Ice Cream Cake (peanut free)

If you have a child with a nut allergy, it pretty well eliminates purchasing an ice cream cake for their birthday. At least around here, DQ and Carvel carry a risk. Here is an easy way to make your own. You'll need several hours but the labor is easy, it's mostly time in the freezer. I decorated this one while it was in the freezer since the Turkey Hill ice cream was melting fast. The flavors were great though--Homemade Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate.

Supplies:

offset knife or flat spatula
spring form pan
spatula
two 1/2 gallons of ice cream (I prefer vanilla and chocolate)
8 oz (or more to taste) Nabisco chocolate grahams (Teddy Grahams or just regular small graham crackers that give you more and are cheaper are fine, too. I imagine you could use Vanilla Wafers for a child who doesn't like chocolate but check for a nut risk)
Magic Shell (can eliminate for a non-chocolate lover)
Cool Whip (2-3 containers, regular size)
optional but nice--piping equipment, even just a bag and a coupler without a tip can look good, but I used a large star tip

Many of today's ice creams have gums (like tara) which keep the ice cream from hardening. If your product isn't rock solid, no need to set it out while you pop the spring form pan in the freezer. Otherwise, while your pan is getting chilled, take out the ice cream to soften on the counter.

How to:
Place spring form pan in the freezer for at least 15 minutes. I put it in and go do lots of other things. Pull it out and spread vanilla ice cream on bottom and up the sides of the pan. Return to freezer for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, put chocolate grahams in a food processor and process until pretty small but not dust. Use a rolling pin/bag if you don't have a food processor.

Take pan out of freezer and cover vanilla ice cream layer to your desired thickness of crushed crackers. Drizzle Magic Shell over the crackers. NOTE-some recipes tell you to completely mix Magic Shell with the cookies, but be prepared to crack a tooth and need a chain saw to cut through the cake unless you go VERY THIN with this layer.

Return to freezer for 30 minutes or until very firm. Take out and cover with chocolate ice cream, about 1/2 the container. Top with more crushed grahams and Magic Shell if you prefer, or just do grahams here and pop back in freezer for 30 minutes.

Take out and cover with vanilla ice cream, you should use the rest of the 1/2 gallon of vanilla. You can stop here with the layers for now. Put in freezer for an hour. You want this to all really harden up together.

Get a plate big enough for your cake, run warm water over outside edge of pan carefully or take a hot sponge around the edge to help it release. Once you've released the cake, flip it over on to a plate and carefully take off the bottom. An offset knife works well here or any long, thin, evenly graded spatula. Work fast so it doesn't melt too much.

Return to freezer for 30 minutes.

Here you have some flex--you can cover the entire cake with Magic Shell if you are worried about melting, but realize you'll have to use a chop stick to boar little holes for candles if this is a birthday cake. You could do a lattice type design with Magic Shell, or you can just cover completely with Cool Whip and smooth it out. Let this freeze again, and then pipe a nice design on the top. You can use colored non-pariels and sprinkles for a pretty finish.

NOTE-I do not recommend using a full gallon of ice cream, it is really thick and kind of difficult to work with when it comes time to cut and eat. We like it with one and a half gallons more. I used only one container of Cool Whip and was wanting...it really freezes up nicely to mimic whatever Carvel and DQ have on top of their cakes.

*You can put icing as a layer inside the cake as well, just spread on to frozen graham/Magic Shell layer.

Please comment with questions. I know I don't write recipes like a pro!