Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cake

One of my kids' favorite things about celebrating a birthday is choosing a cake! We've made all sorts of cakes over the years, but I'm partial to the ice cream cake. Oh, it makes a yummy treat for sure, but I especially love it for its ease. It comes together quickly (you don't want it to melt!), but it looks impressive with all those layers of goodness. 

We've made many variations of it, but the peanut butter cup ice cream cake is definitely a family favorite. When Zac chose an ice cream cake for his 10th birthday this year, I had expected him to pick that one.

I was pleasantly surprised when he decided on a Mint Oreo version.

I'm a sucker for all things Mint Oreo, so this cake ties with our peanut butter cup ice cream cake at the top of my list.

If you like mint, chocolate, whipped cream, and desserts that are easy to make, you need to try this Mint Oreo ice cream cake!

Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:

18 mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches

12 Mint Oreo cookies, chopped

Chocolate sauce

Fresh whipped cream (or 1-2 small tubs Cool Whip)

Directions:

1. Working quickly, place 6 unwrapped ice cream sandwiches on a serving platter. Spread a generous portion of the whipped cream all across the top. Sprinkle with cookie pieces. Drizzle the chocolate sauce across the top.

2. Arrange 6 more unwrapped ice cream sandwiches on top and repeat layer of whipped cream, cookie pieces, and chocolate sauce.

3. Place 6 remaining unwrapped ice cream sandwiches on top.
4. Cover cake with whipped cream. *Garnish with remaining cookie pieces and chocolate sauce. Freeze cake for at least 30 minutes, and until ready to serve. Keep leftover cake in the freezer.

*If your ice cream is starting to melt, you can put the assembled cake in the freezer for 15 minutes before coating with whipped cream and garnishes.


Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Place metal mixing bowl and metal whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Remove the bowl from freezer and place all ingredients in the bowl. Using the metal whisk attachment on a mixer, beat until stiff peaks form. Do not over-beat.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

Having kids with birthdays just 3 days apart means that we eat a lot of cake during the third week of March. Each child gets to pick the kind of cake he wants for his actual birthday and then they have to decide together on a cake for their combined party with our extended family. 

This year, Tyler was insistent on having an ice cream cake for the party. Ice cream, yes! This would mellow our abundance-of-cake week. I discussed some flavor options with him and Alyssa. I said something about peanut butter cups and ice cream sandwiches, and it was settled. No other combinations could sway their decision. And who could blame them? Chocolate & peanut butter is one of the best flavor combos ever. We have plenty of recipes featuring the two already (like these homemade Butterfingers made with a crazy ingredient, this decadent peanut butter brownie torte, this rich and creamy peanut butter pie, these peanut butter bars which is one of our absolute favorite desserts, these homemade Girl Scout peanut butter patties, and the ever-faithful no-bake cookies), but you can never have too many chocolate-peanut-butter desserts. Am I right?

The ice cream cake was a hit at the party. In fact, the entire thing was eaten that night. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing. I mean, you always want to serve something that people enjoy, but it also means that there were no leftovers to enjoy later! 

Alyssa had chosen a rich, mint chocolate chip cake (which is another favorite of mine!) for her birthday day, but, I admit, I was pleased when Tyler said he wanted the ice cream cake again on his birthday. Yes, more cool peanut buttery goodness. I've trained them well, you know, refined their palates and stuff.

In addition to being delicious, this cake is incredibly easy to make. The hardest part is assembling it before the ice cream melts. Chopping the peanut butter cups in the beginning and keeping the ice cream sandwiches in the freezer until needed (pulling out only 6 at a time) helps to keep your dessert in cake form, instead of a drippy, soupy blob.

To make this recipe even easier, you could use Cool Whip instead of making the whipped cream yourself. I, personally, love using fresh, whipped cream. It takes only a few minutes to make, yet the difference is amazing. Place a dollop on pancakes, garnish hot chocolate, ice a cake--it makes treats extra special.

I hope you enjoy this ice cream cake as much as we do! I'm already ready for another slice.


Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients:
18 ice cream sandwiches
1 cup creamy peanut butter
12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped
Chocolate sauce
Fresh, whipped cream (or 1-2 small tubs of Cool Whip)


Directions:
1. Heat peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir.
2. Working quickly, place 6 unwrapped ice cream sandwiches on a serving platter. Spread half of the peanut butter on top. Sprinkle with 4 chopped peanut butter cups. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.
3. Arrange 6 more unwrapped ice cream sandwiches on top and repeat layer of peanut butter, peanut butter cups, and chocolate sauce. Place remaining 6 ice cream sandwiches on top.
4. Cover cake with whipped cream. Garnish with peanut butter cups and chocolate sauce. Freeze cake for at least 30 minutes, and until ready to serve. Keep leftover cake frozen.


Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Place metal mixing bowl and metal whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
2. Place all ingredients in the bowl and beat until stiff peaks forms. Do not over-beat.

Wordless Wednesday 6/18/14

National Root Beer Float Day

Happy National Root Beer Float Day! 

As if we needed an excuse to celebrate.

Leighton and the kiddos adore root beer floats. (Remember when we made old-fashioned ice cream sodas?) Root beer is their favorite pop (I like it, but I'll take Dr. Pepper or Rock & Rye any day), and ice cream just makes everything better.

The kids ask for root beer floats almost weekly at my parents' house. Yeah, they're a little bit spoiled.

I've been planning to make ice cream for a few weeks now. My ice cream maker has been neglected for far too long. Yesterday was the perfect day to whip up a base, freeze it in the machine, and have fresh ice cream for our floats. 

Except I didn't. 

I just didn't feel like it, ya know? Do you ever have days like that?

We almost always have ice cream in the freezer, but the little ones finished off the tub a couple nights ago. Leighton, as always, offered to stop at the store on his way home and pick up some.  

And instead of making the pop with our SodaStream like we often do, we used IBC - the very best root beer ever. 

Pretty much, this was just a super simple treat. Scoop and pour. No time spent making the ingredients; no messy dishes to clean up.

But it's ok.

I think they approved.

Wordless Wednesday 7/31/13

Tasty Tuesday: Ice Cream Soda

Did you notice that today is Friday and I am just now getting to Tuesday's post?

No?

Good. Then I won't mention it.

About a month ago, I explained what it means to jinx someone, like when 2 people say the same thing at the same time. The kids were watching a movie when a character said, "Jinx! You owe me a soda." Now that they know what it means, they are constantly trying to get people - each other, me, Leighton, anyone - to say something so they can jinx them. But since we call it pop, the only soda they know is cream soda. So they always say, "Jinx! You owe me a cream soda." Then they laugh hysterically. It's pretty comical to listen to. 

I thought it was appropriate that June 20 is National Ice Cream Soda Day. For days now, we've been saying, "Jinx! You owe me an ice cream soda."

This was one penalty that I rewarded. 

Leighton and the kids are obsessed with root beer floats. They love both components - root beer & ice cream -  separately, but put them together and they're infatuated. Instead of making their beloved concoction, we decided on the original. So, step back in time as we make an old-fashioned ice cream soda.

 Start by mixing milk and chocolate syrup in a glass.

Add vanilla ice cream. Two generous scoops, please.

Fill to the top of the glass with club soda.

We used our SodaStream to make our own. Not at all old-fashioned, but that's ok.

 Top with fresh whipped cream. Add a straw and a long spoon and you're ready for a treat!

Make sure you share with someone you love.

Maybe even 2 someones.

Ice cream sodas taste best when you share.



Now, don't you want to make one for yourself?

Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Soda

Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
2 scoops vanilla ice cream 

club soda (cold) or seltzer water (cold)

whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
1. Pour the milk into one tall 16-ounce glass.

2. Stir in syrup.

3. Add in ice cream and enough soda water or seltzer to fill almost to top of glass.

4. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Recipe adapted from food.com. 

 

Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Place a medium bowl and your beaters from your electric mixer in the freezer for 10 minutes (this helps the whipped cream stiffen faster.)
2. Pour all ingredients into the chilled bowl and start to beat. Start off on low and gradually work your way up to high until it is the consistency of whipped cream. (Don’t over-beat, or you'll have a repeat of THIS.)

42 Months

We had reason to celebrate . . . Alyssa turned three-and-a-half!

We started the celebration with a nutritious delicious breakfast. We replaced our beloved letter-shaped pancakes with balloon ones and topped them with powdered sugar and chocolate sprinkles. (Hey, at least I overrode their choice of pop for a beverage!)

We spent the day reading books, putting together puzzles, playing the Wii, playing dress-up, and filling the house with the delicious smells from our play dough bakery, "Leafs' Treats." The pictures show our very own cinnamon rolls, strawberry pie, and apple pie (featuring 2 kinds of apples.) Also for sale in our bakery are cookies, rolls, cakes, doughnuts, and ice cream. We were very busy rolling, cutting, preparing, and baking. It was worth it! It was all sooo delicious!

 

We always give the half-birthday-ers one present. Alyssa was very happy to get clothes for her baby dolls. And for a total of $3.00, Mommy was pretty happy, too. 

Our little Sweetie Pie wanted personal pizzas for dinner. Fresh homemade dough, tons of cheese, and lots of favorite toppings - what could be better?


And for dessert?

Ice cream cones???

Nope! Ice cream cone cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles! Yummy!

Happy 3-and-a-half birthday, Alyssa! We've enjoyed calling you ours for 42 months. Looking forward to many, many more. 

Want to read about more half-birthdays?  Jake 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 (rainbow cupcakes), Alyssa 2 1/2 (cream-filled cupcakes).

Tasty Tuesday: Strawberry Shortcake

My favorite dessert when I was a little girl was strawberry shortcake. It has so many wonderful flavors that meld to make one glorious treat. The rich, dense cake; the cold, soft ice cream; the sweet, juicy, strawberries; the light, fluffy cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! I was even obsessed with the character Strawberry Shortcake. All these years later, so is my daughter. She was ecstatic to make this dessert.

A friend of mine raves about Alton Brown's pound cake. Not that she's ever eaten a cake that he's made (at least I don't think so!), but she's used his recipe multiple times for her own family. Now I see why. 

I was fresh out of real vanilla extract. Shh, don't tell Alton.

Jake was in his glory cracking 9 eggs.

Into the mixer for you. Just another casualty of the baking war.

Excited to get the beater all to himself since the other two were sleeping.

Look at that batter! Isn't it beautiful?

 And what would strawberry shortcake be without homemade ice cream??? Mediocre, that's what.

Simple Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk                   2 cups heavy cream

3/4 sugar                               1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

pinch salt

Directions:

In a medium bowl, use a handmixer on low speed or whisk to combine the milk, sugar, and salt until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or overnight. Freeze according to manufacture's instructions. Place in the freezer for 2 hours for a firmer cream.

What's going on???

Mash some strawberries, top with whipped cream, and there you have it! Delicious strawberry shortcake. Now, go make some for yourself. You deserve it!

Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Chocolate.

Chocolate chip cookie.

Cookie dough.

Ice cream.

Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Any way you look at it, it's good.

I'm not sure what I like more: the raw cookie dough or the freshly baked cookies. I just can't decide! Leighton, though, has no desire to eat the raw dough, (How crazy is that?!?)  but he does like cookie dough ice cream. A little strange, but I love him.

In his post about the UM Natural History Museum, Leighton mentioned that we stopped at Border's on the way home. There, I bought Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. It's filled with recipes like orange cream dream ice cream, raspberry sorbet, fried ice cream, hot chocolate float, and hot butterscotch sauce. It's Ben & Jerry's - it's gotta be good.

Ben & Jerry’s Sweet Cream Base #1
Ingredients:

2 large eggs                                   2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar                                 1 cup whole milk

Directions:
1. Mix the cream and milk together and heat over medium-low heat.
2. While that’s heating, beat the eggs in a separate bowl, until they turn lighter in color. Slowly, add the sugar while continuing to whisk the eggs

3. When the cream/milk mix reaches about 140 degrees F (60 C), remove it from the heat. Gradually stir small amounts of the cream/milk mix into the egg/sugar mix until about a third of the cream and milk have been added. Then pour in the rest of the cream and milk and mix it all together.

4. Heat the mix over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it reaches175 degrees F (79 C).

5. Chill the mix until it’s below 40 degrees F (5 C).

6. Freeze according to the manufacture's instructions. It’ll come out like stiff soft-serve ice cream. If you like it firmer, put it in an air-tight container in the freezer for a couple hours.

Let me say, tempering while taking pictures is much easier when you have a little helper. Thanks, Alyssa!

Ben & Jerry’s Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, at room temperature                1 c + 2 tbp flour                                                    
1/4 c granulated sugar                                               1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c brown sugar                                                      1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg                                                                          1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 tsp vanilla                                                             1/2 c coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
3. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well blended.Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
4. Drop the dough by small scoops 2-3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each scoop with the back of a spoon until about 3 inches in diameter.
5. Bake until the centers are still slightly soft to the touch, 11-14 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to the racks to cool completely.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe (1 1/2 c) raw Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Sweet Cream Base
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Chop the cookie dough into bite-size pieces. Place in a bowl, cover, and freeze.
2. Prepare the sweet cream base.
3. Once chilled, add the vanilla and blend.
3. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacture's instructions.
4. When the ice cream is quite stiff (about 1 minute before it's done) add the chopped cookie dough. Be sure to wait until the very last moment, otherwise, the dough will get sticky and unmanageable. Continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.

So, I'm not really sure how you chop cookie dough. It's soft and sticky and messy. I used a 1/4 teaspoon to drop little dollops on plates (so they didn't all freeze together.) Eventually, I just used my fingers to break apart pieces. I thought that the bits of dough in the ice cream were slightly too big. Personal opinion. Also, I found it to be a little too salty. Mini chocolate chips are perfect for this recipe. 

Since the ice cream required only half a batch of dough, we were forced to bake the other half. Oh, the things we have to endure! I didn't flatten them, but rather plopped them on the cookie sheet and baked. The seven cookies were inhaled within minutes of exiting the oven. Other than the saltiness, they were perfect. Crispy edges, soft chewy middle.

The cream base is another story. I have made the cooked bases a few times. No one in our family cares for this type of ice cream. The flavor is just . . . different. I have recipes that do not require eggs. We will stick to those from now on. Although, I'm thinking about trying this recipe again with pasteurized eggs. These are eggs that are quickly dipped in hot water to kill any harmful bacteria. You do not have to cook the base using pasteurized eggs.

With a little tweaking, this recipe will be perfect. I can't wait to make it again. And eat the extra baked cookies!

Do you have a favorite ice cream recipe? Topping recipe? Please, share it with us! We love trying new things.