Mile High Pink Cloud Ice Cream Cake

Sounds and looks much harder than it is! I came up with this idea a few years ago when I was in an ice cream shop and saw the shocking prices they were charging for cakes. The beauty of this is that you can do any combination of flavors you can think of- vanilla cake, strawberry ice cream; lemon cake, lemon sherbet and strawberry ice cream; chocolate cake, coffee ice cream. At Christmas we use a vanilla cake and pink peppermint ice cream and frost with green tinted whipped cream.

It's not very difficult, it just requires a little planning ahead.

• Line 2 cake pans (8 or 9" round or square) with plastic wrap, fill about 2/3 full with softened ice cream. Cover with more plastic wrap, freeze overnight. (For this cake, I used cookie dough ice cream, froze it, then put chocolate ice cream over top of that, so it looks like it has even more layers.)


• Make your favorite cake in the same size pans (if necessary, you can pop the ice cream out of the pans once it's frozen, leaving it wrapped in the plastic, and return it to the freezer, then use the same pans for baking.) Make a recipe for a double layer cake, but divide it into 3 pans (or you can use 2 pans and split the layers once they're baked.)


• Use a knife to level off the tops of the cakes if necessary. Place one layer of cake on a plate. Remove the ice cream from the freezer. Unwrap one ice cream layer and place on cake layer, then add another cake layer, then another ice cream layer, and one more layer of cake. (Cake-ice cream-cake-ice cream-cake).


• Return to freezer, allow to set up for a few hours.


• Working quickly, frost cake with whipped cream or Cool Whip. If ice cream begins to melt, you can return the cake to the freezer for a few minutes and then continue frosting. Just remember that if you do return the cake to the freezer the frosting will have frozen when you take it out again, and the section of the cake that you have already done will be difficult to re-work. If you want to decorate with sprinkles, this needs to be done before the frosting is frozen.


• Place frosted cake in freezer for several hours. Decorate with buttercream frosting if desired. Return to freezer.


• Once cake is completely frozen, it may be covered.


• To serve, remove cake from freezer and remove wrapping. Leave at room temperature for about 20-30 min. Cut with a sharp knife dipped in hot water.

I made 2 of these last week. I made a square one for a friend at church, and a round one for my daughter's birthday (which she decorated). They were a hit!