiff peaks form. If you screw up, don’t worry — it’ll still taste good! Stick it in the fridge until you’re ready to frost.
Release the cake from the spring form pan and set it on a plate.
Then frost the top (and sides if you like), then set the cake in the freezer again for about an hour before decorating. Decorate it however you want! Tune in on Sunday for a shot of the birthday boy with a slice of ice cream cake!
