Homemade Ice Cream Cake

Oreo Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

So my hubbys birthday party was nice. We had close family come over to his parents and we ordered chinese! The place by his parents is heavenly, I love there stuff (and I'm picky) Anyhow my cake turned out so perfectly. It was really yummy, the only thing I would have changed was the ice cream flavor.

I picked up Chapmans cookies and cream flavor, it spread well and hardened up great but I hadn't realized how sweet the flavor is. I love Chapmans, they're still the only company I know of that sells 2L tubs still. But I'll def go with another flavor next time. Originally I was just going to stick with Vanilla but then I wanted the Oreo layer and figured I'd go with the cookies and cream ice cream instead.



As for the "crust" I opted for a cake base. You can go with a cookie base instead (saves time and money) for example. But I have to say, the cake was amazing! This is one luxurious cake, everyone should try it at some point in time. Either in this recipe or by itself. I plan on making peanut butter cupcakes with this recipe later on. You can always take away or add different extracts, the peppermint was very good! Mind you we all love peppermint.

Also I must apologize for the poor pictures! I used my blackberry and it was hectic in the kitchen, plus terrible lighting = shaky not so great pictures hah


NOTE: I'd suggest starting this a day or two before you intend on eating to make sure you have enough time between freezer time

Ingredients & tools

• 2 litres of cookies & cream ice cream (or any flavor you'd like)
• 1 package of oreos
• 2 cups of ice cream topping of choice (I used chocolate fudge)
• 10” inch springform pan
• 1 tub of ready made whipped cream

Cake

this is a recipe courtesy of Anna Olson

• 3/4 cup hot brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup regular cocoa powder (not Dutch pressed)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. and grease and line a 10-inch springform pan with parchment, then grease paper.
2. Pour freshly brewed coffee over chocolate and gently stir to melt. Set aside.
3. Sift sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs on high speed for 1 minute.
4. While beating, slowly add oil, buttermilk and extracts. Alternate adding flour mixture and chocolate mixture and beat until combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool for 20 minutes in the pan, then remove to cool completely.
6. Completely cooled, cut the cake horizontally and remove the top of the cake (to level the top off)
7. Place the cake back into the 10" inch springform pan and place it in the freezer for 2-3 hours

Adding the Ice Cream

1. Take the ice cream and separate it into two equal parts. Place each part into two separate bowls. Put one bowl back into the freezer for later. Let one bowl unthaw for 2-3 hours; enough for it to be spreadable but not completely unthawed and soup like.
2. Once the ice cream's ready to go, take the cake out of the freezer and evenly spread the ice cream on top of the cake for your first layer
3. Place the cake back into the freezer for 3 hours, to allow it to re-harden. Take out the second bowl of ice cream and allow it to unthaw on the counter
4. While you wait, crush the oreos. Place oreos in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Make sure not to crush to much in one area as you'll poke a hole in the bag.
5. Take the crushed oreos and put them in a bowl; mix the ice cream topping with them and make sure it's evenly coated to your liking
6. When the ice cream has hardened, add the oreo mixture and spread it evenly on top the ice cream layer. Place the cake back in the freezer for half an hour
7. By now the second bowl of ice cream should be unthawed. Spread it on top of the oreo mixture evenly and place it back in the freezer for 2-3 hours to re-harden. Now's the time to take out and unthaw the whipped cream
8. Once hardened, take a warm towel and place it around the springform pan to help separate it from the base
9. Take the whipped cream and evenly coat the top and bottom of the cake. When finished, you can add whatever you like!
10. Place the cake back into the freezer for about a half hour. After this it should be ready to cut and enjoy

I suggest leaving the cake out 15 min before you cut it. It's also a good idea to have a large glass with hot water to soak your knife; this will make cutting the cake easier.

Oreo Truffles

Hey folks! My sister in law finally (after 30 years) decided to bring a man home! She’s very picky, I’m pretty sure that says it all hah Any how I decided to dive into these truffles. I’d been meaning to make them; I suppose sometimes you just need an occasion to push you into the mixing bowl! As I’m ill most of the time, it doesn’t leave me much room to work out. So I think I’d say the most difficult parts were crushing the cookies and cutting the chocolate.

The end result was excellent; I had to go to the doc while they dried so my father in law trimmed the excess chocolate from them. It was very kind and helpful of him and they look decent; I would have been more precise hah I’m a perfectionist. I can’t help it! So here it is, enjoy!


end result, yummy oreo truffles

So I made my own marshmallow fluff, I decided to experiment. Originally it calls for cream cheese to hold the cookie crumbs together but I decided to take the sweeter route hah. I also added more confectioners sugar then called for in the recipe, I decided I wanted to choose how sweet and thick it would turn out. After making a fun mess of everything, this was the end result.


marshmallow fluff, the left overs are always good for rice crispy squares

I took to crushing the oreos next, I was at my mother in laws and they tend to keep items you'd normally want to have easy access to in places I'd never think of putting them! So I improvised with what I could find.


what a back breaker!

After crushing the cookies I added my fluff. I'm not going to say I measured how much I added, because I didn't. Once you've been doing this long enough, you have an eye for these things. But for those of you who would prefer measuring, I'd say I used about a cup and a half of it. However, it's all about personal taste. Some people like it to be sweeter then others so do as you see fit.


you HAVE TO get in there and get your hands dirty =P

After rolling them all out and placing them on a baking sheet with wax paper they kinda sagged, or drooped. So I set them I'm the fridge for a few min. They were hard and firm after only being in for a min or two and this is because of the fluff. It's naturally harder and thick so it turned out nice while melting the chocolate.


they looked so shiny; and kinda gross if you didn't know what it was hah

As they set in the fridge; I took my time chopping all the chocolate by hand. As you may know doing so ensures even melting, trying to melt it in full form would probably take much longer. I picked up two large white chocolate bars from Wal-Mart, It's called Joe's tasty travels. They also make trail mixes and such, this can usually be found in the produce and/or bakery section (at least at my location) They're only $3 each and much cheaper then the bakers chocolate, which is great especially if you're on a budget.


I used bakers semi sweet chocolate for my drizzle instead of left over crushed oreos

So I then retrieved the truffles from the fridge and set out to dunk them in the melted concoction. I don't have a dipping tool so I used a fork. I'm not going to lie, a few times the truffles rolled off the fork and landed upside down which resulted in me re-dipping them hah You simply need to be really gentle and they'll slide off after tapping them a few times.


it seems so much simpler then it looks

I set the truffles in the fridge again to dry faster. Having 6 left over cookies (as I ate one hah) I used up the remaining of the melted white chocolate on them. And let me tell you, they were just as heavenly as the truffles.


They were just as good as the truffles!

At this point I melted the semi sweet chocolate, scooped it up into a glad plastic sandwich bag. Pushing it all to one corner, making a disposable piping bag. I snipped a little off the tip and slowly drizzled. I ended up having a bit left over so I siphoned it into my mouth hah I then put them back into the fridge to dry.


one of them has a semi sweet "blob" ontop, it was the first in my defense! it wouldn't come out so I squeezed harder =P

I very well could have made them look nicer with the drizzle. To be honest I wasn't trying to impress anyone, I just wanted to get my first batch finished and sampled. And there you have it, the finished product after my father in law chopped at them with a paring knife hah


they almost look professional...almost hah

When I had my mom try them, as well as my dad. They actually had no idea that I made them or that they had any cookies in them. So it was a pleasant surprise for them.

Below is a "base" recipe for the truffles as I used fluff instead of cream cheese. Both recipes are listed so you can make the decision yourself! Also as a side note, the fluff yielded a lot so whatever I had left was stored in the freezer. It only really stays good in the fridge for about a week.

Oh and if you want to mix it up, there are so many different kinds of oreos out there. More so for you Americans but as an idea you could substitute for mint oreos, chocolate cream oreos, golden oreos, and occasionally they'll have special editions like fudge sundae cream oreos ^^



Oreo Truffles

1 package oreo cookies (divided… use cookie including the cream center)
1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)
white chocolate bark

1. Finely crush 7 cookies in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency. Reserve for later.
2. Crush remaining cookies and stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together.
3. Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Melt chocolate as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry. You can sprinkle the tops with the 7 crushed cookies for decoration. (I usually eat mine before they make it to this stage.)
5. Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!

Yields about 36 truffles.



Marshmallow Fluff

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
2 cups light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract


How to make it:

• In a large bowl, combine egg whites, corn syrup and salt.
• Mix with mixer on high speed until thick - about 10 minutes if you are using a hand held mixer, or 5 minutes if you are using a Kitchen Aid.
• Add in confectioner's sugar.
• Beat on low speed until well blended.
• Add vanilla and mix until blended.

It's now ready to use or store.

So I found that the 2 cups of confectioners sugar wasn't enough. At least not for me so I used 3 cups. How sweet do you want yours to be?