Although it has only been four days since my last post, I feel like its been weeks.  It has been an incredibly busy week for me and, as per usual, I’m using blogging as a way to procrastinate from schoolwork, namely my art history midterm tomorrow morning.  While I’ve had a jam packed schedule, I’ve gotten to do some AMAZING things this week.  I don’t usually plug all my other blogs here, but if you go to the blog I made for my multimedia class, you can see a photo essay on my adventures going up in a Cessna-172 at the Rockcliffe Flying Club.  SO COOL AND SCARY.  That was one journalism adventure (a second was filming a flash mob, but that’s another story…).  Another wonderful thing that happened this week was meeting with Shakira, the co-owner/baker of Little Cakes. She drove in all the way from Stittsville to feed me cupcakes (and six of them with that!) so that I could judge them as part of my search for Ottawa’s perfect cupcake on the Local Tourist Ottawa blog.  You can check out that review this Monday :).

Alright, made it through hyperlink central?  Good.  Now on to the actual post…

This was by far the second most awesome cake I’ve ever made, losing out only to the pool party cake I made in the summer (it is my ultimate challenge to make a cake more impressive than that).  It all started when I was bored in class last week thinking about how much I was craving birthday cake.  From this boredom sprung the insane idea to make my very own ice cream cake.  Grabbing a piece of paper, I quickly sketched out the cake diagram you see below, detailing my plans for each intricate iced layer.  Some people doodle their name in multi-coloured ink, I doodle cakes.

Now you need to understand that I very rarely know what I’m doing.  Making this cake was no exception to this rule, and I figured I ought to do some research on said cake type before attempting to smush together dairy in a disastrous way.  I decided to make the cake in my beloved spring form pan, so I wouldn’t have to experience any sort of removal-from-pan challenges.  I lined it with plastic wrap and just sort of went from there.  My recipe can be found below the gadgillions of pictures, but in the meantime, let me break down the anatomy of this cake for you:

Layer 1: Chopped brownie
Layer 2: Strawberry ice cream
Layer 3: A homemade fudge thing, basically oreo crumbs and white chocolate chips mixed with chocolate sauce
Layer 4: Vanilla ice cream
Layer 5: Whipped cream

Now, since I’m speculating that many of you have never made an ice cream cake before, let me warn you that it is a time consuming process.  In preparation for our house Valentine’s Day party on Sunday night, I started making this cake on Friday.  Albeit it was so that I could take my sweet sluggish time making it, each layer does need to be frozen solid before you add the next.  For those of you hoping to make this cake in one day, it means that you’re going to have to wake up pretty damn early, unless you have some sort of state-of-the-art instant free liquid nitrogen machine.

The cake turned out awesome and I’m so proud I can finally check this one off my foodie bucket list.  It was a hit with the roommates and was the first of THREE dessert courses we had for dinner that night.  By the end I didn’t know whether to jump around in a sugar buzz euphoria or fall down in a food coma.  It turns out that latter won.

Recipe: Homemade ice cream cake
– 2 1/2 cup cubed brownies
– 2 cup strawberry ice cream, softened
–  1 1/2 cup oreo cookie crumbs
– 1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
– 1 cup chocolate sauce
– 2 cup vanilla ice cream
– 3/4 cup whipping cream
– 1/4 cup sugar

Line the base and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with plastic wrap.

Chop brownies into cubes and press into the bottom of pan.  Freeze for 1 hour.

Scoop softened strawberry ice cream onto the brownie layer, pressing it down with a spatula. Smooth top.  Freeze for 2 hours.

For the fudge layer, mix oreo cookie crumbs and white chocolate chips together in a bowl.  Add chocolate sauce and stir until the mixture is an even consistency.  Carefully spread the fudge over the strawberry layer and smooth top.  Freeze for 2 hours.

Just as with the strawberry ice cream, scoop softened vanilla ice cream onto the cake and smooth with spatula (you should be near the top of your spring form pan now).  Freeze for 2 hours.

Whip cream with sugar and spread on top of the vanilla ice cream layer. Freeze for 1 hour.

Add strawberries, fresh whip cream, sprinkles or whatever you want on top of the finished cake!  Unlike Dairy Queen ice cream cakes, you don’t really need to let the cake soften before cutting in, so freeze until serving time.  Serves 8-12, based on slice size.