Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

This weekend it was my youngest’s sixth birthday. When I asked if he wanted a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cake, or a strawberry and vanilla one he replied “I want strawberry chocolate!” So, strawberry chocolate ice cream cake it was.

I can hardly believe my youngest has just turned six. I find it very strange that my children keep getting older, you know, mostly because I know I am NOT getting any older. 🙂 A girl can dream, right?

My six year old is my rainbow baby. For those who may not know what a rainbow baby is, it is a baby who is born after you have experienced miscarriage (or other loss, such as still birth or infant loss, but in my case it was miscarriage). It is that bright, colourful rainbow after the storm.

We never forget the loss, but a rainbow baby has a special way of helping to heal that wounded part of your heart. Every year that we celebrate his birthday we also celebrate the joy and hope he brought into our life after loss.

And what better way to celebrate such a joyful event than with strawberry chocolate ice cream cake!

Years ago I asked my Facebook list if anyone could tell me how to make an ice cream cake because my child had requested it, and we lived far enough from Dairy Queen that I was pretty confident that if I bought a cake it would be a melted mess by the time we got home. I mean, I guess I could have used a cooler, but clearly I didn’t think about that.

So a friend messaged me and told me what she did for her children. That she layered different flavors of ice cream in a pan with a cookie crumb and syrup mixture in the middle and candy on top. This set the stage for me to create endless possibilities.

Always, always seek advice from those wiser than you. Especially when it comes to cake. 🙂 This woman who started me on my journey of birthday ice cream cakes was an angel in disguise. My family, who all prefer ice cream cake over regular birthday cake would most likely agree.

This recipe starts with the information she gave me, and I built onto it. A brownie bottom, chocolate ice cream next, chocolate cookies and strawberry syrup mixed in the middle, strawberry ice cream next, and I topped the whole cake with fresh strawberries, more cookie crumbs, and chocolate syrup.

So, here’s how you make a strawberry chocolate ice cream cake.

Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

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Preheat your oven to 350 Farenheit.

First, make the brownie bottom. You want to make it in a springform pan to be able to take the sides off when you are done. Okay, so you don’t HAVE to do that, but it looks prettier. 🙂

Melt your butter, and cream together with the sugar. Add the vanilla and (room temperature) eggs and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients – flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Mix your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir well. It will be a thick batter. Scoop it into the bottom of your greased springform pan.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until your toothpick (or in my case, a nice, fat butter knife) comes out clean.

This recipe gives a nice, dense and fudgy brownie which is perfect for the base of the cake.

Once it cools, put it in the freezer to harden up a bit, for at least 30 minutes. While your brownie is hardening, you can take your chocolate ice cream out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for around 30 minutes. What you want is for it to melt and soften a bit so you can scoop it out onto the brownie base.

Once it is thawed enough, scoop it onto the brownie base and smooth and flatten with a spatula. Put it back in the freezer to harden. You will need to let it freeze for about four hours.

Once it is hard enough, you can make your middle part. Crush up 16 chocolate sandwich cookies. I crushed mine up with the bottom of a cup because I wanted them to be bigger pieces, but if you want a finer cookie crumb, you can crush them up in a food processor or high speed blender.

Once crushed, mix 3/4 cup strawberry syrup into the cookie crumbs. If you are really wanting to make this cake from scratch completely, you can make the strawberry syrup. But sometimes, you gotta pick and choose what you will make from scratch and what you won’t so that you have some time to sleep. 🙂

I decided to buy storebought strawberry syrup to save a bit of time. Sometimes I make things like hamburgers an buns from scratch, other times I buy syrup in a bottle. It’s about balance, people.

Anyways, once the syrup and cookies are mixed, spread it in a layer on top of the chocolate ice cream layer. Back in the freezer it needs to go. You could probably get away with this layer only needing an hour or two to freeze since it is a thinner layer.

When that layer is ready, you need to take your strawberry ice cream out of the freezer and let it thaw for about thirty minutes. Once it is thawed enough, smooth it over the cookie crumb layer with a spatula. Back in the freezer it goes for another 4 hours! (are you seeing a pattern here yet? 🙂 )

15 minutes before you are going to serve the cake, take it out of the freezer. Top with sliced strawberries, cookie crumbs, and chocolate syrup. I had totally planned to at least make the chocolate syrup, but I was running out of time and I happened to be in a store, and somehow the bottle of storebought chocolate syrup ended up in my cart.

Take off the sides of your springform pan and put it on a pretty cake plate. 🙂 Slice, and serve. Or eat it all yourself. I won’t judge.

This strawberry chocolate ice cream cake is highly versatile. You can use whatever kinds of ice cream flavors you want. You can use what toppings you want. Instead of using strawberry syrup in the middle you can use chocolate syrup for something that tastes more like the Dairy Queen fudgy middle. Whatever your preference, go make this cake the way you want!

Strawberry Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

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Ingredients

  

Brownie base

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/4 tsp salt

First Layer

• 3 cups chocolate ice cream

Middle Layer

• 16 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
• 3/4 cup strawberry syrup

Top layer

• 2.5 cups strawberry ice cream

Toppings

• 6-8 Large strawberries, sliced
• 6 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
• Chocolate Syrup

Instructions

 

Brownie Base

• Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit, and grease a spring-form pan.
• Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.
• In separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
• Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Mix well.  It will be a thick batter.
• With a flat spatula, spread batter into spring-form pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.
• Let cool completely and then freeze for at least 30 minutes.

First Layer

• Thaw the chocolate ice cream for around 30 minutes until soft enough to scoop and spread onto the brownie base.  Spread it in an even layer.
• Freeze for bout 4 hours, until hard.

Middle Layer

• Crush the chocolate sandwich cookies into tiny pieces.  Use the bottom of a cup for small pieces, or  food processor to grind it up into crumbs.  (choose your preference.)
• Mix cookie crumbs with strawberry syrup.
• spread the mixture onto the chocolate ice cream layer.
• Put back into the freezer for 1-2 hours, or until hard.

Top Layer

• Let strawberry ice cream thaw for roughly 30 minutes, until soft enough to scoop and spread onto the cookie crumb layer.  Smooth into a nice, even layer.
• Put it back in the freezer for roughly 4 hours or until hard.

Toppings

• 15 minutes before ready to serve, take it out of the freezer.  
• Slice strawberries and place them around cake in any design you like.
• Crush 6 cookies and sprinkle over the cake.
• Drizzle chocolate syrup on the cake.
• Serve and enjoy!