Layered ice cream cake

When I heard that AMC Cookware added a 16 cm Baking tin to the existing 24 cm and 20 cm versions in the range, I knew it would be perfect for many exciting baking ideas. And it’s really cute too – if a baking tin can be cute!
AMC’s baking tins are my favourite! The sturdy tins are manufactured from the same quality stainless steel as the cookware and will not buckle from the heat. They (obviously) bake really well and the satin finish makes cleaning them easy too. The AMC Baking tins are so well-priced and great value for money. Apart from baking an endless range of cakes in these, the stainless steel makes them great for frozen desserts, like the one in this blog.
Fun in the kitchen
My children and I have made ice cream cakes for Christmas dessert for the past few years. It’s a great way to have lots of fun in the kitchen with them and they love all the many bowls to lick. It has also been my son’s choice of birthday cake for three years in a row. Every time we make it, we experiment with a different combination of ingredients to season the ice cream with, but the basic concept stays the same. And the best part? Everyone at the table is always impressed with the dessert, tucks in with huge enthusiasm and assumes that it took a lot of hard work. As they say, it’s not about how hard you work, but how clever you can work.
Festive celebrations made easy
With the addition of the new 16 cm AMC Baking tin, I decided that the best way to showcase the versatility is to bake and freeze in them in one recipe. So, for this festive ice cream cake, layers of butter cake and ice cream are stacked and frozen into an impressive cake. The filling options will depend on what you and your family enjoy. Just take into consideration that ingredients like fresh berries or nougat may sound like a good idea to add to the ice cream, but once frozen they become rock hard. You could end up at the dentist with a broken tooth – not what you want during the festive weeks!
You can decide if you want to make one or two layers of cake and ice cream, just plan and prepare the ingredients accordingly. Great elements to flavour the ice cream with are chocolate chips, cookie chunks, strawberry or other berry pulp, any nuts, dried or glacé fruit. The ginger biscuits can be substituted with a homemade sweet granola or even crushed lemon cream cookies. It may look like a very lengthy recipe, but it’s just repeating the steps for each cake to make it even simpler to follow. And as always, I try to add some practical tips to make things even easier in the kitchen, with some flavour suggestions and more ways with chocolate decorations. Remember that the cake can be made a week or two in advance – another reason why I happily offer to bring this for dessert. I hope you will add this to your festive repertoire this year.
Recipe
Layered ice cream cake
A festive dessert that will have everyone thinking you spent hours in the kitchen and yet, it’s quite easy to make. This ice cream cake can be made well in advance, as it can remain frozen for a week or more. Prepare your favourite double-layer cake recipe batter and bake two-thirds in a 24 cm AMC Baking tin and the rest in a 16 cm AMC Baking tin. Once cooled, the cake is used in between layers of vanilla ice cream, zooped-up with your favourite festive ingredients. Then: freeze, turn out, garnish and enjoy!
Serves 25-30 slices
Ingredients
1 x 24 cm butter cake, baked and cooled down
1 x 16 cm butter cake, baked and cooled down
2 x 24 cm AMC Domes, placed in the freezer for 30 minutes to be well chilled (see tips)
Nut & strawberry filling
1 litre vanilla ice cream
250 ml (1 cup) chopped macadamia nuts
300 g strawberries, blended to a pulp
3-4 (about 25 g) ginger biscuits, crushed (see tips)
Chocolate & dried fruit filling
2 litres vanilla ice cream
180-250 ml (¾ -1 cup) dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
180-250 ml (¾ -1 cup) dried cranberries
180-250 ml (¾ -1 cup) thinly sliced dried Turkish apricots
6-8 (about 75 g) ginger biscuits, crushed
Garnish
fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
edible flowers of your choice
chocolate ‘brush-strokes’ (see tips)
Method
1. Use the base of each baking tin as a big cookie cutter and place on top of the corresponding size baked cake. Trim a thin layer off the sides of each cake, with a small serrated knife, so that it will easily fit into the baking tin again, without leaving too much space between the cake and the side of the tin.
2. Now cut each cake horizontally in half, in two even layers. The AMC Edge Bread knife’s long serrated blade is perfect for this step.
3. Once the cakes are trimmed, pick the best-looking layer for the base of your ice cream cake as it will be on top, once turned out. Place this cake layer back into each of the baking tins.
4. Nut filling: spoon ice cream into a chilled AMC Dome and stir gently to soften a bit. Carefully mix macadamia nuts into ice cream.
5. Drizzle 125-150 ml of the strawberry pulp over ice cream and gently swirl into the ice cream with a spoon or skewer, just to create a marble effect – don’t mix it in completely.
6. Spread half of this ice cream mixture onto the 16 cm cake base. Sprinkle ginger biscuits in an even layer on top, spreading it right to the edges as it will be visible once the cake is turned out.
7. Spoon the rest of the ice cream mixture on top and cover with the second cake layer. Cover the cake with cling wrap and freeze overnight.
8. Chocolate filling: spoon ice cream into the other chilled Dome and stir to soften slightly. Add chocolate and dried fruit and mix through quickly, so that the ice cream doesn’t melt too much.
9. Spoon half of this mixture onto the 24 cm cake layer and spread evenly. Top with ginger biscuits and spread the rest of the ice cream on top. Finish off with a cake layer. Cover the cake with cling wrap and freeze overnight.
10. To turn out the ice cream cakes: dip a butter or palette knife into hot water to heat slightly. Wipe with a clean cloth and run it between the cake and inside of each baking tin, to loosen the cake, without melting the ice cream.
11. Turn the 24 cm cake onto a large well-chilled serving plate and wipe tin with a cloth, rinsed in hot water, if the cake doesn’t turn out immediately. Then turn the small cake out and place on top.
12. Garnish with fresh berries, edible flowers and chocolate. Serve immediately with any remaining strawberry pulp as a sauce. Use an AMC Edge Chef’s knife to cut through the frozen layers to serve.
Tips
1. Chilling the AMC Domes in the freezer beforehand helps to prevent the ice cream from melting too quickly. Keep the ice cream frozen until you are ready to add the flavouring elements and build the layers one by one.
2. Place ginger biscuits in a strong plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin or pulse them in a food processor to small chunks.
3. Use your choice of nuts, dried or even glacé fruit in the ice cream filling. Just remember that fresh berries freeze very hard and can become difficult to eat. Ingredients like toffee or nougat are also too hard once frozen.
4. Be creative and make a chocolate, banana or lemon poppy seed cake as the base.
5. Chocolate ‘brush-strokes’: Spoon melted dark chocolate onto baking paper and with the back of the spoon or silicone spatula, spread the melted chocolate to the one side in a brush-like motion. Allow to set and handle carefully once removed from the paper.
6. Instead of making chocolate brush-strokes, melted dark chocolate can be drizzled over the top of the cake as garnish. Alternatively, grate or shave dark chocolate on top.