Ice Cream Cake

Chances are that if your birthday is in the summer, you get an ice cream cake for your birthday every year. My birthday is in the end of July and I'm pretty sure I actually only had real cake two or three times for my birthday. The rest of the time it's always been an ice cream cake. 

Over the years my mom got adventurous with the cakes: Ben and Jerry's, Coldstone and Carvel. Carvel ones have always been my favorite. The icing and those chocolate crunchies in the middle - awesome. 

I found out one of our friends wanted an ice cream cake for his birthday - and me being the baker of our group (and now official birthday cake maker of our group), knew that I was going to make my feat ever ice cream cake for him.  Start to finish - bust out Izzy and make some ice cream, find out how to make the crunchies and assemble the cake. 

Little did I know this was ridiculously easy. Now you don't have to make your own ice cream, your favorite store bought ones will work just as well. 

So because I went the extra mile (let's face it I have a lot of time on my hands since I'm still out of work), it took me three days from start to finish. But it was so worth it. 

Let's just say that it didn't last long between all of us.  By the end the cake looked like it belonged at a murder scene. 

Delicious - and I'm sure I will be making these cakes again and again.

Ice Cream Cake

4 quarts of your favorite ice cream (1 or 2 flavors)
One box Oreo Cones or one container Oreo crumbs
One container Magic Shell (chocolate)
One container Cool whip
One 9" spring form pan with wax paper on the bottom

1. Freeze springform pan with wax paper over the bottom and sides of pan.

2. Let 2 containers of one flavor melt a little bit.

3.  Crush cones and mix with about 1/2 container of well shaken Magic Shell, should be wet, but not soaking wet. Feel free to taste.

4.  Take out springform pan and spread ice cream over the bottom half (if you have ice cream left over, feel free to eat it)
Add "crunchies" and press down on them. KEEP CRUNCHIES AT LEAST 1 CENTIMETER FROM THE EDGES. There needs to be some ice cream to ice cream contact.
Freeze a couple of hours. 

5. Let 2 containers of the other flavor soften up a little bit (like the above).

6.  Take the springform pan out and plop ice cream down on top of the bottom layer (you don't want to put it all in one space as you'll need to spread it out to cover it all evenly - if you plop it all down in the center, it tends to pull the cruchies up here & there).
Smooth out the top as best as possible with a long spatula (or bread knife).
Freeze overnight.

7.  Take out of the freezer and dip the whole springform pan in hot water very quickly (as much as you can dip without it coming over the top). This should melt the sides just enough to release the cake from the pan.

8.  Decorate with cool whip. Freeze a couple of hours or overnight. 

When ready to serve, like any ice cream cake, let sit out for 15-20 minutes before you are ready to cut into it.