Ice Cream Cake

My friend wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday celebration this weekend, and instead of allowing Cold Stone or Baskin Robins the honors, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make one myself.

Ingredients:

1 cake mix of choice (I used a yellow cake mix)
4-6 cups ice cream of choice (I used oreo cookie)
1 brownie mix
Fudge ice cream topping
2 Cups Crushed Oreo cookies
Frosting of choice; store bought, cool whip, etc.

Directions:
Step 1: Make cake according to box recipe, bake in two 9 inch round pans. You only need one round cake for this, unless you want your ice cream cake REALLY tall. Freeze cake for a few hours, it makes handling a lot easier.
Step 2: Set ice cream out for 5-10 minutes to soften. Remove frozen cake from freezer and cut in half horizontally. Use 2-3 cups of softened ice cream and spread on top of the bottom layer of the cut cake. Work quickly to minimize ice cream melting entirely.
Step 3: Freeze for 2-3 hours.
Step 4: While cake is freezing, mix up brownies and place in a 9 inch round cake pan...the same cake pan you used for the cake. It would be wise to cover the bottom of the pan with parchment or wax paper. Bake, then cool completely before using in step 5.
Step 5: Remove cake from freezer and spread a layer of fudge ice cream topping on top of ice cream layer.
Step 6: Place cooled brownie layer on top of fudge layer. You can either proceed to steps 7-8, or let the cake freeze for another hour or two. I let my cake freeze first because I think it's easier to work with the cake when it's entirely frozen.
Step 7: Set ice cream out for 5-10 minutes to soften. Remove frozen cake from freezer and place 2-3 cups of softened ice cream on top of brownie layer.
Step 8: Place another layer of fudge topping on top of ice cream layer, and top it off with the top portion of your yellow cake.
Step 9: Freeze cake for another 1-2 hours.
Step 10: Remove cake from freezer and frost with frosting of choice.
Step 11: Use a food processor or blender to crush oreo cookies, and quickly spread around frosting layer.
Step 12: Freeze at least 2-3 hours before serving or overnight if you planned ahead. 
Step 13: Devour cake!

I was told this cake tasted better than Cold Stone cakes, I don't know if that's true or not, but I will tell you this, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and the perfect treat for the hot days we're having here.

There are a lot of steps to making this cake, but each step takes less than 10 minutes to do, so it's not as overwhelming at the steps might seem. I started making my cake on Thursday so it would be ready by Saturday, it made it a LOT easier.

The great thing about ice cream cake is that you can make it yours, and be creative with what kind of ice cream and cake you use. I think it would be really good to do a chocolate cake with reese's peanut butter cup ice cream, and instead of decorating it with crushed oreo cookie, using mini reese's peanut butter cups to line the cake.