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Quick And Easy Ice Cream Cake

Quick And Easy Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove ice cream from freezer 5 minutes before starting.
  2. Make crumb base: Place cookie crumbs in a medium-sized bowl. Add melted butter and stir to combine. Spill into 8-inch springform pan. Tamp down to create an even layer.
  3. Line the side ring of the pan with parchment paper.
  4. Fill cake: Scoop enough ice cream into the pan to smooth into a layer. Add a few dollops of peanut butter onto the ice cream. Add a sprinkle of chopped peanuts. Gently press these ingredients down into the pan. Repeat until springform is filled. Create a smooth top to the cake and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Cover and freeze for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
  5. Make the chocolate shell: Make the shell 30 minutes before serving. Bring 1-2 inches of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce to simmer. Place a stainless steel bowl over top and add the chocolate and coconut oil. Stir until melted and combined. Remove from heat.
  6. To serve the cake: Remove cake from freezer 5-10 mins before serving. Place pan onto flat plate. Pop spring and gently remove the ring. Peel away and discard the parchment paper. Using a sharp knife dampened with a warm cloth, cut the cake into wedges. Transfer slices to dessert plates. Add a ladle of chocolate shell sauce. Serve immediately.
  7. Immediately cover and return the unserved cake to freezer.
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Quick And Easy Ice Cream Cake

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A buttery chocolate crumb base topped with ice cream, peanut butter and salted peanuts then drizzled with a magical chocolate sauce…

  • clock icon
    15 MIN
  • 8 SERVINGS
Quick and Easy Ice Cream Cake

Everyone’s favourite summertime dessert is QUICK AND EASY ICE CREAM CAKE!

This is the summertime treat you’ve been dreaming of, but wait, we’ve got even more good news! This QUICK AND EASY ICE CREAM CAKE is:

  • easy to make
  • quick to assemble
  • a make-ahead dessert that can be prepared days in advance
  • served with a magical two-ingredient chocolate sauce
  • perfect for birthdays and special celebrations 

Oh, and perhaps the number one reason you’ll be making it again and again and again? Everyone just adores it.

Because this dreamy homemade ice cream cake is so incredibly fantastic, we’re thinking you’ll want to do what we did and SHARE it with friends. Send all your ice cream-loving friends this LINK reminding them to visit WATC on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest too. 

Let’s make this QUICK AND EASY ICE CREAM CAKE!

The ingredients required to make a Quick and Easy Ice Cream Cake
PRO TIP! Buy two of everything so you can make it again.

INGREDIENTS

This may go down as one of our most PINNED and LIKED ingredient shots ever. Check it out friends – chocolate cookie crumbs, peanut butter, salted peanuts, semisweet chocolate, butter, coconut oil and a favourite ice cream. What’s not to love? Better still, everything can be picked up at your local grocery store, marina or even a corner store. PRO TIP! Buy two or more of everything, because you’ll be making this ice cream cake recipe often.

Springform pans in various sizes
Tweak the recipe to make a larger or smaller cake, too.

SPRINGFORM PAN

Let’s give a shout-out to springform pans! We consider them essential bakeware and have provided a link to purchase down below, in case you need to add some to your collection. It works like a dream in this recipe and will allow you to present a dessert that looks like it was made by a professional – that’d be you! Don’t forget to try the pan for a savoury recipe too; make our famous, mighty tasty OVEN-BAKED NACHOS!

A bowl or chocolate cookie crumbs and butter
Feel free to swap the chocolate crumbs with crushed graham wafers.

CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUMB BASE

The base for this frozen ice cream dessert is the first of our two-ingredient components in this recipe. Stirring the chocolate cookie crumbs (we made ours with Oreo cookies) with melted butter is easy. Then simply spill the crumb mix into the pan and gently tamp it down into a flat layer.  I always use a flat-bottomed measure for the tamping-down part, but a spoon will work too. Notice, no baking involved! One thing to mention: all of our recipes have been crafted using unsalted butter. Carol has made the recipe using salted butter as her family likes that salty-sweet vibe. Feel free to experiment.

The filling for the ice cream cake is made using ice cream, peanut butter and chopped peanuts
Great news! This recipe works with all flavours of ice cream.

ICE CREAM AND PEANUT BUTTER FILLING

We’re going to let you pick your favourite ice cream and peanut butter for this frozen cake recipe. Carol makes hers with a chocolate fudge ice cream while I use a mocha-flavoured confection ribboned with chocolate and crushed peanut butter cups. We have a feeling this homemade ice cream cake will also work if you use vanilla ice cream, strawberry ice cream or plain chocolate ice cream too! Let me just say this; pick an ice cream that will partner well with the other components of the filling and you’ll have great success, guaranteed. 

The ice cream, peanut butter and chopped nuts spooned into the lined springform pan
After filling the pan, press everything down into an even layer using a spatula.

FILL

As explained in the directions down below, take the ice cream out from the freezer five minutes before you assemble the dessert. After that, don’t overthink it! Simply add a few scoops of ice cream, a couple of dollops of peanut butter and a sprinkle of the chopped nuts. Press everything down into the lined springform pan to create an enhanced layer of ice cream and repeat. Want an extra hit of chocolate? Sprinkle chocolate chips into the mix while you’re at it! As we mentioned from the outset, making this ice cream cake is way easier than you might think. And yes, even I was shocked by how simple it is.

The top of the ice cream cake smoothed out and sprinkled with chopped peanuts
Cover with wrap and freeze for at least four hours but ideally, overnight.

FREEZE

In the VIDEO linked to this recipe, I suggest freezing the dessert for at least four hours before serving. Ideally, though, make it the day before to give the ice cream cake plenty of time to set and firm up. It’ll taste perfect either way, but we found it easier to cut and serve when the ice cream froze really hard overnight.

The frozen ice cream cake with the pan ring and parchment removed
Removing the metal ring and parchment paper to serve the cake is super-easy.

SERVE

Serving this easy ice cream cake recipe is a pleasure, and much of that goes to the ingenious design of that springform pan. Simply pop the spring, lift away the pan’s outer ring, discard the parchment liner and you’re ready to cut. For best results, have a clean dishtowel dampened with warm or hot water at the ready. A warm, sharp knife makes the cutting of the cake effortless. One thing to keep in mind; make sure to cut through that cookie base so that the pieces lift up and away from the bottom of the pan nice and clean.

Bowls of semi-sweet chocolate, coconut oil and whole, salted peanuts
These three ingredients create a magical garnish for the ice cream cake.

MAGIC CHOCOLATE SHELL

Here is the second two-ingredient component to the recipe, our magic chocolate shell, AKA really awesome chocolate sauce. Click HERE to watch a simple 1-minute video on how to make it, but there’s truly nothing to it; melt chocolate and coconut oil, stir, cool and serve.

A bowl of magic chocolate sauce and the whole peanuts ready to be used as the garnish for the ice cream cake.
Let the chocolate sauce cool for about an hour before you serve.

The magic of this warm chocolate sauce is the way it cools to a hard shell when it comes in contact with something very cold, like ice cream. You can ladle or drizzle it onto the frozen slice of cake and pass it out to guests while it’s still glossy and runny. Then, as if by magic, the sauce hardens. Cracking it to dig into the ice cream cake is a pretty fantastic moment. Kids absolutely love it!

Quick and Easy Ice Cream Cake
What’s not to love about this incredible dessert?

This QUICK AND EASY ICE CREAM CAKE with chocolate sauce is nothing short of amazing. Enjoy!

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Quick And Easy Ice Cream Cake

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Products used in this recipe

Just click on the below links to purchase items through Amazon.com and add them to your collection. Happy shopping!

Quick And Easy Ice Cream Cake

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Ingredients

  • For the crust:
  • 1-¼ cups chocolate cookie crumbs (like crushed Oreo cookies)
  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  • For the filling:
  • 1-½ litres ice cream
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • ¾ cup salted peanuts, chopped
  • For the magic chocolate shell sauce:
  • 4 ounces semisweet chocolate
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil
  • Garnish:
  • ¼ cup salted peanuts

Directions

  1. Remove ice cream from freezer 5 minutes before starting.
  2. Make crumb base: Place cookie crumbs in a medium-sized bowl. Add melted butter and stir to combine. Spill into 8-inch springform pan. Tamp down to create an even layer.
  3. Line the side ring of the pan with parchment paper.
  4. Fill cake: Scoop enough ice cream into the pan to smooth into a layer. Add a few dollops of peanut butter onto the ice cream. Add a sprinkle of chopped peanuts. Gently press these ingredients down into the pan. Repeat until springform is filled. Create a smooth top to the cake and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. Cover and freeze for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
  5. Make the chocolate shell: Make the shell 30 minutes before serving. Bring 1-2 inches of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce to simmer. Place a stainless steel bowl over top and add the chocolate and coconut oil. Stir until melted and combined. Remove from heat.
  6. To serve the cake: Remove cake from freezer 5-10 mins before serving. Place pan onto flat plate. Pop spring and gently remove the ring. Peel away and discard the parchment paper. Using a sharp knife dampened with a warm cloth, cut the cake into wedges. Transfer slices to dessert plates. Add a ladle of chocolate shell sauce. Serve immediately.
  7. Immediately cover and return the unserved cake to freezer.

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