Years and years ago (probably about thirty years ago; eeeeee, I’m getting old!) my sister had a “HB Ice-Cream” cake for her birthday. I can still remember collecting it from the shop we ordered it; it was in a freezer-box, and when we opened it, wow, So much ice cream! It was like a fairytale cake, all white and fantastical. Sadly, they discontinued making them by the time my birthday came around (I’ve wonderful memories of a hedgehog cake for my birthday, which I am also going to make one of these days. I never remember when a birthday is drawing near) but I’ve been living vicariously through our Liam for the past few years and making him ice cream cakes (at his request, of course) Not as beautiful or perfect as in my memory, but delicious nonetheless.
This is incredibly simple. Almost embarrassingly so.
{A note of caution: Liam likes JellyTots in one of his layers; to be honest, this isn’t advisable, as they freeze and become like little bullets, liable to break a tooth or three. But it is his birthday, and he loves them in the cake, so we warn everyone well in advance and hope no one falls foul.}
Ingredients:
Iceburger Ice cream bars (I bought a box of four; I thought I read that it had six, which would have been perfect, size-wise, but four did the job well enough)
2 blocks of Ice cream
1 large bar of chocolate (I used an Aero, easy to crumble)
Sweets to decorate
To Assemble:
First, line a tin (mine was 8″ x 8″) with greaseproof paper. You could use cling film, but I always find lining anything with cling film to be a nightmare (if anyone has some great tip, please, let me know)
Line the base with the Iceburgers.
In a bowl, mash one block of ice cream to make a bit easier to spread, then spread it out over the Iceburgers, pressing into any gaps to make a solid layer.
Crush the chocolate (or grate it roughly) and spread over the ice-cream layer.
Mash the second block of ice cream (this is where I added in the JellyTots. DON’T DO IT!! š ) and spread it over the chocolate.
Work quickly!!
Smooth out the top and decorate (I was faffing around a bit at the start, and almost ruined the cake by letting it melt too much while I worked out rainbow patterns. But as soon as my children began to swoop in “for just one more JellyTot” I worked at speed before I had a tin of melted ice cream and no decorations for the top)
Quickly wrap cling film around the tin and put in the freezer to harden. Be prepared to serve and eat with haste… This cake doesn’t like to hang around looking pretty! But for its ease, simplicity and deliciousness, it is worth it!
That is total genius! If our upcoming birthday party wasn’t off site (at a bouncy place) – and in November – I would give serious thought to this.
(I remember when they introduced the Viennetta, and they were the most amazingly sophisticated thing ever. I think I had one at my birthday party that year.)
Oh gaaaaawwwd, yum, I’m really not sure I wouldn’t just eat each part of this cake as I opened the packages. If I ever decide to give this a go I’m going to have a back-up shop bought cake waiting in the wings! Happy Birthday Liam!
Icebergers! Oh my god, what a genius layer! Fantastic looking cake! Our ice-cream cakes in our youth consisted of a block of HB vanilla with a flake crumbled over the top. Still delicious!
Emily!
I fell off the blog wagon and have missed you! Congrats on the newest addition (beautiful)
We love ice cream cake here… we do ours in a spring-form pan with crushed Oreos as the bottom layer, one carton (what used to be a 1/2 gallon) of one flavor ice cream, another layer of Oreos, then another flavor ice cream. We tend to go traditional for the US and do chocolate then vanilla, although I did mint choc chip and vanilla for a friend’s son who requested an ice cream cake from me one year. The total cost to make this is about 1/4 the cost to buy one in the store. And we can make it gluten free which means everyone can have some!
lovely to ‘see’ you again
many blessings for you and your family
Karen
WW, the Iceburgers ARE ingenious, all credit has to go to my friend Bernadette! Makes a solid base perfect for cutting!
That IS The fear Joanna, I had a lot of swarming “help”, who came with spoons, when I was making this š
Hi Karen, thank you! Like yourself, blog reading is a rAre thing these days, I just about manage to update this one!! The Oreo layer sounds divine. I LOVE Oreos!!! Lovely to hear from you, blessings to you all xx
I have made that mistake with jellytots before! I made ice-cream bunnies with jellytot ‘features’ and they nearly choked the gang of 3-year olds at the party. :/
This looks fabulous though. And miraculously easy.
Happy birthday to your lovely Liam x
Hee hee, thanks Sadhbh! Xx
Great Article
Thank you for the information š
awesome cake