:: S’mores Ice Cream Cake ::
I whole-heartedly have had every intention of posting healthier recipes up on the blog {and I promise… I will!}; however, we did have a special birthday in our family last week. Ryan, my oldest son, turned nine. I’m still sort of in shock at how quickly my time with him has gone. In just nine more years… I’ll be sending this handsome boy off to college {sigh}. I’m literally holding onto him for as long as he lets me…
One of our traditions {dating back to when I was a child} is having the birthday person pick their favorite dinner and dessert. When I was growing up… I always picked savory crepes for dinner and deliciously sweet crepes for dessert. {Not your traditional birthday cake, but still to this day, my absolute favorite!} For Ry… it was his favorite restaurant for Chinese food and homemade S’mores Ice Cream Cake for dessert. In my opinion, there’s just no reason to purchase ice cream cakes. You can so easily make one yourself…. and I guarantee it will be so much more decadent and flavorful!
I had trouble finding a recipe that had all of the components I was looking for. For starters, some made everything from scratch… from the ice cream to the marshmallow whip that served as the topping {totally ambitious… but I’m sure worth it in taste}. Others used sweetened condensed milk in place of the ice cream {hmm…}. I decided to make things easier by purchasing the ice cream at the store. I used Dreyer’s S’mores flavor, and it was heavenly! To make the cake, I simply put a few ingredients in my food processor to create the graham cracker crust, layered on the creamy ice cream followed by chocolate ganache and then froze. Once ready, I topped the cake with a thick layer of mini marshmallows and broiled for approximately 1 minute until they were browned and all warm and gooey! Mmmm…. my mouth is watering all over again just describing it to you! Enjoy!
S'mores Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
Ingredients for Crust
- 16 whole graham crackers
- 1 cup whole roasted almonds {optional; lightly salted is fine}
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Chocolate Ganache
- 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips {I used Ghirardelli}
- I cup of heavy cream
Other Ingredients
- 1 1/2 quarts *ice cream softened until spreadable {I used Dreyer's S'mores flavor}
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- *Coffee Vanilla, Chocolate, or Rocky Road ice cream would also make for a good substitute!
Instructions
To Prepare the Crust
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Finely grind graham crackers, almonds, and 3 tablespoons sugar in food processor. Add 1/2 cup melted butter; process mixture until moist crumbs form. Press the graham cracker mixture onto bottom and up sides of a 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Bake crust until edges are golden, about 12 minutes. Cool graham cracker crust completely.
To Prepare the Chocolate Ganache
- Cook the chocolate chips and heavy cream, in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
To Assemble the Cake
- Spread 1 to 1 1/2 quarts of softened ice cream onto cooled crust. Spoon 1 1/2 cups of cooled Chocolate Ganache sauce over the ice cream layer. Cover and freeze cake for approximately 5-6 hours or overnight.
Just Before Serving
- Preheat oven broiler {on high}. Pull the ice cream cake out of the freezer and let sit for about 10 minutes to soften slightly. Then, place cake on baking sheet and cover the top of the Chocolate Ganache layer with the miniature marshmallows. Place in the oven and broil just until marshmallows are lightly browned {watching closely to avoid burning, about 1 minute}. Run knife between pan sides and cake to loosen. Remove pan sides. Cut cake into wedges. Serve cake immediately.
Notes
