Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

So it was my son's ninth birthday, back on April first, and he had his party on April fourth. 

For his birthday party, we needed a cake, obviously. And I wanted to make it myself, instead of going and getting a store made cake. I was scrolling through Pinterest one day, and happened to spot a post showing how to make an ice cream sandwich cake, but it was just pictures, with no instructions, and it didn't have a link to an actual site with directions, so I looked at those pictures, and came up with the following cake. 

What you need:

Ice cream sandwiches

Ice cream

Sundae topping

Whipped topping

parchment paper and/or plastic wrap

Toothpicks

cake board/serving dish

Optional ingredients:

chopped candy bars, cookies, nuts, fruit etc.

What you do:

So first off, gather your ingredients. You'll need the same number of ice cream sandwiches as servings you want, plus as many extra as you'd need to make the cake a full rectangle. 

If that doesn't make sense, you'll understand as you read on. 

Lay out some parchment paper, and/or plastic wrap, to make your cake on. I did mine inside a box, so I could keep the cake square and even, using the two sides of the box I was using, to push against to keep everything in line. 

Now, on top of the parchment paper/plastic wrap, you want to lay out half of your ice cream sandwiches, making sure that they are snug against each other. 

If you're wondering why you're only using half the sandwiches, when I said you needed as many sandwiches as servings, it's because each sandwich actually makes two servings. It's going to be a two layer cake, so cutting down the middle of each sandwich still gives each portion a full sandwich. Does that make sense? 

I didn't know how many kids were going to show up to the party, so I made a cake with enough for thirty six portions. That means my bottom layer had eighteen sandwiches. 

Once you have the first layer of sandwiches down, you take your ice cream, and spread it over the top of all the sandwiches. I used vanilla ice cream, but you could use whatever flavour you want really, as long as the flavour wont clash with the cookie part of the ice cream sandwiches.

Tip: 

Take the ice cream out of the freezer a while before you start, to allow it to soften, making it easier to spread.

Now's the time to grab your sundae topping. Spread some of the topping all over the ice cream. I used caramel and chocolate.

Place the rest of the ice cream sandwiches on top of the ice cream and sundae topping layer. Make sure they're nice and snug against each other again, so the edges of both sandwich layers is even.

After you have the second layer of sandwiches, you're going to want to wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap, and pop it back in the freezer, because the ice cream sandwiches are getting pretty soft at this point. Leave it to freeze up nice and solid again. I made mine a couple days before the party, and didn't do the next part until the day of the party.

Ok, so now it's time to get to the decorating. Get the cake out of the freezer, unwrap it, and put it on your cake board or serving dish. Take some parchment paper, and slip strips just under the sides of the cake, to keep the mess off of the board or dish.

Take your whipped topping, and spread it evenly over the sides and top of the cake.

Now you want to take that sundae topping again, and lay even, straight lines across the cake. To avoid clumps of topping on the edge of the cake, start trailing it off the cake on the parchment paper, then move across and off the other side. You can see my messy parchment paper. 

Now it's time for the magic. Take a toothpick and pull it through the topping, perpendicular to the sundae topping lines. Make each pull go from opposite sides of the cake e.g.: first pull from the top to bottom, second from the bottom to the top, third from top to bottom etc.

Once you're done making the design look all sweet and awesome, carefully pull the parchment paper out from under the sides of the cake.

Look at how good that looks! And the board is nice and clean. And the whole thing just looks impressive. People will see this, and will be amazed when you tell them you made it yourself.

Tip:

Do you see the slight score marks on the board? I made those marks to show me where the spaces between the ice cream sandwiches are, to help with even cutting.

Optional:

Because I made this for a party where I didn't know about possible nut allergies, I didn't spruce this up like I could have, but some things you can do would be...

-spread chopped candy bar, cookies or nuts in the middle layer on top of the ice cream and sundae topping

-sprinkle chopped candy bar, cookies or nuts on top or on the sides of the cake

-place fresh fruit on the top of the cake

-layer fruit on top of the middle ice cream layer

Really, the options are limitless.

The cake I made had 36 portions, and had I gone to Dairy Queen for one of their Ice Cream cakes, to serve as many, well, I would have been out a pretty hefty chunk of change. With all the costs combined, including needing to actually buy the sundae topping which a lot of people have sitting around the house already, I spent about $25 plus any applicable taxes. 

So there we go. That was my son's birthday cake. It was a huge hit, and even some of the parents came back for seconds. What I love about this cake, is that you can make it as big, or small, as you want. I made a test one when I first saw the post on Pinterest, to work out all the details, that had only three sandwiches on each layer. 

Now go forth, and make your own amazing ice cream sandwich cakes. Feel free to put pics of your own cakes, or links to pics, in the comments. I'd love to see what you come up with!