DIY: Homemade Patriotic Ice Cream Cake

Summer and ice cream just go together don’t they?

This week I tried something new on behalf of Walmart as one of the Walmart Moms–I made an ice cream cake at home! And to make it even more awesome and seasonally appropriate, I made it with a patriotic theme for the 4th of July!

Of course this could be made in any color combination you like, with any flavors you like!

The process itself is really simple. Bake cake. Slice cake. Thaw ice cream. Layer cake-ice cream-cake-ice cream-cake. Freeze. Frost with Cool Whip. Freeze again. Slice and enjoy.

But of course, there are some tips and tricks that make it all go a bit easier. So let me walk you through the entire process.

I decided I wanted to make a red white and blue ice cream cake. I also decided that I wanted to make my ice cream cake in a bread pan because I wanted to be able to easily slice it into pretty, somewhat thin slices rather than wedges.

The red was easy, red velvet cake! The white was vanilla ice cream and the blue was white cake dyed blue. I briefly considered leaving the cake white and dying the ice cream blue but then I realized that was just a mess waiting to happen!

At this point I realized that because I was going to use two flavors of cake mix I was going to be making a lot of cake. I actually wound up making two ice cream cakes (which took 2 gallons of ice cream) and I still had quite a bit of “leftover” cake that didn’t make it into either ice cream cake. The kiddos had to help me get rid of that. They were happy to help! If you don’t want to have that much cake, I would suggest just using 1 box of white cake mix and dying half the batter red and half blue.

But here is what I did.

I greased and floured two bread pans, then I mixed up my red velvet cake.

I baked those cakes according to directions (they were cooked in roughly the time required for a 8″ round). When they were cooled I flipped them out onto cooling racks. Since I was going to be using the pans immediately, I ran the BACK of the pans under some cold water which cooled the pans down without getting the inside wet. Then I re-greased and floured the pans.

Next I mixed up the white cake more or less according to the package directions. Instead of 3 egg whites I just used 2 full eggs-that tiny tinge of yellow wasn’t going to hurt anything because it was covered up by the blue food coloring I added.

That batter was poured into the two re-greased and floured pans and baked.

Now I started cutting my cakes into thin layers. I have this cool cake layer cutting thingy (I don’t think that is the official name) but you can very carefully do the same thing with a knife or use the dental floss layer cutting method.

So I’ve got blue and red cake cut into layers. I had placed the ice cream on the counter to start thawing about 30-45 minutes before.

Now I completely washed and dried the bread pans. I wanted to be able to flip the ice cream cake out of the pan eventually so that I could frost it and slice it-so I lined the pans with parchment paper. You could also use wax paper, skip this or just serve the cake out of the pan 😉

Then you start the layering process. Red Cake. Softened ice cream. Blue Cake. Softened ice cream. Keep going until your pan is full. The cake actually stuck up higher than the edge of the pan, but that was fine. Repeat with second cake and second gallon of ice cream 😉 Any cake that is left after that is fair game. Or you could be frugal and stick it in the freezer to use later in a trifle or something.

Then into the freezer (or even better deep freezer) it goes. I let mine sit overnight.

To unmold the ice cream cake I filled a bin with some hot water and dipped the cake pan in for a few moments. That loosened up the ice cream.

I placed my platter on top of the cake and flipped it over.

It came out very easily with a little tug on the parchment paper. I peeled that off and I was ready to frost!

You could use regular frosting, but I really like to have cool whip as the frosting on an ice cream cake. You just use it the same way you would frosting.

I like to sort of make little peaks all over the top with the flat of my icing spatula or knife. I figure if you can’t get it perfectly flat and smooth than why not make the bumpy-ness a design feature 😉 I finished it off with some red white and blue sprinkle thingys and stuck it back into the freezer for another hour or so.

Viola!

Just dip your knife (I used a BIG carving knife) into some hot water and then slice through. Isn’t it pretty?

Although there were quite a few steps and a bit of pre-planning involved this was not hard at all~pretty good for something that is sure to really impress your family and friends.

Of course since I made two cakes I now have one completed and in the freezer. I wrapped it in wax paper and then put it in a big zippered baggie-next time we need a desert or something for a pot luck all I need to do is grab it out of the fridge.