Easy Ice Cream Cake is a creamy, crunchy, sweet, and playful dessert. Perfect for celebrating any occasion!
Homemade Cake makes a birthday extra special! Our Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream are the stars of the party in this tasty and easy no-bake frozen treat.
Sabrina’s Ice Cream Cake Recipe
Your birthday cakes are about to get an upgrade! This easy Ice Cream Cake is completely made from scratch with simple yet flavorful layers. The chocolate and vanilla ice cream, Strawberry Topping, cookie crumb center, and even the yummy grocery store-style frosting are homemade.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Ice Cream Cake Filling:
- 3 cups Chocolate Ice Cream , Recipe
- 1 cup Strawberry Topping , Recipe
- 3 cups Vanilla Ice Cream , Recipe
Oreo Crumb middle:
- 1 1/2 cups Oreo Cookie crumbs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter , melted
Grocery Store Frosting:
- 1 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 7 cups powdered sugar , about 2 pounds
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons water
To Finish:
- 1/4 cup Rainbow Sprinkles
Instructions
- Line a 9" x 3" springform pan with a large sheet of plastic wrap that hangs over all the edges (you may need to use two pieces).
- Add the chocolate ice cream and spread evenly.
- Spread strawberry topping evenly over ice cream.
- Stir together Oreo crumbs, sugar and butter until well mixed.
- Sprinkle the mixture over the strawberry topping.
- Add the vanilla ice cream and spread evenly.
- Fold the plastic wrap over the top and freeze for 6 hours.
For Frosting:
- To your stand mixer combine the shortening, butter, vanilla and water until light and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar and salt on the lowest speed setting until just combined.
- Raise speed to high and beat for 10 minutes.
- Once cake is frozen, remove from plastic wrap and place onto serving plate.
- Ice cake with frosting then garnish with sprinkles.
- Keep frozen until ready to serve.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About this Recipe
While this isn’t an official copycat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake, it’s pretty darn close! It’s more like a cross between a DQ Oreo-filled cake and a grocery store frozen sheet cake. Just like the popular ice cream shop treats, there is not really a layer of cake. Instead, it is a layer of chocolatey Oreo crumb. Once the ice cream, strawberry filling, and Oreo crumb mixture are made, you just layer everything and freeze. This would be a great cake for young kitchen helpers to make.
Can This be Made Ahead of Time?
Give yourself a day or two to prepare the ice cream ahead of time so it’s less work the day of your party. If you make the ice creams the same day, allow them to freeze for a couple of hours after they’ve gone through the ice cream machine.
Tips & Tricks
- Soften the ice cream to make it easier to spread, but don’t melt it completely. If your ice cream is too melted, it will get soupy, and when it freezes again, the consistency will be off.
- Grab ingredients like heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar in bulk to save money. You will need enough cream, eggs, and sugar to make 6 cups of ice cream total.
- When making the chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream, you can start with one large batch of custard first and then divide it in half to add the chocolate.
What to Pair With
Once your ready to serve your cake, try topping it with some Easy Whipped Cream, Homemade Cool Whip or some delicious Rich Chocolate Frosting. You can always swap in Chocolate Ganache if you want to make it more like a Dairy Queen Cake!
How to Store
- Serve: Allow the cake to freeze for at least 2 hours before serving so that it doesn’t melt when you serve it. Keep frozen until you are ready to serve.
- Freeze: Wrap your cake with plastic wrap and store it in a freezer-safe, air-tight container for up to 3 months.
Ideas to Serve: Decorating
The grocery-style frosting for this cake contains shortening, which keeps it creamy. This shortening buttercream frosting is easy to spread, but it also holds its shape really well, so it’s perfect for decorating birthday cakes. You can color portions of the frosting and use a piping bag to make the decoration extra special. Another easy decoration for your cake, besides rainbow sprinkles, is to give it a Hot Fudge Sauce drip and top layer.
Variations
- Cake Center: Bake a 9-inch round cake with your favorite cake mix. If you are making a traditional cake to go with your Ice Cream Cake, prepare extra batter and make a thin cake for the center.
- Crumb Center: Instead of Oreo cookie crumbs, try other hard or crispy cookies like Chocolate Chip Cookies, Shortbread Cookies, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, or Thin Mint Cookies.
- Ice Cream: Use any of your favorite ice cream flavors, or you can add mix-ins to your ice cream like crushed Oreos, mini chocolate chips, candy pieces, fresh berries, or chopped nuts.
- Fillings: Other fillings you can use instead of strawberry topping and the cookie crumbs are brownie pieces, chocolate pudding, soft cookies, fruit jam, Salted Caramel Sauce, or Lemon Curd.
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I’m looking to make this, wha size springform pan is the recipe written for? Thanks!