For years I have been trying to talk my husband into letting me make him a homemade cake. But he always insists that he loves the Dairy Queen version so much and it has always been his special once a year treat. He’s never even let me try.
This year I decided I was going to make him one, regardless of his wishes. Before you think that isn’t nice, if he didn’t like it as much, the next day I would go buy him his favorite version instead. I also decided I wasn’t about to lose to Dairy Queen, so I had to come up with the best cake I could.
After some online research, I found a couple of versions of ice cream cakes that looked good and decided to blend a few recipes together. The cake layer I chose and provided the recipe for below was amazing, and I would make this rich, dark chocolate cake again in a second. The other layers have more flexibility to them. You can really make this cake your own, choosing ice cream and toppings that interest you instead.
I chose to use cookie dough ice cream and Cool Whip because I wanted to emulate the kind of whipped topping they have at Dairy Queen, which is certainly not real cream. You could add a fudge chocolate layer if you like, or serve it with a fudge sauce.
I think Cherry Garcia ice cream would be delicious with this dark chocolate cake, so I might try that next time. Heath Bar ice cream would be good or even vanilla with toffee bars crumbled before the whipped cream part.
I assembled mine with the directions below, but I think it could also work if you did it in a trifle serving dish. I would have done that because I think it would look pretty, but I didn’t have room for it in the freezer.
Needless to say, my cake won the battle! I am happy to report that I will, from now on, be making Brian’s birthday cake without complaint or argument. Try this next time you want a fun, cold dessert.
The Best Ice Cream Cake Ever
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup baking sugar
- 1/4 + 1/8 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1 gallon ice cream of your choice
- 1 container of cool whip
- parchment paper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 F. Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together. Add eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Add vanilla to boiling water to mixture.
- Mix at medium speed until smooth. Pour into 2 8-inch pans, lined with parchment paper and sprayed with a non-stick spray. Bake 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes in pans, then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling.
- To assemble: Line the sides of an 8-inch spring-form pan with parchment paper. The parchment paper should stick up above the top edge of the pan, since the cake will probably be a little taller than your pan. Put the first cake layer in the bottom of your pan. Top with half of the ice cream. Top with ½ the Cool Whip Add second cake to the pan. Top with remaining ice cream. Allow ice cream cake to freeze completely, or at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, remove from spring-form pan and remove parchment paper from sides. Ice cake with additional Cool Whip, then top with additional decorations you like.