Oh ice cream. I love you the most. Yes, I love ice cream even more than cake- it’s even my first choice for my own birthday cake requests! (I have an extra soft spot for a Dairy Queen ice cream cake with a Garfield image, heehee!). Give me a tall and swirly, creamy white soft serve cone, serenade me with an Oreo ice cream sandwich, pile prettily coloured party balls in a dish and pour hot fudge on top. Combine ice cream and CAKE? You’ll have my heart forever.
Another one of my loves? Typography. For years I have hoarded and collected vintage letraset – transfer sheets of lettering in fonts galore, to use on my cake flags. Now, I’ve finally found the answer to my craft/typography needs: this tiny cute letter alphabet stamp set from Fairgoods in a perfect, simple Futura font!
I used my small 1 inch round circle craft punch to make perfect little circles in some ice-creamy colours.
Then, I simply stamped what I wanted my cake to say – PARTY TIME! (the alphabet stamp set even has punctuation marks, including an awesome ampersand!)
Turn around, ciiiiircle! (sung to the tune of Total Eclipse Of The Heart) and stick on a lil piece of tape to adhere it to some wooden skewers.
PARTY TIME is right!
For this simple summer ice cream cake, I wanted a Neapolitan feel so I used pints of rich vanilla, chocolate peanut butter and strawberry ice cream in three pretty layers nestled on a chocolate cookie crumb crust. I’m kind of dying at how adorable this cake turned out. Do you even know anyone who doesn’t like ice cream cakes? Best to trim them from your lives. Unless it’s a close relative. Okay. Now place your teensy letter toppers into your ice cream cake and try not to freak out with how cute it looks.
Easy Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake
ingredients
For the crust
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1¼ cups chocolate baking crumbs, such as Oreo chocolate crumbs
For the ice cream layers
- 3 pints of high quality ice cream in flavours of your choice
For the whipped cream
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar
instructions
Make the crust
- In a small saucepan set on low heat, melt the butter.
- Pour the cookie crumbs into the melted butter and mix until combined using a wooden spoon.
- Press the mixture into an even layer onto the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan.
- Let cool before adding ice cream layers.
For the ice cream layers
- Soften your first ice cream pint by removing it from the freezer and setting it out for ten minutes or so. You want it to be soft and pliable but not so soft that it’s fully melting.
- Place the ice cream into a small bowl and mix with a spatula until it’s similar in texture to soft serve ice cream.
- Using an offset spatula, spread the first ice cream flavour evenly on top of the cookie crumb crust; chill for twenty minutes.
- Repeat the process with the next two flavours.
- Once finished, place in freezer. Let cake chill for 8 hours or overnight to freeze solidly and completely.
Make the whipped cream
- You can make this the night before and chill in the refrigerator, or make it fifteen minutes before serving the cake!
- In the chilled bowl of a stand mixer or in a chilled stainless steel mixing bowl, beat the cream until soft peaks form.
- Add the sugar; beat for a few seconds more to incorporate.
- Place the contents into a piping bag fitted with an open star tip – I used the Wilton 8B tip.
- Remove the cake from the freezer; pipe drop stars along the border and one in the center of the cake. Dust your cake with rainbow sprinkles for full-on cuteness! Place a maraschino cherry on top of the center whipped cream drop star.
How to Philosophize with Cake
Oh my gosh that looks amazing! Love the cake topper, so cute. :)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
aw thanks so much! ^__^ i love the toppers, too – they look like candles!
Cindy
I LOVE ice cream cake. I always chose it as a kid since, gasp, I didn’t like cake much. That has changed, but ice cream always wins. This one is so cute!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
haha! cindy, i’m with you!! ice cream always wins here, too!! thanks for stopping by!
steph
i love the lone cherry on top! :D
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
heehee! me too… such a perfect bright and shiny “finish” ! ^__^ thanks steph! xo
Jessica @ Sweet Menu
I loooove ice cream too! And ice cream cakes? Genius! Is it really as easy to put together as you say? It looks perfect but I’ve always been worried it would go all melty and gooey. Could so down a piece right now!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
aw thanks jessica! yes it is easy as long as you work quickly and freeze between making the layers!! ^__^ thanks for stopping by!
Amanda - A Cookie Named Desire
Yum! Ice cream cake is the best…. and I love the cake topper you made. So adorable!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
thank you so much amanda!! i agree, ice cream cake is the best! ;)
molly yeh
i am obsessed. i love ice cream cakes but i never considered making one because it seems so difficult! you make it look easy, sista :) i will definitely have to try this.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
awww thanks molly!!! oh man i can just see how insaneo good your ice cream cake will be…!!! your choco tacos = BONKERS. xoxo
Abbie
Such a cute cake! And I love letter stamp sets, too – I have 5 different sets. I can never resist! I’ll have to try this.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
thank you, abbie!! oh i am obsessed with lettering… letter stamp sets are the best! thanks for stopping by! ^__^
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
Ahhhh, ice cream. One of my biggest weaknesses. Getting the DQ cake as a kid was one of the biggest treats ever. I have a friend who loves it so much he had a DQ ice cream cake at his wedding. Your homemade version is absolutely adorable, especially with the beautiful little letters on top. Beautiful job, Lyndsay!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
OMG nancy!! totaly comedy – it’s amazing how many people grew up having DQ ice cream cakes and how INGRAINED it becomes in our food memories! haha love the idea of the DQ wedding cake – wonder if they do stacked cakes? that would be HELL to keep cold though… ^__^ thanks so much nancy! xo
Kate @ ¡Hola! Jalapeño
Okay, that is the cutest thing ever! May have to make this one for my daughter’s birthday.