My Semi-Homemade Ice Cream Cake

I made this ice cream cake at home but to simply call it homemade suggests that I created it from scratch.  Instead, I fashioned together a bunch of store made products that resulted in a delicious and inexpensive birthday/Father's Day cake for my husband.  I usually buy him a cake every year for his birthday which falls on or around Father's day.  I don't like the cakes from Dairy Queen because they have no cake and the only place I know of that combines real cake and ice cream is Brusters which 1) is too far away, 2) doesn't taste that great, and 3) costs too much.  So for about $10, I made my own ice cream cake for my family of five to enjoy.  Realistically, it would probably feed ten times that many people.

This WAS my first rodeo, but I think I would do everything the same.

Step 1:  Purchase materials necessary to construct the cake.

I used two boxes of yellow cake mix, three tubs of chocolate buttercream icing, one half gallon box of chocolate ice cream, and a 12x2 pan.  [Consider yourself warned: do not make a cake of this size if you do not have either a deep freezer or a LOT of room in a regular freezer.]

Step 2:  Bake both layers according to the box instructions and allow to cool completely.  The 12x2 cake bakes for 35 minutes.

Step 3:  At some point after you have allowed both layers to cook, take the ice cream out of the freezer to allow it to soften.  Line the pan in which you baked the cakes with clear plastic (aka Saran) wrap.

Step 4:  Once it has softened, spread the ice cream into the pan and put it back in the freezer to harden.  Be patient, it will be there for awhile.  When it is ready, it will look a little something like this:

Not the most appetizing sight in the world, but don't let that deceive you.

Step 5:  While your ice cream is reconstituting itself as ice cream in the freezer, go ahead and apply icing to the bottom layer of the cake.  (In ice cream cake version 2.0, I would go ahead and ice the sides of the bottom layer at this point.)  Don't ice the top layer, lest you want a mess on your hands.

Step 6:  This can get a little messy so be careful.  Pull the ice cream layer out of the pan.  Carefully peel the plastic wrap off the sides, just enough to make sure that no plastic wrap is stuck to the top of the ice cream layer.  Flip it upside down so that the top of the ice cream layer is situated evenly on the bottom layer of your cake.  Immediately arrange the top layer of cake in top of the ice cream layer.  Since the ice cream layer has probably melted a little, put the cake back in the freezer.

Step 7:  Cover the entire cake in icinv.  I iced my cake while it sat in the freezer and did it a little at a time. 

Step 8:  Slice it up and enjoy your handiwork.