Ice Cream Fake Out Cake

Anyone else dreaming of summer? Living in Vancouver, it’s been rain errryday and the Huz said that I’m not allowed to check the weather anymore. Well, for my friend’s birthday, I thought I’d bring her some summer. And since she has 2 adorable kiddies, I thought they’d like a fun whimsical cake.

My inspiration for this cake is Katherine Sabbath. Have you seen her work??? Mind blowing. Not only are her designs amazing, her flavor combinations are out of this world. I’m pretty much in awe of her. Check this out:

Here’s what I’ve done for my friend in the past:

Chocolate meringue cloud cake

Mint chocolate layer cake

Smartie cake

I always try to do something big and different for her. It keep me on my game keeps me flexing my muscles.

Here’s my technique for decorating this cake. I’m not including a recipe for the cake itself - I did a vanilla cake with raspberry jam - because I wanted to focus on the decor. And lucky for you, I’ve worked out the kinks (trust me, there were some tears, right Huz?).

Ice Cream Fake Out Cake Decor

Buttercream Frosting - for sprinkle layer and “ice cream”

Ingredients

1.5 cups butter, softened (add ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)

5 cups icing sugar

½ cup heavy cream, room temperature (nuke in the microwave in a time pinch)

2 teaspoons vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

¼ cup jimmies sprinkles

2 Tablespoons chopped chocolate

1 Tablespoon raspberry jam

Food colouring of choice (I used a mix of blue and green gel)

Ice Cream Cone

Ingredients

1 sugar cone

¼ cup white chocolate, or white chocolate discs, or candy melts

¼ cup sprinkles or nuts or anything you want to decorate the ice cream cone with

Drip Icing

Ingredients

½ cup icing sugar

3-4 teaspoons water

Food colouring of choice (I recommend gel colour)

Tools

Large and mini ice cream scoops

Metal spatula

Piping bag

Decorating instructions

1. Make buttercream frosting by whipping butter (and salt if using) with beater attachment in a stand mixer until fluffy. Add icing sugar and mix on a low speed. Gradually stream in cream as it’s mixing and beat until well incorporated and fluffy. Add vanilla and almond extract and beat until incorporated.
2. Stack and fill your cake layers. I baked a vanilla cake in 3, 6-in cake pans and sliced them in half. In between the layers, I used raspberry jam. But sky’s the limit here in terms of flavour combos.
3. Crumb coat the cake - apply a thin layer of frosting to the entire cake to seal in the crumbs. Scrape off any excess. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
4. At this point, you’ll need to estimate how much frosting you’ll need for the sprinkle layer and the “ice cream” portions. Scoop out the amount that you’ll need for the “ice cream” into a bowl and set aside.
5. With the portion of frosting you’ve portioned for the sprinkle layer, add sprinkles and fold in with a spatula. Feel free to add more if you want it extra sprinkl-y.
6. Frost the cake with your sprinkle frosting and scrape off excess. If you want it extra smooth, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes. Dip a metal spatula in hot water and wipe off, and smooth out the frosting. You can add more frosting and repeat this process of refrigerating and smoothing out with a hot spatula.
7. Next, colour the frosting that you will use as ice cream. In my design, I made a turquoise large scoop and smaller scoops of chocolate chip and raspberry ripple. For turquoise, I mixed blue and a small amount of green into the frosting. For chocolate chip, I chopped up chocolate and mixed it into the frosting. For raspberry ripple, I added 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam into the frosting and ran a few strokes through it with a spoon. And for the important part: Spread out the frosting on the bottom of their bowls and refrigerate for 10 minutes. This will give it the ice cream look when scooped out.
8. In the meantime, you can do 2 things: decorate your ice cream cone and make your drip. First the cone: melt your white chocolate in a double boiler or in 10 second intervals in the microwave, stirring between intervals. Dip your the outer 1-inch of your cone in the melted chocolate, then dip in sprinkles or nuts. Place on parchment/wax paper/foil and harden in the fridge.
9. Next the drip icing: Place icing sugar in a small bowl and add water 1 teaspoon at a time, stirring after each addition. Stop when you get a thick but fluid consistency. I recommend putting a drop of the icing on the lip of a cup to see how fast it drips down. If you’ve added too much water, you can add more icing sugar. Add food colouring and mix to incorporate (I recommend gel colour so that it doesn’t add more liquid to the drip).
10. Apply the drip icing: I’ve seen this done in a number of ways, but here’s what I did - I put some of the drip icing in a small pastry bag with a small round tip. I applied beads of drip icing on the edge of the cake and allowed it to drip down. I put the remaining drip on top of the cake and spread it out with an offset spatula.
11. Apply the “ice cream”: Scoop the ice cream frosting with an ice cream scoop and place on the cake. If the frosting is too hard, you can run the scoop under hot water (be sure to dry with towel before scooping). Place ice cream cone on the middle ice cream.
12. Keep cake in the fridge. Bring up to room temperature before eating - 2 hours prior.

*What to do with extra frosting and cake: If you’ve found yourself with extra cake scraps from cutting off the dome of the cakes and frosting, why not make cake pops or cake truffles! You can keep both the cake scraps and frosting in the freezer until you’re ready to make these. I’ll do a post on this next!

Verdict: This cake was an absolute show stopper! I was really happy with the way it turned out and how much it resembled ice cream! Such a whimsical cake. I have so many ideas of how this ice cream technique can be used!

Ps. Does this remind of you Baskin Robins of the 90’s? I got a few of those comments.

Vanilla Strawberry Ice Cream Cake

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I recently bought a townhouse. To celebrate, I threw a housewarming party and decided to make an ice cream cake for dessert.

Dairy Queen ice cream cakes – yay or nay? I pretty much only like the cookie fudge middle. My plate is always left with sad looking vanilla and chocolate soft serve because I just eat the middle. But I think my problem with that cake is that it’s soft serve. If it was real ice cream, I think I’d love it.

So, my ice cream cake was going to be made with real ice cream. And not that stuff from the store that has a bunch of ingredients that I can’t pronounce, meaning they really shouldn’t be in my ice cream. I’m talking about the home make stuff – with egg yolks, and real vanilla, and only ingredients you’re familiar with! And you know what? It’s going to have cake too – because ice cream cake without the cake part, is just ice cream shaped like a cake if you ask me.

The great thing about this type of cake is that the options are endless! I went simple, but you can mix and match ice cream and cake flavours and add extras like cookies, crumbles, nuts, fruit, and sundae syrup between the layers. And multiple ice cream flavours!

Vanilla Strawberry Ice Cream Cake

Parts:

Vanilla cake

Vanilla ice cream

Strawberry jam

Whipped cream frosting

*Note, this cake takes 3 days to make

Vanilla Cake (Make on day 1)

Use your favorite vanilla cake recipe. I halved this one and baked it in a 6-inch pan. Feel free to use whatever size you like!

After baking and cooling the cake, cut into two layers. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.

Alternatively, you can buy a pre-made pound cake.

Vanilla Ice Cream (Make on day 1 or 2)

You can use your favorite store bought ice cream. Or make it from scratch! I used this recipe by David Lebovitz. 

If making from scratch and refrigerating the base overnight, make on day 1. If not refrigerating base overnight, make on day 2 (same day as assembly).

Whipped Cream Frosting (Make on day 3)

Ingredients

2 cups whipping cream

1/3 cup icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Gel food colouring

Directions

1.  Chill metal bowl before whipping. Beat whipping cream until soft peaks.

2.  Sift icing sugar and add vanilla. Beat to stiff peaks.

3.  Add food colouring to your desired shade and beat to blend.

*I added a stabilizer (like Whip It http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Oetker-Stabilizer-Whipping-Packets/dp/B000NY8OLU), but since it’s going to be frozen, I don’t think it’s necessary in retrospect.

Assembly

Day 2:

1.  If using store bought ice cream, take out and soften for about 10-15 minutes before proceeding. If using scratch ice cream, it should be in soft-serve consistency (feel free to stick in the freezer until ready).

2.  Smear a little jam on the cake plate. Place frozen cake layer on top. Spread jam on top.

3.  Wrap stiff acetate tightly around the cake and tape to secure.

4.  Spread ice cream over the cake – up to you on how much and how tall you want the cake!

5.  Spread jam on the other cake layer. Carefully place it on top of the ice cream, jam side down.

6.  Freeze overnight.

Day 3:

7.  Make whipped cream frosting.

8.  Take acetate off cake. Frost cake with whipped cream and decorate to your preference. Freeze until ready to serve.

 

Acetate around the cake.

 

Verdict: This ice cream recipe was A-MAAAzing! So creamy, rich, and flavourful! I only used ¾ of it in the cake, so I had a bit left over. And good thing too because my friends requested it and devoured it! I’m dreaming up new flavour combos!

Sherbet and Cheesecake Bombe

I was having a BBQ for my house warming party for which I wanted to make an eye catching, esthetically wowing dessert.  I’d seen bombes around the blogosphere and I wanted to try making one.  A dessert in the shape of a half-sphere? Awesome! 

When creating the concept of this particular bombe, I was overwhelmed with the choices as I could make it out of pretty much anything as long as there was a cake component and a filling component.  Yes in the dessert/pastry world, desserts in the shape of a sphere have different names and different criteria: Some bombes skip out on the cake bit (Bombe Glace), while others (Charlotte Royale) are filled with mousse.  I was itching to break in my new ice cream maker, so I knew that something icy had to be a part of mine.  It was really hard to decide on the flavor combination (cake and jam flavour, vanilla or chocolate or fruit? Ice cream or sherbet? Ganache, cheesecake, or mousse?) but I managed to decide on a vanilla cake with raspberry jam, 2 fruit sherbets, and a cheesecake.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Sherbet and Cheesecake Bombe

Jelly Roll (day 1)

Adapted from here. 

Ingredients

5 eggs
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons oil
3 Tablespoons buttermilk
1 + ¼ teaspoon cider vinegar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Food colouring (I used blue gel)
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
¾  teaspoon salt

Jam (I used raspberry)

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a jelly roll pan (I used a cookie sheet) with oil and line bottom with parchment paper.  Grease and line a cake pan with the same circumference as the bowl you will use to assemble the bombe (or one that’s slightly bigger).  This will become the base of the bombe when you fill it out.

2.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

3.  In a bowl, beat eggs for 5 minutes. 

4.  Gradually add sugar and oil and continue beating.

5.  Add buttermilk, vinegar, and vanilla.

6.  Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients and beat only until mixed.

7.  Pour a thin layer of batter in the round cake pan.

8.  Divide the rest if the batter in half and colour one half with food colouring.

9.  Pour batters on each side of the jelly roll pan and spread smooth.

10. Bake jelly roll pan for 11 minutes; the round cake pan for about 7 (keep watch and test with skewer/toothpick when you think it’s done).

11. Immediately flip jelly roll out onto a piece of parchment or silicone baking mat dusted with icing sugar.  Peel parchment off cake. Cut cake in half perpendicular to the line dividing the cake colours.

12. Place each cake on a parchment (I reused the one from the cake) or silicone mat and roll tight. Put seam side down and let cool completely.

13. Open up the rolls and spread jam of your choice.  Tightly roll back up (without the parchment).

14. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge.  The chilling will make it easier to slice.

15. Wrap the round cake layer and freeze until needed.

Rolled and cooling.

Plastic wrapped and ready for the fridge.

Raspberry Sherbet (day 2)

From here.

Ingredients

3 cups frozen raspberries
1 ½ cup homogenized milk
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1.  Thaw raspberries until a bit soft and blend in a blender with milk and sugar.

2.  Add lemon juice and mix.

3.  Churn in ice cream maker according to directions.

4.  Pour into bowl with jelly roll and freeze.

Liquid Cheesecake (day 3)

From Milk Bar cookbook.

Ingredients

1 brick of cream cheese (8 oz/225 g, although my brick was more like 10 oz)

¾ cup sugar

1 Tablespoon corn starch

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons milk

1 egg

Directions

1.  Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.  Beat cream cheese for 2 minutes.  Add sugar and beat for another minute or until incorporated.

3.  In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and salt.  Beat in milk, then egg until thoroughly mixed.

4.  Gradually add the egg mixture to cream cheese mixture as you beat on medium speed.  Beat for 3 minutes.

5.  Pour batter into a baking pan (mine was 6 inch x 6 inch) and bake for 15 minute or until the edges are set but the middle is still jiggly.

6.  Cool completely before pouring into the bombe.

Not much different - more in the consistency.

Lemon Sherbet (day 4)

From here.

Ingredients

2 cups homogenized milk

½ cups sugar
zest of 2 lemons

½ cup lemon juice (about 2-3 lemons)

Directions

1.  In a saucepan over medium low heat, heat 1 cup of milk with sugar and zest until sugar has dissolved.

2.  Pour into a container with the remaining cup of milk and cool completely in the fridge.

3.  Churn in an ice cream maker according to directions.

 

Assembly

1.  Day 1: Bake and fill jelly roll and round cake layer for the bottom of the bombe.

2.  Day 2: Lay plastic wrap inside the bowl that will form your bombe.  Slice jelly roll and arrange slices to cover the inside of the bowl.

3.  Day 2: Make raspberry sherbet and fill the bombe.  Freeze overnight.

4.  Day 3: Make liquid cheesecake and add to the bombe. Freeze overnight.

5.  Day 4: Make lemon sherbet and add to the bombe.  Spread jam on round cake (you may need to trim the cake if you used a bigger cake pan) and place jam side down onto the sherbet, sealing the bombe. Freeze overnight.

6.  Day 5: Let thaw for 5-10 minutes before inverting and slicing.

*Note:  I left the jelly roll in the fridge overnight, but you can slice and arrange in the bowl if you want to move onto the first layer of the filling (raspberry sherbet) after a hour or so of chilling.  You may be able to add the other layers of the filling all in 1 day, if you’re ambitious!

*Note: Once the sherbet if done churning, immediately fill the bombe and freeze.  The soft sherbet will be easy to spread.

Spread jam on round cake layer and place on bombe.

Verdict: This was definitely a showstopper! The jelly roll and sherbets were tasty, but the liquid cheesecake was everyone’s favorite.  It was rich and smooth even though it was frozen.  The raspberry sherbet was soft and bursting with flavor, while the lemon sherbet was a bit icy for my liking.  I had a lot of fun making this bombe – it gave me something to do everyday of the week!