Stalena's Birthday

Good Morning! I'm currently listening to Justin Timberlake & Matt Morris sing "Hallelujah". Go to iTunes right now and buy it. Right now! You'll thank me. Plus, it'll benefit Haiti.

A few days ago (okay, 9 days ago), we celebrated Stalena's birthday. Her favorite cake is ice cream cake, so I volunteered to make it. I've never made an ice cream cake and I couldn't find a recipe that I really liked, so I took the idea for an Oreo base from one and did my own thing for the rest of it. I mean, it's an ice cream cake, so it couldn't be too complicated, right? Right.

Ice Cream Cake

1 package Oreos
1 stick butter
1 half-gallon of ice cream (I used peanut butter cookie b/c Leen loves PB.)
1 Ghiradelli 60% cacao chocolate bar (She also loves dark chocolate.)
1/2 half-gallon of ice cream (I used French Vanilla just because we had it on hand.)
Spring-form pan

I started by putting all the Oreos in a gallon Ziploc and crushing them with my rolling pin. (It's a good idea to have your ice cream sitting out to help soften it.) Melt the stick of butter. Combine the melted butter and Oreos (leave a bit of the crushed Oreos in the bag). Once your Oreos have soaked up the butter, put the mixture in the bottom of your spring-form pan. Press the cookie/butter mixture firmly into the bottom. Place in the freezer while you're working with your ice cream. Take the half-gallon that will be your base and place it in a big bowl. Mix the ice cream until it's the same consistency throughout (soft, but not melted). Pull the spring-form pan from the freezer and place your soft ice cream on top, spreading it evenly. Return to freezer. I then cut up the chocolate bar into fine pieces. Sprinkle on the cake as a "layer". The chocolate adds some bite to the cake. It shouldn't actually look like a layer. That would be too much chocolate and probably break the teeth of those eating the frozen cake. :) Soften and mix your second ice cream (I used 1/2 of the half-gallon since that's what it would take the reach the top of my pan.) Spread across the top. I used leftover chocolate bar to make the S on the top of the cake and the Oreo bits I put aside around the border. Return to freezer. About 20 minutes before serving, place in refrigerator to soften. I used a butter knife to run around the cake to make sure it wouldn't stick to the pan when I remove it.




Happy Birthday, Stalena!!