It's to hot to bake here. My poor air conditioning barely keeps up with the windows covered and cooking mainly in my #InstantPot. I saw an episode of Sweet Julia on cooking channel where she made Baked Alaska. I decided to try and turn that into a S'Mores Ice Cream Cake to get my fall fix and boy am I glad that I did.
Isn't that a thing of beauty? It is so simple and needs zero baking. Yeah, I used some processed stuff like Little Debbie's Brownies but hey, Cheat Day is Cheat Day!
I also used Wildtree Coconut Oil so along with the Calcium from the ice cream it kinda of counts as health food, right?
Cheat Day is only one day, so I made a small one. It is the perfect size for dessert for a family, with a little left over. You could make a big one by using a full size bundt or angel food pan. I just picked up a Hefty EZ Foil pan at my store - the 6 cup variety.
The beautiful thing about this is you can experiment! The next time I make this I think I might make the riff on the Dairy Queen Cake Fudgy-Crumbly goodness with graham crackers instead of the Little Debbie's.
This does take freezing time for sure, but the beauty of this dessert is you can make it days ahead of time!
S'mores Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups your favorite chocolate ice cream
2 cups your favorite vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup Pillsbury Marshmallow Frosting
1/2 cup Graham Cracker crumbs/chunks
For the Fudge Layer:
8 Little Debbie's Brownie packages divided
2 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut oil
For the Frosting:
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
6 egg whites
To start prepare you pan. I used a 6 cup Hefty EZ foil, but you can use whatever you want and adjust the measurements accordingly. I love this because without the need for seasonings you can just play!
Line the pan with plastic wrap like so:
Just make sure all of the surface of the pan is covered and you have plastic wrap on the outside of the pan so that you can pull it off.
Get your chocolate ice cream all melty. It doesn't have to be liquid, but melted enough that you can mold it into your pan.
Stir in 1/4 cup of the crushed graham crackers. I just put mine in a sandwich bag and beat the bejesus out of it with my rolling pin. I left some chunks in it so that you would get a crunchy bit every once in awhile. You can really have fun with this part - add chocolate chips, marshmallows, pretzels....Lots of things you can do! Just remember to adjust the measurments so you have enough room in your pan! If you add 1/4 cup chocolate chips, use 1/4 cup less ice cream.
You want to work fast at this point so that the crackers don't get soggy. Pour/spoon into the bottom of the pan and mold with your spoon to an even layer, making sure the ice cream is compacted down to a solid layer.
Yeah, I'm a computer administrator, not a food photographer but you get the picture, right?
Immediately put into the freezer for at least 2 hours. Hey, I said it was easy, not fast.
Next you need to make the fudge layer. Now what I'm really making is Magic Shell - You know that stuff you drizzle on ice cream and it becomes rock hard? A friend of mine worked at DQ as a teenager and told me they just took their brownies and mixed in a bit of the magic shell to make that layer, so I decided to give it a go. I've seen people use oreos or other chocolate cookies, but using the Little Debbie's (closest I could find to those dairy queen brownies) really did the trick!
Ok, here we go. So there are two ways you can do this. Add the chocolate chips and coconut oil into a microwave/heat safe bowl. You can either microwave in burst of 10 seconds, stirring between each burst until smooth, or slap a pot of water onto the stove, bring it to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and place your bowl on top, stirring until smooth.
You'll have a lot left over, but the beauty is you can store in an air tight container in the fridge and melt in the microwave when you want some magic shell on your ice cream!
Of course I use Wildtree Organic Coconut Oil but any will work!
Pulse 4 packages of Little Debbie's in your food processor. If you don't have a food processor you can always just break them into little bitty bits with your hands.
Now this part takes some experimenting...I used 5 tablespoon of Magic shell and mixed with the brownies, but I would recommend 3. It will come out more crumbly and more like the DQ layer in their cakes.
Mix the crumbled brownie with the magic shell until it's all coated and slightly crumbly.
Take your pan out of the freezer and spread mixture evenly over the chocolate ice cream layer. Put back into the freezer immediately. Freeze for at least 1 hour.
Just like the chocolate layer, you will want to get your vanilla ice cream a bit melty so you can manipulate it. Add the marshmallow frosting (not necessary but gives the cake a bit more of a marshmallow kick) and 1/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs to the vanilla ice cream and mix until incorporated.
You now the drill by now, add on top of the chocolate fudge layer making it compact and smooth.
Freeze at least two more hours, then repeat the chocolate fudge layer for the bottom of your cake. TaDa! The cake part is done! I let it freeze for 4 hours before frosting, just to be safe that it was rock solid.
Now for the only part of this recipe that really involves any type of skill. I followed Julia Baker's recipe to the T and it worked perfectly! You can find the original recipe for Baked Alaska here.
For the Italian Meringue:
Place the egg whites in a stand mixer or use a hand mixer and beat on high until soft peaks form. This takes between 3-4 minutes. The whites will mound, but not form sharp tips when you remove your beater and turn it upside down.
In a heavy bottom sauce pan combined the water and the sugar. Do not stir. Do not touch. Just heat it on medium heat until it reaches soft ball stage, 236 F. Yep, you will need a candy thermometer for this.
Once the eggs are at soft peaks and your sugar mixture is at softball stage, you need to combined them. Please be very, very careful and make sure all obstacles are removed as sugar at 236 degrees will cause some serious damaged.
Slowly drizzle the syrup into the egg whites with the mixer on low. Once all the syrup is in turn the mixture to high and beat until the bowl is cool to the touch.
You'll have double what you need, but have no fear! You can drop it by the tablespoon onto a baking sheet and bake for an hour at 300 F and you'll have nice little cookies! Or, if you are like my household during a hot streak the fam will gather around the bowl and shovel it into your mouths by the tablespoon :)
Icing the cake is fun and requires little skill or attention span and it will still look amazing! Take your frozen cake out of the freezer, and pull up on your plastic wrap freeing your cake. Place it on your favorite cake plate, or like me, a salad plate.
Not so pretty, eh? It doesn't matter....You are going to cover it with all of that Italian Meringue goodness and it'll look fabulous!
Cover your cake with the frosting until no ice cream shows through. Then take your spatula and do little swirlies, adding more frosting as you go. You can also just touch your spatula to the cake and pull away to make little spikes. There is no wrong here, go crazy!
Mine looked so pretty I almost didn't want to torch it, but what is a S'more without some torch? It's a pretty sad S'more I'd say.
So you torch it! Move the torch along the cake like you are airbrushing a painting. When finished put back into the freezer until ready to serve. The frosting will not freeze, it's like some kind of pastry miracle!
Isn't it beautiful! It'll look like you slaved away making some fancy dessert when really it takes very little actual work time. If it wasn't for the freezing stages you could whip this up in no time flat!
I hope all who read enjoy this recipe and use it as a base to create your own fabulous ice cream cake! If you'd like to see other concoctions I come up with be sure to like my facebook page.
I use Wildtree products a lot. I love this organic, natural company. If you'd like to try some or would like to learn how you can start a nifty little business. please visit my website here! They are an amazing company with amazing products!
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