Making an ice cream cake

[CaliPoutine]

My niece asked me to bake an ice cream cake for her bday party this sunday. I was thinking of making a 9 inch round, then splitting it in half. putting one half on the bottom of a spring form pan, covering it with icecream, then topping with the other second half of the first layer.

I also thought about baking the cake in a 10x10x3 square cake pan and doing the same thing.

My questions are:

How do I frost the cake? It seems like it would be awkard to frost a frozen cake. What type of frosting do I use?

Chelsea( niece) wants me to draw a dachshund on top of the cake as well. How would I do that? Im thinking maybe that writing gel from the supermarket.

I'm using "premeasured" ingredients for the cake(aka, doctored up cake mix). and Id like to bake it tomorrow so it can ripen for a few days( I think the flavor is better).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edited June 8, 2005 by CaliPoutine (log)

[Nyleve Baar]

You've pretty much got exactly how I do it. I make a 9-inch round cake layer and split it. Then I line a springform pan with plastic wrap - extending it up the sides and hanging over. This will help create a neater outside surface. Now place one half layer in the bottom, scoop in a whole half gallon (2 litre) tub of whatever flavour ice cream you like (softened slightly) and top with the other half layer. Press down and wrap the plastic over the top. Freeze solid. When it's solid, I remove the whole thing from the springform pan and peel off the plastic. Frost with sweetened and tinted (if you like) whipped cream. Regular buttercream frosting doesn't work well on a frozen cake. The whipped cream softens just enough when you remove the cake from the freezer to give it a reasonable texture. And it goes well with the cake and ice cream.

[Swisskaese]

You could also frost the cake with ice cream. You freeze the cake and then frost it with ice cream that has been softened to the consistency of frosting.

Then, freeze. Then you could pipe a whipped cream border on the bottom and around the top. As for the dachshund, I don't know. That is out of my league.

Edited June 8, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[phaelon56]

My first food industry job was working in a Carvel store. We used a sponge cake that was pre-made in a fairly thin round and assembled exactly as described above. We frosted with softened ice cream and then used a toothed tool to create wavy lines on the surface. We also applied piping around the top edge with a pastry bag - I think it was filled with softened ice cream but I can't swear to that.

In recent years Carvel has switched over to an ice cream cake that's comprised of nothing but ice cream and some crunchy chocolate bits between the payers. Not nearly as appealing or satisfying as the traditional cake.

By the way - IIRC we made our cakes with four layers starting with sponge cake on the bottom and ending with ice cream on the top.

[chiantiglace]

Someitmes I like to make an Ice BoX Cake.

What you do is bake a pretty thick layer cake and cut it in three layers. Seperate them and the middle layer cut out a circle with edges approximately 3/4 inch. the stack the secound layer ontop of the first, fill the hole with ice cream and place your top layer on. Let it set and ice it as desired.

It's a pretty easy neat thing for the home goer. I never use it in the resturaunt though.

[chefcyn]

I make one similar to the layer cake version, spiltting a 9" round layer, but I spread good flavored seedless preserves on the split sides of the layers before filling with the ice cream. Our favorite around here is Blackberry, or Boysenberry, but apricot, raspberry, or any favorite goes well--match it with the flavor of the cake--chocolate cake and raspberry preserves are great, with vanilla ice cream, or something decadent like Raspberry Sorbet and Vanilla in layers! Yum!

Because I cook only for adults, I can also make the addition af a generous sprinkling of matching sweet cordial or brandy on the layers before the preserves. Very wonderful!

I frost them with soft buttercream before freezing and never had any trouble.--I only frost the top of the cake though, leaving the sides clean.

Edited June 8, 2005 by chefcyn (log)

[PPX]

was this said already?.....I think it is helpful to freeze the cake layers a bit before filling w/ice cream......

[jgarner53]

You could also frost the cake with ice cream. You freeze the cake and then frost it with ice cream that has been softened to the consistency of frosting.

My first job was also in an ice cream shop, and I made an ice cream cake for my brother after the '84 Olympics. I did the whole thing inside our walk-in freezer because I was too worried the ice cream would get too soft for the icing! I even decorated it in there! (I did a replica of the icon for his sport - rowing - in piping gel)

I think that Baskin-Robbins ices their ice cream cakes in the shortening-based buttercream; at least that what it seems like from the few times I've been at parties where they're served.

As for your decoration, I'd find a daschund that you like and trace it onto the surface of your icing (with a toothpick punched through the paper) before trying to fill it in. You could also use royal icing.

[Nyleve Baar]

Why don't you just buy a plastic (or some facsimilie thereof) dachund and arrange it on the top of the cake with suitable paraphernalia. Like a plastic fire hydrant or tree.

We have a bag of plastic whatnot that we use and reuse in increasingly demented ways to decorate family cakes. The best was the ants-all-over cake.

[momlovestocook]

HERE Is a link to a page on how to do frozen buttercream transfers which would probably be easy to do of a dog. Just search online for a picture of the dog and make the transfer. I did one a few weeks ago for my daughters confirmation and it turned out not bad for someone with no artistic talent Sorry, I didn't get a picture.

Not sure about the rest of the cake.

Sandra

ps if the link doesn't work the site is www.cakecentral.com (not sure if the link will work if you are not registered

[PastryMom]

I agree with pp suggestion on a buttercream transfer for the dachund.

http://community.webshots.com/album/111071540UEhrpE

She has some awesome tutorials for different cake decorating techniques

[Nyleve Baar]

Nyleve Baar,  was that even english.  Im afraid I understood zero of what you just said.  Maybe im taking crazy pills but did you just say something about ants on a cake and a fire hydrant? + paraphernalia? as in illegal drugs?

←

Of COURSE it was English. As in, probably, English when I've been out in the sun too long. As in English when I should have turned the computer off at least three hours before I did. As in, well, bad English. Sorry for the incomprehensibility.

What I thought I had said was that I keep a bag of plastic whatchamacallits that we use over and over again to decorate family cakes. These are generally of the dollar store variety and they allow us to create truly bizarre little cake-top scenarios. Hence the mention of the now infamous ants-all-over cake which featured about a gazillion plastic ants crawling up the sides and all over the top of my son's birthday cake one year. He loved it, but it was difficult to eat.

If I were asked to make a dachshund cake, I'd find a plastic dachshund and surround it with appropriate accessories. Such as fire hydrants and/or trees. But that's just me. I'm kind of into tacky. And in my world, a kid's ice cream cake should not necessarily be tastefully decorated.

Sorry for the confusion.

[CaliPoutine]

Nyleve Baar,  was that even english.  Im afraid I understood zero of what you just said.  Maybe im taking crazy pills but did you just say something about ants on a cake and a fire hydrant? + paraphernalia? as in illegal drugs?

←

Of COURSE it was English. As in, probably, English when I've been out in the sun too long. As in English when I should have turned the computer off at least three hours before I did. As in, well, bad English. Sorry for the incomprehensibility.

What I thought I had said was that I keep a bag of plastic whatchamacallits that we use over and over again to decorate family cakes. These are generally of the dollar store variety and they allow us to create truly bizarre little cake-top scenarios. Hence the mention of the now infamous ants-all-over cake which featured about a gazillion plastic ants crawling up the sides and all over the top of my son's birthday cake one year. He loved it, but it was difficult to eat.

If I were asked to make a dachshund cake, I'd find a plastic dachshund and surround it with appropriate accessories. Such as fire hydrants and/or trees. But that's just me. I'm kind of into tacky. And in my world, a kid's ice cream cake should not necessarily be tastefully decorated.

Sorry for the confusion.

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I totally understood what you said the first time. Does that mean something is wrong with me?

I dont think I can handle the transfer. I honestly dont get it. I also dont want to make a buttercream with crisco either. So, I think Ill have to go look for some plastic things at the dollar store.

Thanks for all your help.

[chiantiglace]

yea ok, that helps a little. I think my thought processing is completely different from yours so your descriptions may have sent me off in a tangent. Thank you for semi-clarifying.

[CaliPoutine]

Ok, here it is. Its not that pretty( I skipped the dachsund transfer) but it tasted good. My niece said it was better than her dairy queen cake the previous day.

I baked a 2 layer cake. I split that layer and put chocolate syrup on top, then I put it at the bottom of a spring form pan. I layered softened vanilla, then crushed double chocolate oreo's, more ice cream, the cake top, syrup and frosting. Back in the freezer for a day.

Thanks for all your help.

[McDuff]

In the Time Life series called The Good Cook, in the volume on cakes, there are pictures and a description for making ice cream cakes, which I have adapted to use at work.

I put a parchment round into a 9" cake pan, line it with an acetate collar, drop in a layer of cake, then I use a big muffin scoop to put in half a half gallon of ice cream which I have softened in the microwave briefly.

I spread the ice cream smooth and then put in a layer of an oreo like cookie run through the food processor and mixed with warm caramel sauce until it's like streusel. This goes into the freezer until it's hard enough to spread with another layer of a different flavor of ice cream.

Then I freeze the whole thing till rock hard, then unmold, peel off the acetate and ice it with Diplomat cream rather than whipped cream. I press these things called chocolate blossom curls into the bottom border, pipe on some gay rosettes, slap it into a dome, label it, and put it in the freezer on the sales floor. The all natural ice cream cake, and if you've ever read the ingredient label on any other commercially produced ice cream cake, it will give you nightmares.

[Lesley C]

OK, I know you already made the cake, but for future reference (I took a year-long ice cream course. I made a ton of these babies)...

First of all, make a genoise that is soaked in flavoured sugar syrup. The syrup keeps the cake from freezing hard (for adults add a shot of booze to your syrup to really prevent it from freezing hard).

As for frosting, use sweetened whipped cream (Chantilly), which freezes and defrosts very well without getting droopy like ice cream. Meringue would be another obvious choice for an ice cream cake, which could be given the baked-Alaska treatment just before serving.

As for the dog, I would have made him out of marzipan, or rolled out some brown marzipan and cut out a flat dog. Marzipan works brilliantly as an ice-cream-cake decoration. And animals are quite easy -- and fun -- to make.

[CaliPoutine]

OK, I know you already made the cake, but for future reference (I took a year-long ice cream course. I made a ton of these babies)...

First of all, make a genoise that is soaked in flavoured sugar syrup. The syrup keeps the cake from freezing hard (for adults add a shot of booze to your syrup to really prevent it from freezing hard).

As for frosting, use sweetened whipped cream (Chantilly), which freezes and defrosts very well without getting droopy like ice cream. Meringue would be another obvious choice for an ice cream cake, which could be given the baked-Alaska treatment just before serving.

As for the dog, I would have made him out of marzipan, or rolled out some brown marzipan and cut out a flat dog. Marzipan works brilliantly as an ice-cream-cake decoration. And animals are quite easy -- and fun -- to make.

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Can you post any pics of your cakes? Same question to McDuff?

[Lesley C]

Sorry, no pictures. I haven't worked as a professional pastry chef for about 8 years now. But the cakes I made were French style, usually put together in a shaped mould, with several layers of ice cream and sorbet, and the center often filled with a frozen mousse. Such bombe glacees are very difficult to get right, with even layers, and no air pockets.

And as for ice cream, I try to avoid too much of the stuff.

Is there anything more fattening out there?

[Jessica Parsons]

OK, so this is really late, and the cake has long since been made and eaten (looked delicious), but here's a little input, perhaps for others who look at this in the future.

I also worked in an ice cream shop, Baskin-Robbins, for a while as a cake decorator. Dealing with frozen buttercream does add an interesting element to the whole undertaking.

Baskin-Robbins ice cream cakes are cake on the bottom, ice cream on top, and I have always preferred this ice-cream-to-cake ratio (about 50/50) myself. They are always covered in softened ice cream, sometimes chocolate, but usually a special "deco" vanilla that is extra white.

The piped decorations are generally buttercream--one of my favorite things about ice cream cakes as a kid (and still, as a matter of fact) has always been the dense, grainy texture of frozen frosting! Although the content of the buttercream may vary from shop to shop (they're franchised by independent owners), the stuff in my shop was (I believe, although I wasn't as savvy about these things at the time) of the shortening-based variety, in huge tubs from Westco, if I remember correctly.

We also used whipped dairy product (that stabilized stuff sold in quart cartons, I can't remember the name), which they whipped to a texture that could never produce smoothly piped shells, then stored in pastry bags in the fridge. And we used quite a bit of "dipping chocolate" (a la the ubiquitous Dairy Queen dipped cone, but put into a squeeze bottle), dripped along the edges or drizzled into designs.

The one decoration material that was a surprise to me was fudge. The same fudge they put into the heated containers to pour on sundaes, they put into pastry bags at room temperature, and it had a good, thick, frosting-like texture, excellent for piping, although a little stretchy.

As for the buttercream transfers, I did a few of those, and they are way easier than they look! Really great, especially for frozen cakes. We just put a sheet of wax paper on a template, piped buttercream to trace and fill the picture, and stuck it in the freezer to harden. Once it was hard, we put it frosting-side down on the cake, and peeled off the paper. The design comes out a mirror image of the original, so you may need to plan ahead for that. Really a fun technique.

Finally, here's a method I used for an ice cream cake last summer. I had made a shaped cake (uh, for a bachelorette party) which I cut out of a rectangular jelly-roll-pan-sized cake. With the leftover scraps, I made the base of an ice cream cake, pressing them into the bottom of a springform pan which I put in the freezer. Then I covered the cake (chocolate) with fudge and almonds, followed by slightly softened espresso gelato, and back to the freezer to harden. I decorated the top with some really good fudge, which I put in a decorator bag and piped in rosettes around the edge and a happy birthday message in the middle (obviously unrelated to the bachelorette party ). I also sprinkled some more almonds near the edge. It was really good, and really easy--kind of a frozen trifle. Also, because the cake was pressed firm, and there was only one layer, it cut really nicely.

[torakris]

My daughter has decided she wants an ice cream cake for her birthday tomorrow, I didn't know what I was going to do until I found this thread. Now I have some great ideas but also a couple questions.

What is the minimum time it needs to freeze? Would I be able to make it tomorrow morning or should I get it done today?

I will be using whipped cream for the topping, if I make the cake today should I frost it tomorrow? For some reason I was under the impression that cream doesn't freeze well.

[miladyinsanity]

It doesn't freeze well if you are going to freezing cream that's not whipped--it'll separate after it melts.

I think 4 hours should be enough?