summer cake | cups + spoonfuls

I turned 36 last week and suddenly it feels like I am on a fast train to 40. One of my best friends called to wish me a happy birthday and said “I can’t believe we are 36.” I hear ya, Bethie. Didn’t we just turn 30? Part of me would love to be 30 again; mainly because I looked a hell of a lot less tired. At this point, my exhaustion feels like a chronic illness. My 36-year-old self has dark circles under the eyes which, luckily, a good Laura Mercier concealer hides. Each baby has left their mark on my body. C-spider veins. G-bulging belly button. N- thinning hair, and I’m anticipating breasts that point due south once I stop nursing. My stomach and butt are less taut than they were six years ago despite running religiously several times a week and eating quinoa. (Thanks for nothing super grain! Somehow, I thought eating gobs of quinoa and kale would make my ass tighter. No such luck!) Despite my physical changes over the last six years, I’m much happier in my skin today. I get know myself a little more every year. I have things to work on, things that will never change and I ok with it.

On my 36th birthday we went to the beach; me, Bubba and the kids. We played in the water and we looked for treasures. I left them at the shore and took a swim in the ocean and it felt so good, 62 degrees good. I swam to the sand bar that had formed and stood up. I took a big, deep breath of the salty, warm air and stared out at the horizon for a minute. I always think at moments like this, alone, staring out at the ocean, I’ll have sort of epiphany about life, but I never do. I turned back to see my sweet family waving from the shoreline, calling me back. I swam back feeling exhilarated from the freezing, take your breath away, cold water. We left the beach tired and happy. Bubba made fish tacos for dinner and they were awesome! He offered to make me a cake, but I insisted it wasn’t necessary. Cake not necessary? I know, it sounds crazy. I said that, because I wanted to make an ice cream cake to share with you. I can’t handle to much cake in the house. I just don’t have that kind of will power.

Just like a Carvel ice cream cake, the center is a thick layer of crunchies. My “crunchies” are a combination of dark chocolate and chocolate wafer cookie crumbs. This my favorite part of the entire cake. In fact, I could eat just this layer and be happy. The cream frosting tastes just like the frosting you find on store-bought ice cream cakes, except fresher.

This cake is so easy to make and the flavor combinations are endless! I used a combination of vanilla and strawberry ice cream. The only down side to this cake, as with many cakes, you need to plan ahead of time. So plan ahead, be creative and enjoy!

Classic Ice Cream Cake

barely adapted from Kinfolk Magazine

Serves 10-12, makes a nine-inch cake

Ingredients:

1 quart vanilla ice cream

1 recipe Chocolate Crunches (see recipe below)

9 ounces chocolate wafer cookies, crushed

1 quart of a different flavor ice cream, whatever you like ( I used strawberry.)

1 recipe Cream Frosting (see recipe below)

*This cake takes time to freeze so plan ahead before serving!*

Directions:

Place a 9-inch cake ring on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Remove the vanilla ice cream from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes or until a bit soft. Remove the vanilla ice cream from the container and using a spatula spread it evenly across the bottom of the chilled ring. Freeze ice cream in its ring until completely hard, about 2 hours.

Place 9 ounces of chocolate wafer cookies in a Ziploc bag and seal the bag. Using a rolling-pin crush the cookies. Place the wafer crumbs in a medium bowl and stir into the chocolate topping until the crumbs are completely damp.

Remove the cake ring from the freezer and spread the chocolate crunchies over the vanilla ice cream. *Remember to work quickly!* Freeze for another hour.

Remove second ice cream flavor from the freezer and allow to soften a bit. Remove the ice cream from the container and spread quickly over the chocolate crunches. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to freeze overnight or for a few days.

When ready to serve, remove the metal ring from the spring form pan.(If it is really hard to get off you could use a blow dryer for a few seconds to loosen the ring.) Freeze the cake for another 30 minutes. Decorate your cake with the cream frosting. You can place it back in the freezer until ready to use or serve it immediately. Run your knife under warm water and then cut into the cake. Enjoy!!

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Crunchies

chocolate sauce recipe adapted from This Homemade Life

Ingredients:

2/3 cup good quality dark chocolate chips

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1, 9 ounce box of chocolate wafer cookies, crushed

Directions:

Place chocolate chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Heat the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave in 10 second intervals. Stir after every ten seconds until melted and smooth. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature. When ready to use, stir in chocolate wafer crumbs. Spread evenly over vanilla ice cream layer. (**Do not place sauce in the refrigerator because it will harden!** Can be stored in an air tight container at room temperature for several days.)

Recipe for Cream Frosting

recipe from Kinfolk Magazine

makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. powdered gelatin

2 tbsp. milk

food coloring – optional

chocolate jimmies or sprinkles optional

Directions:

Chill your mixing bowl. Once the bowl is chilled beat the cream, sugar and vanilla in the chilled bowl until firm peaks form.

Using a small saucepan, soak the gelatin in the milk. Once all the milk is absorbed, heat the gelatin over low heat until it melts. Gently but quickly fold the gelatin into the whipped cream. Use immediately or tint it with a food coloring. Spread over entire cake. If desired, sprinkle with chocolate jimmies. Enjoy!

5 Ice Cream Cake Links

If you love Chipwich ice cream sandwiches, you should make Bon Appetit’s ridiculously good chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake with butterscotch sauce. I made it last summer and it was a huge hit!

Want to make go all out and make an ice cream cake your loved one will remember for years? Check out Heather Cristo’s recipe for Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake! Chocolate brownies, strawberry cake and cookies and cream ice cream all covered in chocolate ganache frosting-wow!

I love Oreos and so does Bubba. For Bubba’s next birthday, I am making the Ktchn’s frozen chocolate oreo ice cream cake. Yum!

Brownies and ice cream are so good together. Zoe Bakes makes an ice cream cake that incorporates brownies and 3 different layer of ice cream. Her cake looks beautiful and I bet tastes even better!

So your best friend is a vegan and she prefers to eat only raw food. Making a birthday cake for her may sound impossible, but thanks to This Rawsome Vegan Life, it’s not. Emily created a beautiful banana chocolate caramel ice cream cake that will make your friend swoon! Check it out!

“I give you this to take with you: Nothing remains as it was. If you know this, you can begin again, with pure joy in the uprooting.” Judith Minty, Letters to My Daughters

We spent the weekend packing. It is odd how quickly a home can change when everything that defined the house is placed in a box. Suddenly, something so familiar and comforting becomes stark and cold. You see the house with different eyes. You separate yourself from it because you know it is easier to let go of it and what it meant to you than to carry it with you. Once all the stuff is packed you realize it is just that: stuff, replaceable crap. It is not so much the walls you will miss but the life, the moments, that place in time you cannot get back. It is accepting that “nothing remains as it was.”

Though not planned, it seems fitting that our best friends, the couple that introduced us to this house and this town 6 years ago came over for our last dinner with friends. I was newly pregnant with Charlotte when they mentioned the condo above them was for sale. Bubba and I took a look and 3 months later we left Boston for the burbs. We spent 5 years living in the same multi-family above two of our favorite people. It was like living with family who respected boundaries. It was built in social time for new parents who were a little shocked by how much a baby had changed everything. Babies were born, jobs changed, friends and family married and divorced, a loved one passed, kids grew and we aged too. It sounds corny but the passage of time is so dam beautiful and heart-breaking all at the same time.

Surrounded by boxes and bubble wrap we spent our last Saturday night at the table chatting, laughing and drinking beer. It is what we do best when we are together. I made 2 desserts; desserts that are perfect to share with friends.

Grapefruit Crinkle Cookies

Adapted from White on Rice Couple’s Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 Tablespoon of Grapefruit zest

2 Tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda for a minute and set aside.

Zest the grapefruit so you have 1 Tablespoon of zest. In a small bowl add grapefruit zest to the 1/2 cup of sugar and blend together with your fingers. This will make the sugar very fragrant and you will end up with a tastier cookie.

In a mixer, with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and grapefruit sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract, egg and grapefruit juice until well combined. After two or three minutes scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for several minutes to make sure everything is well incorporated.

Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get all of the flour mixed into the dough.

Sift the confectioners sugar on a large plate. Make the dough into 1 inch sized balls. (A small cookie scoop works great here.) Roll the balls in the confectioners sugar then place a couple of inches apart on the lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies just begin to turn golden and the tops of the cookies no longer look wet. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool for about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Strawberry Summer Cake

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for 9 or 10 spring-form pan

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of oat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

7/8 cup of granulated sugar (1 cup of sugar minus two tablespoons)

1 large egg

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

2 Tablespoons Turbinado Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9 or 10 inch springform pan. ( A nine or ten inch deep dish pie pan will also work. A standard pie plate will not work here because the batter will overflow.)

Whisk flours, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside. In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and 7/8 cup of sugar until pale and fluffy with about 3 minutes. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Slowly, add dry mixture mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer. You may need to overlap them to get all of them on the batter. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes at 350°F then reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake cake until golden brown or until a tester comes out clean, about 50 minutes to 60 minutes. (Wet strawberries on the tester are ok.) Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream.

Cake can be stored, loosely covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days.

cups + spoonfuls

baking + fresh food exploration

Tag Archives: summer cake

Classic Ice Cream Cake + 5 Ice Cream Cake Links

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