My son 30 year old son  wants an ice cream cake for his birthday.  I've never tried making one, so am at a loss as to what to do.  Can you fellow bakers give me an idea of where to start?  His birthday is October 28th.  He wants homemade strawberry ice cream.  I'm going to make FromScratch's vanilla cake as the cake, but I really don't know where to start or what to do, as I've never made an ice cream cake before.  He's thinking of the ice cream cakes like we use to get from Baskin Robbins, and I'm at a total loss as to where to even begin.  It's been so long since I've even had an ice cream cake I don't even remember what they're like!  I can't even remember if they're frosted or not!  So I'm asking the experts on my favorite computer site to help me out.  I'm sure someone out there must know what to do.  Please help!!!!

When I make ice cream cakes, I make my cake layers as usual, then I use the same pan I made my layers with, line it with plastic wrap, and put the ice cream into the pan, pushing it around until its even and flat on top.  Cover with more wrap, freeze until solid.  When ready to assemble, just layer the ice cream between the cake layers, and they'll all be the same size.

I frost my ice cream cakes, and you can do it with really anything.  Most frostings hold up to freezing (you can search on teh forum for "freezing frosting" and you'll get lots of info), and when you take the cake out of the freezer for the party, by the time you serve it, the frosting would be thawed enough to cut through and eat.

Enjoy and have fun!

Thanks for the info.  I'll give it a try.  

I've always wanted to make one!  I would bake a single layer of cake, torte it, place one round in the bottom of the same pan that has been lined with plastic wrap, spread 2" of  softened ice cream on top and the top with final layer, wrap it well and freeze hard.  When it is rock hard frozen I would frost and decorate quickly and back to the freezer until serving time.

I had one person, not on Cake Central, suggest that after baking the cake, torte it, as Pastrybaglady suggested, place the bottom layer in a springform pan, place the ice cream layer on top, of it, then the next cake layer, and freeze it in the springform pan.  Then just before serving, you just release the spring like you would any other dessert served from a springform pan.  I think that might work, but only if I didn't want to frost the cake.  Has anyone else heard of that?

You could, but you'd have to make sure your ice cream was pretty soft so you don't smooth your cake when you spread it out.  If you make the ice cream later separately, you can still layer the cake and ice cream in the pan once the ice cream is set up, and you don't have to get your ice cream as soft or take the chance you'll smooth the bottom cake.

Ah good point about smooshed cake Brookbakescake.  It might be easier if you freeze the bottom cake layer first, soften the ice cream , and then smooth over the bottom frozen layer.

I recommend baking and freezing a 2" high layer of cake.  Then, using the same pan, line it with plastic wrap and do as Gerle mentioned above:  let the ice cream soften slightly, then smoosh in the plastic wrap-lined pan and flatten out with your hands.

Most ice cream shops use something like Pastry Pride to "frost" the cakes.  For the bold colors, they use regular buttercream in addition to the Pastry Pride. 

Put the ice cream layer on the bottom, scrunch some chocolate cookies (like Oreos with the filling removed) or vanilla sandwich cookies (with the filling removed) and sprinkle in the middle.  Put on the cake layer.  Frost with Pastry Pride or stabilized whip cream.  If you want bold color highlights, use buttercream accents.   Don't cover the whole thing in buttercream or it will taste like frozen shortening.

When I make ice cream cake I do not use any real cake. I line a pan with plastic wrap smooch in the first flavor of ice cream add a cookie crumb layer then another the flavor. Freeze it hard . Dump it out  frost it with what ever you like, and decorate. I don't do anything elaborate. Most ice cream shops do not use a layer of cake. here is some inspiration it is not frosted though: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/07/hot-fudge-sundae-cake/

That sounds and looks interesting, but my son wants homemade strawberry ice cream, and me....don't know why, but I've never been a big fan of chocolate.  I don't like chocolate cake, ice cream, cookies, syrup, etc.  I do  make it for  my family because they like it, but I don't eat it.  I'll save that recipe for a future celebration.  I've never heard of an ice cream cake without cake in it, though.  I can run it past him and see what he thinks.  It's his birthday so it's his choice.

I won't comment on people who don't like chocolate LOL. But you could make this with what ever flavors you like. Strawberry and vanilla would be nice you could use crumbled shortbread cookies instead of chocolate cookie crumbs and maybe strawberry syrup on top or just whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I once made this with toasted almond ice-cream instead of vanilla and a crushed Amaretti cookies in the center.( I never make home made ice cream)

I know, people think I'm crazy because I'm not a chocolate lover.  I don't know what it is about chocolate, and I know people think I'm weird because I don't much care for it, but it's just not a flavor that I've every really liked.  Now I don't mind a german chocolate cake with the coconut icing on it, but other chocolates I just don't care for, especially dark chocolate!  I'll eat an almond joy candy bar or a snickers, but leave most other candy bars alone.  I'm weird, I'll admit it!  But CTgardner, your combo sounds absolutely divine!  And homemade ice cream is to die for!  It is the absolute best!  My family can't get enough of it.

Gerle, I am completely with you on the chocolate thing.  Sad thing isn't, I didn't realize I didn't like chocolate until a few years ago. I think I always just ate anything that was put in front of me, but then I realized i really didn't like the stuff.

i know some shops don't put cake in their ice cream cakes, but that's exactly why I don't order from them.  I want cake with my ice cream :)

I made ice cream once and the recipe was condensed milk and whipped cream (plus any flavourings you want to add). It was really easy and really yummy. I have never seen an ice cream cake with actual cake in it - the only ones I have seen are purely made from ice cream so you could do either with or without and it would still be an icecream cake. If you are going to spread softened ice cream onto cake I would definitely do it when the cake was frozen - it will save you a lot of headache :-)

Brookebakescake, I know what you mean, cake and ice cream is meant to be together.  I haven't heard from my son yet so I'm not sure what direction I'm going to go in yet, but I've had some good ideas presented here.  Will have to see what he wants to do since it's his birthday.  But at some point in time, I'm probably going to try both ways - with and without cake.  Then the family can decide which way they like best for future celebrations.  Although, knowing my family, we'll probably have it both ways from time to time.  I do know it will always be made with homemade ice cream because that's my family's favorite.  They've gotten spoiled by homemade ice cream!  Store bought just can't beat homemade!  And we still have the very old fashioned crank style ice cream maker by White Mountain.  We have two models, one is the VERY old fashioned hand crank model, and one is an electric model.  I do tend to use the electric model more often, but have used both when we're making two flavors of ice cream at one time.  We use to tell the kids that if they wanted ice cream, they had to take their turn at cranking or no ice cream....we'd have kids lined up to take their turn so they could have ice cream!  That was one way to get it cranked!  And they always waited around to get to take spoonfuls of ice cream off the dasher when it first came out of the canister when it was finished before it was set aside to "harden".  The kids use to think that was fun and loved to have the ice cream freshly churned.

I've never seen an ice cream recipe made with just condensed milk and whipped cream.  That seems so easy.  Every recipe I've ever made also calls for eggs and sugar.  That would be interesting to see.

I make single-serve ice cream at night just for myself.  Cream and sugar and vanilla in a small ziploc.  Put that in a large ziploc with ice and salt.  Shake until it's frozen!! It's so good!!

I've never heard of that!  But what an idea!  Could be my downfall.  I love ice cream and if I had that recipe I'd probably eat too much ice cream!  But if I could learn control.....what an idea for a last minute quick dessert!

Basken Robbins carvel and friendly all do the  crunch layer and then the ice cream there is  no cake at all on it 

Really?  It's been so long since I've had a Baskin Robbins cake I really don't remember what they taste like, let alone what they look like.  That's interesting to know.  It does make it a lot easier to make......