Sweet Eats :: Martha's Ice Cream Cake

Martha, Martha, Martha....what can we say?? We were just not impressed with August's Peaches-and-Cream Ice Cream Cake. Maybe it didn't help that neither of us were in enthusiastic baking mode when we made it. Maybe it didn't help that we actually made a Strawberries-and-Cream Ice Cream Cake cos there are no peaches this time of year in Oz. Maybe it didn't help that we had nothing to show for our baking efforts by day's end. Maybe it didn't help that we used low-fat ice cream and raspberry sorbet. Ok, more on that later.

So we started out with the cake layer. Very simple batter to make and the cake turned out nice and golden. But it was all a bit downhill from here. Lesson #1: Always read a recipe the whole way through. I'm usually quite obedient to this fact, but it just shows you we really weren't in the mood for it. Thinking the cake layer was to go on the bottom of the pan, Tiff gets out the ruler & starts measuring the cake. Oops...the cake's meant to go on top and we've cut the cake too small (since my loaf pan widens at the top). We'll need to add more cake bits! So here is our patchwork cutting in progress:


Oh well. Next came chopping up the strawberries while softening the vanilla ice cream...

After folding the strawberries through the ice cream, we spread it into the base of our multi-lined, multi-greased tin and then stuck it in the freezer. Recipe said it would take about 2 hours...but it took far longer, more like 4 hours! (meanwhile, Tiff has gone home!). And here's Lesson #2: Don't use low-fat ice cream for ice cream cakes - it doesn't re-freeze too good. Well, that's our take on it given the final result. We thought it would be ok, cos I always buy this ice cream that has a lovely creamy texture without all the fat!


After the ice cream finally solidified, I spread a layer of raspberry sorbet over the top. Yes, raspberry sorbet....not even a matching strawberry sorbet!! Oh, & we skipped a step...Martha said to use 2 different varieties of sorbet to get colourfully contrasting layers. Hmmm, wasn't keen on running all over the place looking for contrasting sorbets...Martha will just have to accept this incident of baking disobedience!

After the sorbet firmed up, I then pressed our patchwork pieces of cake over the top, then put it back into the freezer. You can see how enthusiastic we were about this whole thing when we didn't actually cut the cake til a week later! Here is us trying to cut the cake - it was rock solid. Lesson #3: Even a hot wet knife doesn't work sometimes....

So here is Martha's perfect 4-layered, colourfully-contrasting Peaches-and-Cream ice cream cake:

And here is our not-so-perfect 3-layered Strawberries-and-Cream ice cream cake:

This would have to be our worst effort so far in this Year of Cakes. It was our first ice cream cake...and possibly our last. And the taste?? Let's just say we weren't exactly shovelling the stuff into our mouths. The raspberry sorbet went nicely with the cake. In fact, the cake was the best bit. The strawberry ice cream was something else altogether. It had re-freezed a creamy-yellowy colour (we think this is the low-fat ice cream factor), it was icy and the strawberries were too crunchy. Tiff said hers tasted like garlic (!?)...ok, so something funny was going on with her tastebuds! Not sure what to do with the leftovers - think they'll sit in my freezer til the next Ice Age. Final lesson: Only make an ice cream cake if you have the patience...and the right ingredients!

Next up..."Bake Sale Cookie" Cupcakes...not just one variety, but three! Here's hoping this'll be more up our alley! N

PS. It's bye bye from us for a little while...we'll see you in about 10 days with lots of Tokyo tales to tell!