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cake1For 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.

Allison Arthur

Owner and publisher of Dishing magazines in Jackson and Park City.