Once upon a time, in a Woman’s Day magazine far, far away in
the past, my mom read about how to make an ice cream cake.
I’m not talking about your typical ice cream cake. A typical
ice cream cake has ice cream and cake, and is usually a frozen dessert. Let me
tell you, I have had ice cream cakes from Cold Stone, and I have had ice cream
cakes from Baskin Robbins. And all I can say is…yuck! The cake part was freezer
burned, both times, from both places. I was probably biased, though, too,
because I had grown up with a different definition of “ice cream cake.”
Using the how-to article in the Woman’s Day magazine, my mom
made and ice cream cake. You start with a gallon bucket—an empty ice cream
bucket, if you have one. You take about a pint of ice cream and stir it up in a
bowl until it is soft, and pourable (but still frozen). Pour the ice cream into
the bottom of the bucket and smooth it out, to make what will eventually be the
top layer of your ice cream cake. And then it goes in the freezer. While it is
getting solid, you take some cookies and crush them up into chunks—not crumbs.
Stir the cookie chunks into some cool whip, and mix them together really
well. When the ice cream layer is hard,
remove it from the freezer and dump the cookie/cool whip mixture into the
bucket, and smooth it out to make the next layer, and harden that layer in the
freezer. Then just continue making layers until the bucket is full. It is okay
to have different layers of ice cream next to each other without a cookie layer
in between, which is sometimes fun to do if you are using more than one flavor
of ice cream.
The key is to match up your ice cream flavors and cookies
that go well together. There are so many possibilities!
Once the bucket is full and it’s all frozen, it’s time to
dump it out onto a plate or platter. Fill a sink half way with water, and dip
the bucket into the water. This will slightly soften the ice cream on the
inside of the bucket and make it easier to slide out. Then turn the bucket
upside down on your plate and let the cake slide out. Immediately put it back
in the freezer so the soft ice cream can harden again.
Decorating the ice cream cake is one of the most fun parts!
We love to use the Piroulline cookies from Pepperidge Farm, because they are
long and cylindrical. They look super fancy on the outside of the cake. But
really, you can decorate the outside however you want. Dollops of cool whip,
sprinkles, cookies or candies are super fun for the top, too. Once we made a
cake where we poured magic shell onto the top of the cake, and boy did it look
fancy! It was super hard to cut through though, so if you do the magic shell,
just be prepared to deal with it.
Anyway, my mom went on to teach Relief Society Homemaking
lessons on how to make these cakes, and people would hire her to make them for
special occasions. At one point in time, my mom went in to a bakery shop with a
sample slice of ice cream cake for the owner, and the owner hired her to make
ice cream cakes for her shop! She kept up that job for quite a fun little
while.
And now, as an adult, I have made a fair few ice cream
cakes, and taught some of my friends how to make them as well. Nothing like
having a fun skill!
Here are some of the cakes my mom made.
