Homemade Ice Cream Cake

Now that Summer is here in all of its glory, I find myself looking for anything to cool me down.  In my family pretty much all of our birthdays fall from the end of May through the beginning of August, so that equals a lot of birthday cake.  My parents both celebrated their birthdays recently and since I was on cake duty I wanted to do something different and "cool."  Enter the ice cream cake.  Its the best of both worlds... cake, but in ice cream form.  I browsed around for a few ideas from different recipes and then I put together what would work best for my family.  The great thing about ice cream cake is that they are totally customizable to what you like.  For my dad's birthday I went with a Reese's Pieces Ice Cream Cake and for my mom's we had a Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake.


Reese's Pieces Ice Cream Cake

what you need

1 carton Vanilla Bean ice cream (I used Breyer's)
1 container Cool Whip (I used fat free)
1 oreo pie crust
Assorted Candy (Reese's Pieces, Mini Chocolate Chips, Oreo crumbles, Mini Reese's Cups)
Chocolate Syrup

how to make it

Crumble Oreo pie crust into bottom of a spring form pan and press it down firmly to make the crust of the cake.  If you have difficulty getting it to hold together add some melted butter.

Mix softened ice cream and cool whip together until throughly incorporated.  

Layer half of the ice cream, cool whip mixture on top of the Oreo crust.

Top ice cream with assorted candies (I left out the Reese's Cups and used them only on top) and drizzle with chocolate syrup.  I will use melted chocolate next time, but use whatever you like best.

Layer the remaining ice cream mixture on top of the candies and cover with remaining candy pieces, this time adding Reese's Cups.  

Place in the freezer for a minimum of 4 hours, but overnight works much better.  I covered the top and bottom of my spring form pan with aluminum foil to fight off freezer burn. 

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake

what you need

1 carton Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream (I used the Food Lion brand)
1 container Cool Whip (Fat Free)
1 graham cracker pie crust
1/2 quart fresh strawberries

how to make it

You follow the same basic process for this cake.  The only difference is that instead of placing candy between the two ice cream layers you will layer fresh strawberries.  I also sprinkled some extra graham cracker crumbles on the top for decoration.  The final result was pretty amazing!