Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Chocolate cake and ice cream, let me see......is there anything here not to like? Thought so. This week with my fellow Heavenly Cake Bakers it was Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for Chocolate Ice Cream Cake. I was so looking forward to this project I couldn't wait to get started. There are three components for this recipe and all could be made in advance. Perfect!

For the ice cream portion Rose suggests a home made version. The reason is that commercial ice cream contains more air and will loose two-thirds its volume when softened. Well, we can't have that happen! I chose to make some strawberry ice cream. And being the end of strawberry season I wanted to showcase the little red orbs one last time. Sadly, there will be no more talk of strawberries until next year. The recipe and photos for this egg-less version of ice cream was posted a bit earlier this week. To see it just scroll down a little. Now that the ice cream was safe and sound in the freezer, I moved on.

Rose recommends using the recipe for her German Chocolate Cake when making the cake portion of this project. Remember if you plan on serving a cake cold or even frozen it is important to choose a cake that uses oil rather than butter. This will insure the cake maintains a soft texture. The other interesting technique in this recipe is the egg whites went into the batter unbeaten. The cake rose suprisingly high without the addition of air into the whites, hmmmm. Rose also suggests that you only need to use three-quarters of the batter for this project. I decided to make the full batch and use the last quarter to make a "mini-me" cake. Look left....cute huh!

I would like to take a minute here to give Rose's Heavenly Cakes some praise. I do hope you put this book on your "must have" list. I have yet to be disappointed by the instructions, technique, photos, or results. Please see her book for the ingredients and instructions for this wonderful chocolate, light as air cake. Back to the matter at hand.

The last component is a hot fudge sauce. Since "J" and I don't really like an abundance of chocolate I knew I wasn't going to use much. Luckly I had some of the Dark Chocolate Frosting in the freezer from the Strawberry Cake we made a few weeks ago. Now that the components were prepared I could compose the cake.

This really was quick and easy. The cakes were sliced so the top layer was thinner than the bottom layer.Place the ice cream in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to soften (a little less if you use a commercially made ice cream). Using an offset spatula spread the ice cream over the bottom layer. Top with the thinner cake layer and drizzle with the fudge sauce or in my case, the softened frosting. Cover well with plastic wrap and place the cake back in the freezer. The hardest part was waiting for the ice cream to firm up!

I can't say how thoroughly please I am with the cake and it soft, light texture. I will definitely be using this again. The ice cream.....well, if you know me you know I could probably survive happily on ice cream! All were very pleased to help with this one!