I have been asked to make an ice cream cake. They look pretty simple, layer of cake, ice cream, cake. I can handle that part. What about decorations? I found the cake central article on ice cream cakes

http://cakecentral.com/articles/67/how-make-an-ice-cream-cake

which says to frost with whipped topping. I imagine I will have to keep putting the cake back in the freezer while decorating to make sure the ice cream stays firm.

Any suggestions on frosting an ice cream cake? What kind of decorations will holdup to freezing and thawing?

Also, how long before serving should the cake be taken out of the freezer for the best serving results?

Any suggestions welcome! TIA

Are there no ice cream cake makers out there?

I made two last month for my son. Ofcourse I didn't do ANY research and I discovered that it was extremely difficult to buttercream! It was driving me crazy. It took me three separate steps to buttercream then freeze them butterccream then freeze and so on. Next time I'd try coolwhip
I made a thin cake in a 10" round. Froze it. Then put it in a plastic wrapped spring form pan. Ontop of that I spread fudge them on top of that I spread melted ice-cream. Then froze that whole thing ovenight. The next day I buttercreamed it and found that buttercream just wanted to slide on top of the ice-cream I took it out of freezer about 10 min before I was ready to serve. You can check my photos to see the finished product. It's the Barney cake.

That may have been more than you asked for but HTH

Thanks for the reply. I think I will try the whipped topping and I was also thinking a frozen buttercream transfer for a design. I will also make sure to make an ice cream sandwich with the cake. I'm just worried about the cake/topping having time to thaw before the ice cream melts. I guess I'll just have to make a practice one and see what happens.