Homemade Ice Cream Cake?!

Another favorite birthday cake in our family was always ice cream cake. Easy to prepare (just stop by your local Carvel or B & R), easy to enjoy...especially tasty in the summer: ice cream cake is delightful. Yesterday, when preparing to celebrate our youngest daughter's birthday, my children unanimously proclaimed that they wanted ice cream cake. Strangely enough (!?), we had none in the house. We did, however, have a couple of gallons of ice cream--and some vanilla ice cream I'd made last week. So I decided I'd try homemade ice cream cake.

Now, you might wonder, why MAKE ice cream cake when it's so easy to buy in the supermarket at this time of year? Those who wonder this underestimate a) my eccentric frugality in certain regards and b) I'D HAVE TO GO WITH ALL FOUR OF MY CHILDREN TO THE SUPERMARKET. Did I mention that the helium balloon stand lies between the entrance and the cake zone?

I imagine my reasons are now clear. This story has a very happy ending, though: this is an experiment I think I'll repeat. Ice cream cake is not hard, you can vary the ice cream to suit your tastes (we used a double flavor chocolate mint and mint chip). It was delicious--and cheap! And, as an added bonus, you look like you made more effort than you did....

I took the recipe from Allrecipes.com. I modified it slightly per some other reviewers' suggestions--and my own experience.


Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients:
-1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix (or any normal flavor; I used yellow)
- 1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream, softened
-Quart Vanilla ice cream/ Rediwhip/Whipped cream for frosting (You can really use anything, but I like something that that will freeze nicely and blend flavor-wise with the rest of the cake; I used a combo of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream to which I added a few drops of green food coloring in keeping with our mint theme)

Directions:
1. Prepare cake according to package directions; bake in a 9x13 inch baking dish and cool completely. (I used parchment paper to line it since I didn't want to risk breakage)
2. Use ice cream that comes in a rectangular carton. Remove the carton and, using a piece of string or dental floss, cut the ice cream in thirds lengthwise (long side to long side) and place the layers side by side on a piece of waxed paper. [You could also make this cake in another shape, though cutting the ice cream might be more challenging; the original recipe called for cutting the ice cream in half; I found thirds fit the 9 x 13 better. But you can just test your pan against the size of your ice cream container]
3. Place the cooled cake over the ice cream. Trim the cake and ice cream so that the edges match.
4. Place a board or serving platter over the cake, hold onto the waxed paper and board, and flip the ice cream cake over. Remove the waxed paper and smooth out the seam between the ice cream slabs.
5. Cover with waxed paper and freeze until very firm. Decorate as desired.

I recommend freezing again after you've added the frosting. Delightful!

(I'll put some pictures up once I download them....)