The Homemade Ice Cream Cake That Rivals the Store-Bought Favorites

Well bakers, it's summertime so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show you how to make Dairy Queen's iconic ice cream cake. This is such a delicious recipe, favored by millions, and it is really easy and it's a fun recipe for the summertime and we are going to take, you know, some little shortcuts that are going to make it taste really good and really simple to make. So we're going to start out by preparing our springform pan. This is a 9-inch springform pan. We are going to lay two very big pieces of cling wrap into the pan because we need to be able to pull this out later with lots of overhang. You'll thank me later. Over to the side. So in the classic Dairy Queen cake, there is a layer of cookie crumbs in the middle. So here I have crushed Oreos. Now these Oreos are crushed with the filling and everything. You can do this in a bag, you can do it on a food processor, whatever you like. But having that creamy filling in there just makes it so much better. And we're going to mix this with a little bit of butter. Just mix until all the crumbs are coated in butter. And then pop it onto a baking tray. So now we're going to bake this and the reason we're going to do that rather than just put it into the cake like this is because this will actually get soft and kind of mushy if you don't bake it off in the cake. And then once you bake it, it has a lovely crunchy texture and it stays crunchy. So you get those lovely textures of the soft ice cream, the crunchy center, the whipped cream on top. So once they're on your pan, they are ready to go into the oven. Bake your crumbs at 350ºF, 180ºC for around 10 minutes, that's all they need. So here are our cookie crumbs, a little bit hot, but they toast up really nice and fast. And they do kind of clump together, which is kind of nice because you get that texture. So we can set this over to the side and let's start to build our cake. So now for this recipe, we're not getting fancy. I went to the grocery store like any other sane person and I picked up tubs of ice cream because that's how I roll now. I'm tired, I have a four-year-old and I have very little time to bake, but I do want to eat sweet things all the time. So this is it. So get a vanilla and a chocolate. Any of your favorites. And here's what we're going to do, we're going to put this into a bowl first, which might seem like a bit of a funny thing, why don't you just put it into the pan. The thing about it is, it has to be kind of mixed up a little bit beforehand to get all an even texture so it can smoothly go into the prepared pan. Not much. We don't want it to start melting on us. We just want it to get it where it's nice and soft and even. Just like that. So this looks good. I have my pan here. Because I had had this ice cream sitting out for around 20 minutes, it actually was the perfect texture to go into our pan. With a spatula, I'm just going to flatten it out, get it all the way into those corners because we want to get a lovely finished, you know, clean edges on our ice cream cake. And I see Ami left me a palette knife because she's saying, Gemma, use a palette knife, don't use a spatula. She won't tell her I did that. But a palette knife will get it all the way into the corners, and it will make sure that your layer is even. So now in America, nearly everybody knows Dairy Queen, and ice cream cakes is something that they specialize in. Lovely, there's our vanilla ice cream layer. Here we go with our Oreo crumbs, now that they've cooled down, sprinkle them all over the top, having the, you know, the creamy ice cream, and then the crunch of these crumbles will be really nice. Some of my favorite recipes, and yours actually, are when I do homemade versions of popular recipes. Like, I did Krispy Kremes, I did Dunkin' Donuts, I made a crumble cookie, we did Starbucks milkshakes years ago, Goldfish crackers, Ritz crackers, homemade graham crackers. Really fun recipes that now you can make at home. If you go to BiggerBolderBaking.com, you will find all of those and a lot more. Okay, lovely. Push that down with your hand. So the next step of the recipe is, you guessed it, fudge sauce. Look at that. Feel free to buy a good quality fudge sauce, or you can make your own at home, it's really easy. And if you're going to pick one, I would say Ghirardelli is a great brand, really good quality. And all we're gonna do is just drizzle this all over our cookie crumbs. Nice and even, and make sure you get all the way to the sides. We don't want anybody to be left out. I have to say, having a 5-year-old myself, this is a fantastic kid-friendly recipe. Not only is it easy for them to make, they will also love to eat it. Okay, so now we're gonna pop this into the freezer, we're gonna put it in there for 60 minutes before we build the next layer on top. So here we are, we're gonna do our next layer, just like before. My chocolate is nice and soft, I just like to give it a mix in the bowl first, just so I can get an even texture all over, and it'll also make it easy for me to spread. Lovely. I will tell you, when you're buying chocolate ice cream, look for chocolate ice cream with no chocolate chips, because that makes life a little bit harder. So just give it a bit of a mush around, break down any big lumps. Doesn't take long, we had our sitting out for around 15 minutes. So this looks good to me now, to go on top of our cake. And in it goes. Obviously, when you're doing this recipe, you move swiftly, make sure you move the chocolate ice cream all around, pushing it into that layer that is below, because we want them to adhere to each other, we don't want there to be any gaps between the layers. Give it one last little spread, and then I'm gonna get it back into the freezer. Beautiful. Now here's my last tip, bang it on the countertop, make all those layers settle in together, and like I said, so there's no gaps, no air bubbles. Lovely. Now, here's what we're gonna do, we don't want to get any freezer burn on our ice cream, so cover this up, so the ice cream is protected. Now your cake is pretty much almost there, so it goes back into the freezer for a minimum of 4 hours, I like to do it overnight actually, to make sure that it's really solid, and the beauty of this is that it can be made in advance, probably up to a week, just like this, and then when you need it, you take it out and you decorate it. So when your ice cream cake is frozen, it's going to be time to assemble soon, so this is the perfect moment while it's still in the freezer to make the whipped cream topping. So in my bowl I have a heavy whipping cream, something around 36% fat solids, really really high to get it lovely and thick. Into this I'm going to add in some powdered sugar for a little bit of sweetness. It also helps it freeze better, without the sugar you kind of just end up with like frozen cream, so this is much better. Now you can do this on a stand mixer, you can do it with an electric hand mixer, all you want to do is just whip them up together, until stiff peaks form, I will say stiff peaks when you're decorating a cake, you do want stiffer peaks than normal, if I was saying you were dolloping cream on top of a cake or whatever it is, it's different, we want a little bit stiffer for this, it'll make your life easier when it comes to decorating and piping. Okay, I'm going to stop here, you see the way that's nice and thick? That is the thickness that you want when you're decorating this cake. Okay so our cream is ready to go, I'm going to grab the ice cream cake and let the fun begin. So here is my lovely cake, ready to go, carefully pull back that cling wrap, it seems a bit hard, maybe give it a minute. So here I have a turntable, I find them really easy for decorating, they're not totally necessary but it does make life easier. Here's the thing, we built this cake upside down, what we want to do when it comes out, you can do whatever you want actually to be honest with you, but we're going to inverse it upside down onto the top. So vanilla becomes the top, chocolate becomes the bottom, and we do this so we end up with a lovely smooth surface on top, just like when you would a regular cake, to be able to decorate. Give it a little bit of a tidy up, the good thing about ice cream cake is that you don't flatten or cut off sides. What I'm going to do is decorate the tops and sides with the cream and then I'm going to save a little bit to be piped on after, so it looks just like the real thing. Don't think too much about this, go over the top, go down the sides, just like you would any cake, and I will say, don't get too fancy with it, you'd want to move fast and not spend too much time, because otherwise your cake will decide to start to melt. Lovely, I'm going to just tidy up the top and the sides, lovely, I mean seriously, look at it, it's an ice cream cake, who's not going to love that? The last thing I'm going to do is pipe some rosettes on the top of the cake, just to give it that iconic look, and then the piece de resistance, the iconic glass, or maraschino cherry on top of the rosettes, because you cannot have an ice cream cake without a maraschino cherry, George loves the ideas of these and he always wants them on top of his ice cream sundaes but he never eats it, he's more in love with the idea of it. And then a few just classic sprinkles on top. I'm going to pop this back into the freezer for a minimum of 30 minutes, let that cream harden, and then I'll let you see just how amazing it looks on the inside. This summer season, why not be that house on the block that makes the best ice cream cake? All your family and friends are going to love it, especially the kids. It can be made in advance, it is big enough to feed a crowd, and with your sprinkles and cherries on top, it looks amazing, and once you cut in, they really get to see the surprise on the inside. The chocolate, the cookie, the fudge sauce, the vanilla ice cream. Bring it to picnics, 4th of July parties, even up to Labor Day. You can enjoy this dessert all summer long. Some of my favorite things all in one bite. I really hope you enjoyed this video, if you want to see more summer recipes then get comfy, I've got hours of content for you to check out. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you back here again soon.