Kimball Farm Ice Cream Cake

Did you need another excuse to go to Kimball’s?  I just can’t stay away from all that delicious ice cream!  Iusing barbecue sauce I bought from the store at Kimball Farm, but let’s be honest, the ice cream is the main event.

If Kimball Farm has one flaw, it’s that they don’t sell ice cream cake.  But no worries!  I’ll let you in on a secret:  the hardest part of making ice cream cake is finding the room for it in your freezer. You have to move fast so the ice cream doesn’t melt while you’re working, but everything else is very easy to do and the result is pretty impressive.

My father-in-law loves ice cream, so I whipped this cake up for his 74^th birthday. When you start with ice cream as good as what you get from Kimball Farm, it’s hard to go wrong!

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts of ice cream.  Choose two different flavors that you think will taste good together.  This time, I used mint cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough.
• 1 quart of smooth ice cream.  This will be the “frosting”, so choose any smooth, chunk-free flavor.  I used vanilla.
• 10 chocolate sandwich cookies, plus additional for decorating.  You could experiment with other types of cookies, too, if you’d like.
• Chocolate and caramel sauce for decorating (optional), or anything else you’d like to use to decorate.

Directions:

1. Soften the two quarts of ice cream you’ll be using to make the cake by letting them sit on the counter for half an hour or so.  My ice cream was actually perfectly soft after a very warm drive home in the car.  You don’t want it to be liquid, just soft enough to smoosh with a spoon.
2. While the ice cream is softening, place ten chocolate sandwich cookies in a ziplock bag.  Crush them into crumbs by rolling a rolling pin over the bag.  Alternately, you could use a food processor to process into crumbs.  Set aside.
3. Line two round cake pans with plastic wrap.  Scoop one quart of ice cream into each pan.  Using a rubber spatula or back of a spoon, squish and smooth the ice cream until it fills the pan and is flat on the top.  If the ice cream is still too hard, just let it sit in the pan until it has softened enough for you.
4. Sprinkle the cookie crumbs on top of one of the pans of ice cream.  Gently press the crumbs into the ice cream so they will stick better once the ice cream has refrozen. 
5. Cover the ice cream with plastic wrap and place pans flat in the freezer.  Make sure to find a flat spot.  If your pan is tilted, the ice cream will freeze at an angle.  Freeze for at least four hours or overnight.
6. Once the ice cream has frozen, remove the layer with cookie crumbs from the pan and place on a serving platter, crumbs on top.  Place the second layer of ice cream on top of the first.  Return to the freezer.
7. Place your smooth ice cream in a large bowl.  Stir the ice cream frequently.  You’re going to use this to frost your cake, so you want the ice cream to be approximately the consistency of frosting.  Make sure to check your ice cream and stir every five minutes or so.  You do need the ice cream to be very soft, but you don’t want it to be melted.
8. Take your ice cream cake out of the freezer.  Scoop the softened ice cream all over the top of the cake.  Using an offset spatula, smooth the ice cream over the top and sides of the cake.  You have to work quickly for this step, but the softened ice cream should spread very easily.  Return the cake to the freezer until the ice cream has hardened, approximately four hours.
9. Warm the chocolate sauce and caramel sauce in the microwave according to package directions.  You want the sauces to flow smoothly instead of sticking to the spoon or being “gloppy”.  When the sauces are ready, remove the cake from the freezer and decorate with extra cookies (I cut mine in half and lined the bottom edge of the cake) and sauces.
10. Return the cake to the freezer until you are ready to serve.  Using a large knife, cut into slices and serve with extra chocolate and caramel sauce.