Brownie, Oreo, and Reese's Ice Cream Cake

I asked Brooke if she wanted me to make or buy her a dessert for her birthday dinner last night (that's usually my assignment - yay!), she texted back "MAKE". I replied "did you just yell that at me?" and she said "no, I screamed it at you"! Ok then, I guess I'm making it hahaha. I laughed. Her request? Ice cream cake, any flavor as long as it has peanut butter please.

First I baked the brownie crust (using 1/2 of a boxed mix) in the bottom of a 8.5" springform pan, then put the other layers on top. Note * I will do this differently next time and bake the brownie in a different 8.5" pan, then put it in the springform pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and lined with plastic wrap...the brownie baked in the bottom made the cake SO hard to get out this way! The pan really needs to be sprayed and lined before assembling the cake. Fair warning people. Other than that this is a super easy dessert to make - really you just wing it, whatever flavors you like and use your imagination for toppings and candy.

first layer of fudge, cookies and
peanut butter cups

For this one I put on a layer of chocolate ice cream (let it stand on the counter for a few minutes to soften up, then mix it well so it's smooth but not melted), put in the freezer until it's hardened up. Warm a jar of hot fudge until it's spreadable and put a layer of that on top of the ice cream followed by chopped up oreo cookies and chopped mini reese's peanut butter cups. Freeze again. Then add a layer of peanut butter ice cream (I just put vanilla ice cream in a bowl and using my electric mixer beat in a big spoonful of peanut butter - voila, peanut butter ice cream), freeze. To finish I spread a thin layer of cool whip on top, drizzled with additional warmed hot fudge (I put it in a ziplock baggie and cut off the tip to control the drizzling), topped with more chopped oreos and reese's. Freeze until ready to serve.

finished peanut butter cake

Now here's a funny thing - since not everyone at the party could eat peanut butter (Dave), I thought I'd be nice and make a second ice cream cake using the other half of the brownie mix, topped with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge and chopped oreos, topped with banana split ice cream, finished with cool whip and chocolate drizzle. Everyone except my sister ate the banana split one! Even Brooke - after she specifically asked for peanut butter. Good grief. I left both of the cakes with my sister, hopefully someone helps her eat the peanut butter one - there was a ton left!

banana split cake

top of banana split cake before the
drizzle froze to the aluminum
foil I wrapped the cake in, and then
 pulled off when unwrapping. ugh.
note to self - wrap these in plastic!

Strawberry Refrigerator Jam and Lazy Ice Cream Cake

I needed a quick dessert for Sunday Supper and decided I'd try this recipe after reading that it works for spreading on toast or as ice cream topping. I doubled it because it says it yields 1.5 cups and I didn't think that would be enough for 8 people - of course it ended up making way more than I needed...oh well, extra strawberry sauce is not going to go to waste!

This turned out very runny which made it perfect to serve over ice cream - I'm not sure where they came up with naming this "jam" but it worked for me. If you actually want to make refrigerator jam to spread on toast this is not the recipe I would recommend you follow. However, if you want delicious ice cream topping this is a winner.

I made a lazy version of ice cream cake to serve the topping over. I have made much "fancier" ice cream cakes and I'm feeling a little guilty that this one is so easy - my original dessert idea was just vanilla ice cream in a bowl with strawberry sauce but I thought I'd put in just a little more effort and make it more interesting. This isn't much of a "recipe" but it turned out really good so I'll share with you what I did:

Line a loaf pan with non stick foil. Preheat oven to 350'.
Put 1 cup of chocolate teddy grahams in the food processor with a pinch of salt. Grind to fine crumbs. Mix in a couple tablespoons of melted unsalted butter.

Press into the bottom of the loaf pan, bake for 10 minutes.

After the crust cools, spread 1/2 of a half gallon (I guess I could have said 1/4 gallon haha) of chocolate ice cream thats been softened (I just leave it on the counter for about 1/2 hour) on top of the crust and smooth the top. Put the loaf pan in the freezer until the ice cream hardens. Then do the same with vanilla ice cream (spread 1/4 gallon of softened vanilla ice cream over the chocolate ice cream and freeze until hard).
When you are ready to serve, remove the "cake" from the pan by pulling up the foil. Remove the foil and then slice the ice cream into whatever size portions you want - I started with small slices and got lots of complaints so had to make them bigger! This served 8 of us with no leftovers.
Spoon strawberry sauce over the ice cream.



Obviously you can use whatever flavors of ice cream you want, I kept it simple this time.