Time For a Party
This year marks a whopping FIFTEEN for our youngest daughter. Rudy, named after my mountain man's dad, is our spunky little baby of the family, and always keeps us all hopping. She likes to rule and reign and run the show...but then again, don't all babies?
It's been several years since this poor pitiful child has had an actual birthday party. Bless it. Being a spring break baby always seems to hinder party throwing, so this year we caved.
Rudy's cake request was an ice cream cake. Well THAT sounds delicious, but had I ever maaaaaade an ice cream cake before? Exactly. I will admit, it was an adventure, but oh so oh so yummy and worth every dribble of ice cream and RED CAKE crumbs that hit the floor. Definitely on the repeat list.
To begin, I scoured the internet reading up on any tips or tricks that might save me alot of misery. It's a pretty basic recipe/procedure - you just soften your ice cream and layer it in between cake and or crumbled cookies, candy, etc. We chose to keep it pretty classic and just do vanilla ice cream layered with red velvet cake. Instead of smothering the outside with cool whip, I went ahead and made a double batch of our favorite 'flour icing.' I think it's pretty safe to say, you need this in your life very soon.
WHAT YOU NEED:
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (or your favorite)
Prepared cake of your liking
We baked ours in a sheet pan and cut into 3 strips- which fit our double loaf/bread pan that we would serve the cake up in perfectly. Slice your cake to fit into what ever shape or cake panyou'd like your cake to be served in - it is VERY forgiving - if a piece breaks off, just moosh it back in- the ice cream will cover all boo boo's.
Icing or Cool Whip (to cover the outside of the cake)
I did all of this the day of the party so I lined the inside of my baking pan with clear wrap, spread icing on it, inside the pan mind you, then layered up the 'insides' and finished the 'bottom' with the remaining icing - because since it's in a pan, it will be flipped out when it's time to serve. If you did this a day ahead, like a smart person, you would need to line your pan with clear wrap,layer your cake and ice cream and place in the freezer. A few hours before serving, you would set the cake out for a few minutes and revert pan onto your serving dish and THEN spread the outside with icing or cool whip at this time. That would be much simpler.
Either way works fine, but the latter would have had a smoother, prettier look to it if I had done it this way. Oh, and did I mention probably easier?
WHAT TO DO:
Set ice cream out to soften just a bit. Line a pan with clear wrap (or you could use most any smooth bottom box or container and get creative with the shape). Lay clear wrap in the pan so that it comes all the way up the sides with extra hanging out. Then lay more wrap the opposite direction to get really good coverage and to keep any from oozing out. The deeper the pan, the more layers you can create. Begin the layering process - and there's no right or wrong here - I began with cake, then ice cream, cake, then ice cream and topped it off with one final layer of cake.
Place it back into the freezer for 6-8 hours or overnight -especially if you have lots of layers. If you did not ice the inside of your pan before layering, set the cake out for a few minutes, flip over onto your serving dish and coat with your favorite icing, drizzle with chocolate, or slather with Cool Whip. The sky is the limit! The sky is the limit with how you want to decorate this puppy.
This cake fed about 30 mouths with generous serving sizes.
On a side note, I've recently fallen in love...IN LOVE I tell you, with paper banners for cakes and such. I also want to dive into custom illustrated bride and groom toppers, so if you're getting married, hit me up!
Aaannd, seriously. I am loving those things!
So I got jiggy and whipped one up for this festive cake, and now it's draped across the birthday girls tv as a cute little momento. Classic.
The party was great fun and Rudy's sisters were amaaazing chaperones - can't you tell how happy they were?
Happy Birthday to our Rudy Patooty Fresh and Fruity little redhead!
ENJOY!
