Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich

I have been looking forward to making this cake for the last couple of weeks.  The first time I read through the recipe I knew that I wanted to use starlight mint ice cream for this.  I know – the flavor suggestions were much more sophisticated — like coffee, vanilla bean or dulce de leche.  But for me, I could just taste this cake made with my favorite ice cream.    I have to tell you that I was not disappointed.

This recipe uses a chocolate cake that has oil in it rather than butter.  Because of this, the cake stays soft when frozen.  It is the same cake used for Rose’s German Chocolate Cake.  I wanted to try the sandwich rather than the cake so I made a half recipe in a ten inch cake pan.

The cake went together quite easily, although the first step had me worried that I had ruined the whole thing.  I was to whisk cocoa and boiling water together until smooth.  What I ended up with was a very thick paste.  I added a little extra water and didn’t know what to do so I forged ahead.  I was so sure that it had to be wrong that I kept recalculated my half recipe to see if I had added too much cocoa or not enough water.  I was worried right up until the end when it said the batter should be like a thick soup, which seemed about right to me.  I baked it for only about 20 minutes when it seemed done so I took it out.  It didn’t take long to cool and then I sliced it in half and assembled it.  I was quite impressed that the cake held together very well even when thinly sliced and had no problem moving it to be assembled.

Next came the Snowball Hot Fudge Sauce.  I melted the butter and chocolate in the microwave.  The cream and sugar are brought to a boil on the stove and then added to the chocolate mixture.  I had  no problems at all.  The sauce thickens up quite a bit as it cools.

The sandwich held together just fine for eating with your fingers and I liked the idea of using a dipping sauce as Rose suggested.  But it also looks great served on a plate with the sauce drizzled over the top.

We loved the overall flavor and textures.  I felt like this particular sauce was extremely sweet and in my opinion you could cut the sugar in half or even just go with a plain ganache.   But this recipe is definitely a keeper and one we will make again.

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9 Comments

  1. I had the same concern as you with the cocoa mixture. It was so much thicker than it normally is with Rose’s chocolate butter cake that I was convinced I’d goofed up the math. Glad yours turned out nicely, too!

  2. Great that you did the sandwich version! The green mint ice-cream looks gorgeous against the chocolate cake..i like the color! And looks delicious! But don’t you think the sandwich looks like the cake version? I can’t tell t he difference except one has probably 1/4 more cake batter than the other..lol!

  3. I have to agree with Faithy… the green looks so nice against the dark chocolate and your sauce looks nice and thick!

  4. Oh, Julie…this cake looks so amazing…especially with the mint ice cream, which happens to be my favorite ice cream as well! Also, your presentation of the cake is beautiful.

  5. Yum, I love mint choc chip ice cream with chocolate cake–great paring! That little bowl of hot fudge nest to the sandwich in the first photo looks so delicious.

  6. ב”ה

    Wow! You actually had and used the recomended pan and made it the way it was supposed to. I think you may be the only one who did that… 🙂