Zoey's Birthday Ice Cream Sandwich Cake
So this started when I asked Zoey what cake she wanted on her birthday and was told brownie, ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles! I got to thinking and, in the end, came up with this idea. In case your child asks for the same I figured I'd share so you can learn and improve on my attempt.
Background
So this started when I asked Zoey what cake she wanted on her birthday and it kept getting more complicated until it included brownies, ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles.
Thoughts
Some thoughts:
- Am I glad we did this? Definitely! I love her creativity.
- Am I really happy this was a family dessert and it wasn't the party? For sure... if it was for the party I probably would've played it safer with limiting it to brownie cupcakes and topped, while serving, with a scoop of ice cream and optional whipped cream and sprinkles... noting this for me in case this is requested next year.
- How did you combine brownie and ice cream in a cake? I decided to make the brownie on a cookie sheet so it was flat then cut it in half to make a sandwich with the thawed ice cream placed in between. I was thinking an ice cream sandwich.
- Decorating? Zoey coated the ice cream sandwich in whipped cream and sprinkles before we put it back in the freezer. Be mindful of the ice cream melting out of it while you decorate whether you're going too slow or if you didn't cool the brownie completely. Next time I should fully cool the brownie in the fridge before the ice cream and decorating steps.
- Storage? This was the big issue. I didn't want the ice cream to melt and, as it was so rich, I wanted us to eat it slowly over time and not worry about it going bad. As such it was stored in a container in the freezer that we slowly hacked at over time.
Improvements
I would love to hear from you on how to improve this either for other people or for me on future requests. Feel free to comment below!
How We Made It
We started by mixing together a single bag of our go to Ghirardelli brownie mix. I pictured a cake-sized sandwich so I wanted the brownie to be thin so, at first, I put it on two different cookie sheets but ended up combining it on one and then cutting it in half to make two squares. While the brownie cooled we put our vanilla ice cream out to thaw so it was ready for the next step.
I told Zoey to spread the ice cream on one half and then we'd flip the other half over to make a sandwich.
When done I awkwardly moved it over to the center of the pan and then should have cooled it in the freezer... instead I let Zoey decorate it right away with whipped cream, sprinkles, and, by request, maraschino cherries.
When she was done I made sure to snap a photo before putting it in the freezer to wait for her birthday meal to be done. Before serving I carefully tried to move it to a cutting board so if I were to do it again I'd have her create it in a glass casserole dish or at least something more sturdy and able to be cut against.
Zoey loved the cake and both girls enjoyed the leftovers over the next month or so. And with that gorgeous cake shown I want to wish you a really good day.
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