Ice Cream Cake

Today's dessert is so simple to make that I feel silly posting a recipe for it. But it tasted amazing, so I felt I should share it here just so I remember to make it in the future. So if you are curious to know what it is, then let me tell you that it's nothing but softened ice cream with candy, cookies and nuts mixed in. 

I made this ice cream cake to serve the kids at our BBQ party last weekend. As I was looking for recipes, I found Nigella Lawson's ice cream cake and I loved the idea of mixing crunchy and chewy mix-ins into good old vanilla ice cream. Come to think of it, vanilla ice cream is like a blank canvas that can be flavored with just about anything.

Nigella serves her ice cream cake with warm chocolate or butterscotch syrups, but I was too lazy to make either. So I kept it simple with just the ice cream and I put a layer of chocolate cake in the bottom for some change of texture. All in all, this is a super simple dish that takes about 10 minutes hands on time, but it is going to be loved and enjoyed by all. Also it is very customizable, so feel free to swap the ingredients with whatever you have on hand or whatever crunchy stuff you fancy. Enjoy before it melts!!

Ingredients: For a 8½"x4½" loaf pan
Chocolate/ Vanilla Cake - 3~4 slices to fit the loaf pan
Vanilla Ice cream - 3~4 cups, softened (check out my vanilla ice cream recipes here, here and here)
Bourbon Biscuits - 3~4, roughly chopped
Twix Bars - 2, coarsely chopped
Toasted sliced Almonds - ¼cup
Oreo cookies - 4~6, chopped

Method:

• Combine the softened ice cream with the other ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well to combine everything.
• Line the loaf pan with a plastic wrap. Make sure that there is extra hanging over the ends to make removing of the cake out of the pan easy.
• Layer the bottom of the pan with the cake slices, slightly overlapping. 
• Pour in the ice cream mixture into the prepared pan. Cover with the overhang plastic wrap and freeze until ready to serve.