Ice Cream Cake with Chocolate Mousse

by Sandra Merville Hart

I made an ice cream cake last summer using my sister’s suggestions. My grandson has been asking to make one again. This time, we made the cake with a layer of chocolate mousse in the middle.

I made the mousse following the recipe from an earlier blog post the night before. I only needed about ½ the chocolate mousse for my ice cream cake. I froze it in a cake pan lined with parchment paper for easy removal.

Below is the list of ingredients I used for our ice cream cake. Change them for your family’s preferences.

Ingredients

Fudge brownies—make from scratch or use a mix

½ gallon chocolate ice cream

½ gallon cookies and cream ice cream

10-12 Oreo cookies, crushed

Sprinkles

chocolate mousse, prepared the day before and frozen in a lined round cake pan

Use a springform pan to layer this dessert.

Bottom layer—prepare a brownie recipe and cook it in the springform pan. Allow it to cool.

This morning, my granddaughter and I prepared a batch of brownies. About a 1/3 of the dough was baked in a springform pan as the bottom layer for the ice cream cake. The rest was baked in an 8×8 pan to serve as plain brownies.

Allow the brownies to cool.

Second Layer—Take the carton of chocolate ice cream from the freezer and dip about ½ the contents into a bowl. Allow it to soften a couple of minutes. Using a spoon, poke and prod the ice cream until it softens enough to layer it on top of the brownie layer. (The ice cream layer should be about an inch thick or so to allow room for the upper layers.)Third Layer—Remove the prepared mousse from the freezer and place it on top of the ice cream.

Tip: Freeze the cake before adding the second layer of ice cream.

While the cake is refreezing, crush the Oreo cookies (or whatever cookie you’ve selected) and set them aside. I used a mortar and pestle to crush the cookies but a blender or food processor will work nicely also.Four Layer—Remove the cake and cookies-and-cream ice cream from the freezer. Sprinkle a layer of crushed cookies over the mousse.Fifth Layer—Spoon a layer of softened cookies-and-cream ice cream over the crushed cookie layer. Smooth it out.The children will love adding some sprinkles on top. It will give a festive look to a dessert that certain to be a hit!

Freeze until ready to serve.

This was a little messy with young children but it was worth it. What fun! Their creative side came into play and, well, let’s just say the sprinkles ended up in a heap. I didn’t mind at all.

When it came time to serve the cake, I allowed 30 minutes of thawing time.

Delicious! As if it could be anything else with 2 kinds of ice creams, fudge brownies, Oreos, mousse, and sprinkles!

What a great summertime activity with the kids! Be prepared for a bit of a mess and have fun with it. Creating a cake using flavors your family will love is half the fun.

Suggestions for alternatives: Instead of brownies as a bottom layer, substitute with large chocolate chip cookie layer.

Substitute the crushed Oreos with your favorite cookie.

Enjoy!