Big Girl Birthday Cake

When I asked Evie what she wanted for her birthday this year, she had two things on her mind: ice cream cake and stick-on princess earrings. The earrings are what I gave her last year, and they were a big hit for the short time she kept track of them. I think she mostly wanted ice cream cake because that's what her daddy got for his birthday the month before. My sister-in-law had recently reminded me that she makes her own ice cream cakes, and since she assured me it was easy, I decided to give it a try.

First thing I did was check a few of my favorite sites for recipes. None of the ones I found really thrilled me, but I did pick up a few tips. Evie wanted strawberry ice cream and chocolate cake, so I decided to do an Oreo crust on the bottom, two layers of ice cream, and two layers of fudgy brownie. I cooked the brownie layers in 9-inch cake pans with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom. This was my first time using parchment paper, and HOLY COW why didn't anyone tell me about this stuff before? I'll never make brownies without it again. Or anything that has a remote possibility of sticking to the bottom of the pan. That stuff's the fantastic magical unicorn fur of baking. Anyway, once the brownie layers were cool I wrapped them in plasticrap (you may know this as plastic wrap) and froze 'em solid. 

I chopped the Oreos in my food processor, added a little butter, and popped it in my springform pan. I pressed down the crumbs pretty firmly, then baked it. While the Oreo crust cooled, I took the ice cream out of the freezer, cut it out of the carton, and plopped it in a bowl to thaw a bit. I found it helpful to use my rice paddle to chop the ice cream into pieces and stir it around so it would soften without melting too much. I recommend that you start spreading before you think it's actually ready, so that it doesn't have a chance to melt everywhere. So I spread about half the ice cream on the Oreo crust, unwrapped a brownie layer and gently pressed it on, spread the rest of the ice cream on top, and unwrapped and added the last brownie layer. Please don't leave plasticrap on your brownie. As soon as that was on, I covered the pan with more plasticrap and put it back in the freezer. 

Now, I seriously considered making some buttercream frosting for this sucker, but I'm glad I didn't. Ice cream cake is already pretty rich and heavy, so I recommend just some sweetened whipped cream as frosting. I didn't frost the sides at all. I think next time I'll be more careful to spread the ice cream all the way out to the edges. Despite that small failing, I think it turned out quite pretty, and I know it turned out quite delicious. The pictures don't really do it justice. 

So that was Evie's birthday cake. I'm a little worried that Abby's going to ask for another ice cream cake, which could be a problem because Evie's isn't gone yet. I know, I know, I just said it is delicious. The only reason it hasn't been gobbled up is my other recent project: losing weight. Regis and I have both been doing much better at regulating our calorie count, which means much smaller helpings of deliciousness. We are feeding the missionaries this week, though, so as long as we can foist it on them, we should be fine. :)