Copycat Carvel Ice Cream Cake

Seeing as yesterday we hit a record high of 103 degrees here in the land of the frozen tundra, today is the perfect day for an ice cream cake recipe.

I made this cake for Frog Prince's 30th birthday.  He requested a "Carvel Ice Cream Cake".  A what kind of cake?  Clearly this boy is not from around these parts.  In fact, the closest Carvel Ice Cream Store is 400+ miles from here.  But, when you grow up in Up-State NY, this is a birthday treat that Frog Prince wanted a taste of as he celebrated the big 3-0.

After figuring out that a Carvel Ice Cream Cake was made completely from ice cream {not like my other ice cream cake recipe that has a dark chocolate cake base}, and had a layer of chocolate crunchy goodness in the middle, I set to work to re-create a Carvel Ice Cream Cake {I had never seen or tasted!} for my boy.

Although it didn't look exactly like the cake he had as a kid, Frog Prince greatly enjoyed this birthday cake, as did those we shared it with!

Copycat Carvel Ice Cream Cake

1 recipe, dark chocolate ice cream*
1 recipe, hot fudge sauce
1 recipe, vanilla ice cream*
12 oreos or chocolate wafers
1 C whipping cream
1/4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Begin by preparing the chocolate ice cream.  Spread the soft ice cream just after making, into a chilled 9x9 glass baking dish.

Freeze this layer for ~2 hours.

Then, prepare the chocolate crunchy center. To do so, I recommend using chocolate wafers. Or, even chocolate Teddy Grahams or chocolate graham crackers. I used Oreos and scraped the filling out of most of the cookies. If you want a DQ-style Oreo blizzard cake, leave the Oreos whole.

Place the cookies into a food processor and pulse until coarsely-finely chopped.

Pour half of the hot fudge sauce {warmed slightly to make pouring easier} into the cookie mix.

Pulse 3-4 times until clumps of cookie and fudge form.

{Don't let anyone catch you sneaking a taste!}

Drop the crunchy mixture over the frozen dark chocolate layer.

As tempting as it may be, don't prepare the cookie mixture early. The longer the fudge sits together with the cookies before freezing, the softer the cookie filling becomes. And, as I was informed by Frog Prince, the center of the cake needs to have a little crunch to it.

So, work quickly to make the crunchies and then spread them out over the top of the ice cream.

Cover with softened vanilla ice cream.

Cover and freeze overnight.

Whip together a whipped cream frosting. Combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla together. Then, spread over the top of the vanilla layer.

Freeze until you are ready to eat.

Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Enjoy!

As a side note - serve this cake in a bowl. We tried serving it both in bowls and on plates and preferred the bowl and spoon option! Easier to eat and get all the yummy dessert onto the spoon and into your mouth!

*Note: If you wish to use homemade ice cream, make it fresh right before making the cake.  This allows the soft-serve consistency ice cream to easily be spread into the pan.  If you use store-bought ice cream, allow the ice cream to soften at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before preparing the ice cream cake.  

Linked to: These Chicks Cooked, It's a Keeper, Full Plate Thursday, Strut Your Stuff, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Mouthwatering Monday, Made by You Monday