Homemade Ice Cream Cake

Homemade Ice Cream Cake! It’s layered with a super-easy, made-from-scratch chocolate cake, rich fudge sauce, your choice of luscious store-bought ice cream, and it’s finished with a final layer of fluffy, sweetened whipped cream.

The BEST Ice Cream Cake!

This is truly one of the ultimate celebration cakes! You get four layers of distinctive decadence in each slice of cake.

And with its combination of homemade layers and store-bought layers, it’s simple enough yet perfectly impressive enough. The cake and whipped cream frosting are made fresh, while the ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce are store-bought to save time. (Or try my favorite homemade hot fudge!)

I don’t really care to admit how many slices I was able to polish off within a week. Let’s just say this homemade ice cream cake is dangerously delicious!

The chocolate cake is perfectly fudgy (something between brownie and cake texture), and you wouldn’t believe how easy the batter is to make. It was inspired by my Easy Chocolate Cake, but I adjusted it for a slightly smaller size and swapped buttermilk for sour cream so it wouldn’t freeze icy.

I recommend making the cake a day in advance so it has plenty of time to firm up completely in the freezer before serving.

Spoil yourself this weekend with this chocolate ice cream cake; no need to wait for a birthday to make something this tempting!

Ice Cream Cake Recipe Ingredients

• 1 cup (129g) unbleached all-purpose flour (spoon and level to measure)
• 7/8 cup (175g) granulated sugar, plus 3 Tbsp
• 1/3 cup (30g) Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (170g) sour cream
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract, plus 1 tsp
• 1 (10 oz) jar thick fudge sauce
• 48 oz. Strawberry ice cream or cookies and cream ice cream
• 2 cups heavy cream

How to Make an Ice Cream Cake

Scroll down for full recipe instructions with print option.

1. Line a springform pan with foil and grease, and preheat the oven. You can also wrap a wet cake strip around the pan if you want a perfectly level cake. You can use an 8-inch cake pan, but it’s easier with a springform.
2. Whisk the dry ingredients for the cake. Add wet ingredients, then mix.
3. Pour into prepared pan and bake until set. Let cool completely.
4. Spread fudge sauce over and freeze.
5. Spoon then spread and press slightly softened ice cream over the top and freeze. Cover with plastic wrap if you’re worried about it being dented.
6. Remove cake from pan.
7. Make sweetened whipped cream and spread it over the cake. (I like to use an offset spatula for this!)
8. Garnish with sprinkles, hot fudge sauce, Oreo cookie crumbs, or chopped chocolate and freeze until firm.
9. Cut into slices with a sharp knife and serve quickly so it doesn’t melt.

Types of Ice Cream to Use

My favorite ice cream flavors to use here are cookies and cream or strawberry. But don’t let that stop you from trying different flavors of ice cream! Other great ice cream flavor choices would be mint chocolate chip, cookie dough, chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, cherry, coffee, cheesecake, pistachio, or a good vanilla ice cream with vanilla bean.

Then another variation here is to spread the whipped cream over the top and sides of the cake, or for a thicker layer (that’s more equal in size to the other layers), only spread it over the top. You can also use a regular frosting that is added after the cake has frozen.

Storage Tips

• Keep ice cream cake must be stored in the freezer. It will not last very long at room temperature; the ice cream melts quickly!
• This ice cream cake will be best served within 2 weeks of preparation.

More Tempting Cake Recipes to Try

• Birthday Cake
• Carrot Cake
• Coconut Cake
• Chocolate Cake
• Red Velvet Cake

4.84 from 6 votes

Print Recipe

Ice Cream Cake

It's layered with a super easy, made from scratch chocolate cake, rich fudge sauce, your choice of luscious ice cream, and it's finished with final layer of fluffy sweetened whipped cream.

Servings: 12

Prep1 hour hour

Freeze6 hours hours

Ready in: 7 hours hours

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

• 1 cup (129g) unbleached all-purpose flour (spoon and level to measure)
• 7/8 cup (175g) granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup (30g) Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (170g) sour cream
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Fudge and ice cream

• 1 (10 oz) jar thick fudge sauce* (1 cup)
• 48 oz. strawberry ice cream or cookies and cream ice cream

Whipped cream topping

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch springform pan (that's at least 3-inches high) with heavy duty 18-inch wide aluminum foil (be sure not to tear foil, or you'll need to start over with a new sheet). Spray bottom of foil with non-stick cooking spray and lightly spray the sides.
• In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, 7/8 cup sugar, the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add sour cream, vegetable oil, egg, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Using a wooden spoon or a spatula stir until well combined.
• Pour mixture into prepared pan and spread even. For a perfectly level cake you can wrap a wet cake strip around the pan before baking. This is optional but helpful.
• Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes.
• Cool completely on a wire rack, about 2 hours.
• For the fudge sauce: Spread the fudge sauce evenly over the cake layer. Freeze 1 hour. During the last 30 minutes remove the ice cream from the freezer and set in the fridge to soften.
• For the ice cream: Scoop slightly softened ice cream out and dollop across the cake over the fudge layer. Gently press down to level and spread even, while filling in any spaces. Freeze 2 hours until firm.
• Remove the cake from the freezer, while tilting the pan quickly run warm water around the outside ring of the pan (don't get cake wet!), then loosen the springform pans ring. Transfer to a platter with ice cream layer upright (while removing the foil) and return to freezer.
• For the whipped topping: In a large mixing bowl combine the heavy cream, 3 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.
• Using an electric hand mixer set on medium-low speed whip mixture until it starts to thicken slightly, then increase to high speed and whip until very stiff peaks form.
• Spread mixture over cake. You can spread over just the top, or the top and the sides. You can also pipe swirls of whipped cream around the top edge of the cake if desired and add sprinkles or finely chopped chocolate for decoration.
• Freeze until it's starting to firm up, about 1 hour, then wrap with foil to prevent freezer burn and freeze 1 hour longer, or until firm. Cake can be frozen for 2 weeks.
• Cut into slices and serve quickly after slicing.

Notes

• *Be sure to use a thick fudge sauce otherwise a runny fudge sauce will be a mess and will just soak into the cake and make it soggy.
• Other delicious flavors of ice cream to use here include mint chocolate chip, cookie dough, chocolate, caramel (not salted or it's too soft), peanut butter, cherry, coffee, cheesecake, pistachio or vanilla bean.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: how to make ice cream cake, ice cream cake

Author: Jaclyn