recipe: ice cream cake (but not like you think)
If you’ve been following along, you’re probably aware that I collect cookbooks. Specifically, cookbooks created by New England civic organizations between 1950 and 1980 for fundraising purposes. With yard sale season in full swing, I find myself solvent with new recipe ideas, among them one I found in this vandalized and water-damaged collection.
The picture on the cover somewhat suggests the architecture of Calvary Baptist Church in Easthampton, but I bought the book in Millbury and it has no date (I’ve never been to that Church, I just tried to do some due diligence in my googling). Nevertheless, it *does* include a chocolate cake recipe with a secret ingredient: ice cream.
And hey, no cake flour or fancy measuring required, because we’re using cake mix.
I let my ice cream soften by scooping it up into small chunks and letting it sit a few minutes. At teaspoon size, your mixer will take care of any further softening required right quick.
The recipe calls for greasing & flouring a tube pan. Since I’m making chocolate cake, I dusted with cocoa powder instead of flour so my cake won’t look dusty. In fact you can do this with any chocolate cake, with the added bonus of a little extra kick of chocolate, and hey, that’s the name of the game, right?
After 4 minutes of beating, the batter kinda just looks like . . . well, melted ice cream.
This is one of those situations where a process shot gives a much clearer picture of the character of the dish than the final picture can. Connie Aubuchon, the contributor of this recipe, assures that the cake is “very moist, rich and chocolatey.”
She was right. This is about as moist as a cake gets without being outright wet, and it even has this spongy noise as you cut into it. In short, it is the most delicious chocolate cake you ever had.
I wanted to see just how chocolatey I could make this, so I stayed true and made a chocolate cake mix with chocolate ice cream. But I was *thisclose* to trying chocolate cake with mint or ginger ice cream, and other combos that come immediately to mind are vanilla mix with mango ice cream, yellow cake mix with strawberry ice cream, and funfetti with pretty much any ice cream. What combo would you make?
Chocolate Ice Cream Cake (but not like you think)
with thanks to Connie Aubuchon
1 box chocolate cake mix (or any other flavour)
1 pint chocolate ice cream, softened (again, any other flavour)
3 eggs
1 c water
Preheat oven to 350o. Grease a tube or bundt pan, then dust with cocoa powder.
Beat all ingredients together for 4 minutes, pour into pan and bake 45 minutes. Serve with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, a thin icing, whipped cream or the frosting of your choice.
approximate nutrition summary (will vary depending on the brands used): 230 calories, 6g fat, 1g fiber; about 5 weight watchers points
Glad to see I’m not the only one with a liking for those cookbooks. Though I don’t limit myself to certain dates (yet). I’ve also been trying to make things from them, but there is only so much a single girl can eat…
This looks amazing. I’m going to make it for my birthday. Thanks for posting the tastiness!
I just had a friend request chocolate cake for her birthday, I think this may be the winner! Maybe I’ll try cupcakes, I think my bundt pan hates me. Oh and the cocoa powder instead of flour trick is pure brilliance.
Ooh, chocolate cake! I don’t particularly like cake mixes, but this looks so simple… it’s kinda scary!
nice! i’m glad it turned out good, i can’t wait to try this!
girl, i think you just discovered a gem.
That’s awesome! I remember as a child wanting to make cookies out of mint chocolate chip ice cream. It’d definitely be fun to try out the different combinations of cake mix and ice cream flavors….
I’m not much of a chocolate cake fan… but chocolate cake mix and mint choc chip icecream combo sounds right on the money to me
I am so excited to try this! I usually make the birthday cakes for my family, and my dad’s is on Saturday. He loves chocolate cake and is addicted to ice cream. You can’t get anymore perfect than this!
This is one I am definitely going to try…. seems so simple! I’m thinking of Breyer’s Butter Almond ice cream with chocolate or yellow cake mix. Ooohh! And a coffee flavored ice cream with chocolate cake. So many possibilities!
Oh I definitely will be making this.
OK that is some serious inventive thinking right there! Love it!
Wow, such a cool way to make a cake. I just got my first vintage cookbook and I can’t wait to try a recipe.
I bet this would be even better with a homemade cake batter. Interesting. I could make this with the Hershey’s recipe.
I can’t tell you how much I love your passion for the most mundane of cookbooks. They’re like the most housewifiest of all treasures. Sounds like a fun collection.
This looks wonderful. I’m going to try it tonight with yellow cake and my own orange-cardamom ice cream!
Stuff like this is why I love your blog.
Oh, wow, that sounds yummy! I told my boyfriend I wanted that rainbow cake you made a while back for my birthday this year; I wonder if he could combine the two recipes?!
Simple and easy. Looks wonderful…can’t wait to try it!
This looks delicious! I left a lovely blog award from you on my blog. Because I fell in love with your pancakes (among other things).
When I saw those pictures I was like “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ICE CREAM CAKE NOT LIKE I THINK???” This all makes sense now.
Great job. I loved the pictures. This is a great way to share a recipe.
It looks so good and certainly sounds easy enough. I’ll definitely have to give it a go! I’ll be sharing a link to this with my readers. Thanks!
[...] ice cream + chocolate cake mix = moist and delicious chocolatey goodness! Check out Omnomicon to read more about this super-easy cake [...]
I just used white cake with vanilla bean ice cream and made a two layer cake with it. Waiting to see how it comes out, it takes longer than the regular cake mix says it will so I was kinda scared at the 20 minute mark and it was wobbly in the center. But it’s been about 35 minutes now and it’s looking good. Fingers crossed! -=D
I have to try this! It sound amazing and fun. I’m linking so I can remember this!
So I bought the ingredients to make it this weekend… any thoughts on how long to bake in cupcake form? Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Do you think cookie dough ice cream would work? Def trying this out this weekend!
Is the cake rich and moist or just moist? I wonder how using whole milk instead of water would turn out.
It’s really spongey, not at all cakey, but the flavor is pretty much perfect. I’d be curious about the whole milk substitution myself, but you can’t go wrong with just water.
This cake turned out amazing! It’s so easy to make. I spaced on the beating for 4 minutes and only gave it about 45 seconds (until it all looked incorporated) and it still turned out as pictured. To Chez, I think the richness depends on the cake mix, ice cream, and frosting you choose. I went with dark chocolate mix and ice cream and used a chocolate ganache to frost it. It was decadently moist AND rich. A total crowd pleaser, thanks for sharing!
I need to state for the record that this is the only chocolate cake recipe I will be making for the rest of my life. Seriously. I’m not even a chocolate cake fan, and WOW. The recipe made 24 cupcakes (baked for 17 minutes) and 24 mini cupcakes (12 minutes), and I used cream cheese frosting. Ben and Jerry’s chocolate ice cream with Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge mix. Thanks Aleta!
[...] Surprise Chocolate Ice Cream Cake at [...]
I made this with passionfruit ice cream and lemon cake mix, then made a sort of whipped cream icing with some pear puree and just did a little ring around the top and put cherries on and it was cute as fuck and super super delicious
Wow. I’ve heard of this but never tried it or known anyone who did. It looks crazy moist. What great shots of the process too!
This looked so yummy I just had to try it! Mine’s in the oven now, but I used chocolate cake mix with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I’m worried the chocolate will cover up the mint taste too much, but let’s see what happens. I’m very excited! I’m going to cover it with a frosting I make that tastes a bit like marshmallows, and than I’ll put some cherries on top. It’ll be just like an ice cream sundae!
I just tried this after reading your blog this afternoon. My husband and I loved it. Very moist and delicious
I used Betty Crocker Moist in dark chocolate, and Blue Bell dutch chocolate ice cream.
Hilarious, Mitch. I’ll have to try the passionfruit and lemon combo. I’ve been having so much fun thinking of new combos. I can’t wait to try using lavender, ginger, coconut, almond, or Baileys ice cream. Thanks again for this great recipe! With it a beginning baker like myself can make different and interesting flavor combos like a pro!
holy mother of god, that cake looks so awesome I just threw up all over myself. Wow.
Update: The chocolate cake mix with mint ice cream is ridiculously good.
Make it now.
Greatness – I baked two cakes with this recipe: chocolate with mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate glaze and a lemon with strawberry ice cream and cool whip. Thanks so much, sure to be a crowd pleaser tomorrow!
I like recipes where the number of ingredients and steps are small
thanks for a great recipe!
I made this for a woman at work’s birthday…she lost her husband of 47 years last summer and wanted to work so she wouldn’t be alone. Being a chocolate cake fan, the cake made her day. Thanks for sharing this!
Oh, and I told my boyfriend about it…now I have to mix strawberry ice cream with white cake mix, and do a banana-pudding frosting for his next birthday
just made this cake with a dark chocolate fudge duncan hines cake mix, chocolate frosting and blue bell dutch chocolate ice cream! kept the circular shape but poked holes in the top with the end of a wooden spoon, filled with hot fudge. it’s being chilled until i can bring it to work tomorrow…i will let you know how it goes. so far, it looks great! THANK YOU – best blog and such creative recipes!
[...] “Ice Cream” Cupcakes Adapted from Omnomicon Makes 36 [...]
I just made this for Father’s day with white cake and moose tracks ice cream. I made two cakes, layered together with cream cheese frosting. To die for. I’ll be making this again.
I just made this for father’s day and it was delicious!!!!!!!!!!! I used chocolate ice cream just to be safe but it was so good, I’m ready to experiment now.
Made with Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Mix so added a stick of melted butter and Hagen Daz Creme Brulee ice cream. I usually only make cakes from scratch but no more. This will be my go-to recipe. So easy and SOOO super moist. AMAZING! Thanks!
Mix the water with instant coffee for another dimension of flavor
Is it more moist than when made with instant pudding (powdered form, not pudding form)? ‘Cause I know THAT is some pretty fine and super moist cake.
It seems pretty expensive…a pint of decent ice cream is like $4 now in NY state, if not more. A package of instant pudding is about $1.50 in comparison…thus my asking which is better.
*Hint* If you don’t have any cocoa powder, use the powdered cake mix itself to dust over the greased pan!
thank you for putting this up! i am going to a baby shower and wanted to make something different and special- and well wanted by the mother-to-be. this is perfect! thank you <3 and thank you Kim for the powder info!
ice cream and cake cake cake…
I was stumbling through websites and came to yours about the Calvary Cookbook recipe. I was stunned when I saw the photo of the book. When I was about 16 years old, I did the illustrations and the handlettering of the cover page for that book. I’d say it was around 1974. It was fun to see this. Thanks!
As I type this, a Chocolate Coffee Cake is baking my oven! I’m topping it with an espresso glaze. Mmmmmm…… coooffeeeeeee………
I want to try this….but has anyone tried using frozen yogurt instead? or gelato? they have some really nice flavors out there
Fabulous! I’d love to add this ice-cream cake to my blog. Would that be o.k. Already RT’ed on Twitter. How incredibly easy, and, of course, it will be moist!
oooooooh cant wait to try it
Now that sounds really interesting. I’ve got a couple of that sort of cookbooks and have never read them properly .. although one has a recipe for dolphin in (They mean a fish which is called a dolphin fish rather than proper dolphin) – must be loads to investigate in these little books!
I just made this cake and I must say that it is absolutely delicious. I’ve tried making moist cakes before, but it just takes so much work. This was unbelievably easy, and it was definitely one of the richest and most delicious chocolate cakes I’ve ever made.
I’m the dessert maker tonight for the dinner I’m going to and found this delicious recipe. I’m using Strawberry Ice Cream, White cake mix, and going to top it with melted white chocolate and strawberries. I can’t wait to taste
Smells good so far! Thanks for the post!
Looks great! Not as low fat as your rainbow cake, but Im sure it’s a lot moister!
OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!!
I made this last night and can not believe the difference it made. Dense and moist as can be. Like it was made from scratch. Thanks so much for this. xo
What a great idea. This looks delicious, I can’t wait to make it.
[...] Bake Date Merissa and I had a baking date on Monday. I arrived at her place at around noon, armed with my digital camera (for documentation) and film camera/lenses/ancient instruction manuals (to try to decipher). We had a lunch of poutine (which I recreated the following night for dinner at my place) and bengal spice tea, then started on our baking project of the afternoon – Ice cream cake (but not like you think). Click here for the recipe! [...]
The cake is a lie.
thats so funny! i recently went on a spree with southern version of the exact same type of cookbook. my grandmother had about 90 of them from all over texas. they contain some totally horrifying things like chocolate chow mein and potato chip cookies. this one actually looks good though
Love it! So does my husband! I was boring and used a white cake mix with vanilla ice cream (spouse is not near the choco-holic that I am) – divided it into two 8×8 pans – one for a friend and one for us. I asked my husband to test it and make sure it was good. He took a bite – did a really good job of hiding his delight and said ‘oh, you can’t give this away’ and tried to tell me it was awful – he loved it so much he wanted to keep it all to himself!
This is So Super Easy and the Best Cake ever!! You can eat it without icing. Even my husband, who loves frosting said its moist, sweet and the best!!
Thanks for posting the recipe!!
I made this cake for thanksgiving and everyone loved it. Though i decided to go over the edge on chocolate and i made Brigadeiro (look it up) and covered the cake in that, quite frankly the most delicious chocolate cake ive ever eaten, though not for those unable to stand much chocolate or sweets.
I made this cake for my wife for her birthday. She picked out the cake, ice cream and the frosting. She wanted a classic yellow cake with a Peanut Butter ice cream which had pieces of peanut brittle as well in it. She finished it off with a chocolate fudge frosting! IT WAS AMAZING! She loves Cold Stone Cake Batter with Peanut Butter Cups and this tasted JUST like it. Thank you again for the best cake recipe ever!
If you would like to add a little “spunk” to this recipe, try cutting the water to a 1/2 cup and add 1/2 of Kahlua……mmmmmm!!!! deliciouso!!!!!!!
The best cake ever thanks so much for sharing. Love reading your posts
Looks delicious, going to have to try it….
Beautifully and apparently tasty. Thank you.
What an original idea!
What a great idea, looks great!
how about funfetti and cake batter ice cream?
cant wait to try this.
This looks amazing. thank you so much for sharing. I cannot WAIT to try this in my dorm kitchen! :]
So, I just finished baking the cake and it is PHENOMENAL. I’m not even a cake person and I think it’s delicous.
I tried a strawberry cake mix with some 14 oz (instead of the 16 oz [aka 1 pint] that the recipe calls for) chocolate Haagen-Daz ice cream. Since I had just a little less ice cream than the recipe called for, I applied the 1/3 cup of oil (I used canola) that the box of Pillsberry cake mix called for in order to moisten it up. I used a chocolate frosting.
I cannot wait to try other combination! Thank you so much for this recipe!
oh my!!!!!!!!!
Im in school and now im craving chocolate cake…. thanksss haha send me more recipes!!! yumm
asdf zing zong omg! I just came and sharted at the same time! great recipe!
and when I say came, I meant cum in my pants! I love it!
just made this with butter golden recipe cake mix, 14oz of strawberry haagen dasz, and an extra shot of strawberry dannon yogurt. i usually add yogurt to my cake recipes (makes it super moist), so it was the first thing i thought of to make up for the smaller size container that haagen dasz sells now. it’s my friends birthday, so i cant wait to show up with this masterpiece! thanks for sharing
does this need to be done in a bunt pan?
OHMYGOD. Chocolate cake with Ben and Jerry’s Dublin Mudslide ice cream is DELICIOUS!!
Looks so yummy.. remind me of pastry I get here with some fancy name I don’t remember but it looks like the pic shown above. Gonna have one or two today
Yes, It’s look so taste
I want to taste it
whoo, I just made this but with Butter Yellow Cake, and Eddy’s Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream. have to say, it was FANTASTIC. I just iced it 20 minutes ago, there is only one piece left. My family gobbled it up.
ty
My 17 year old son emailed me this recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it!
I just purchased the ingredients and I am so excited to make this cake for my housemates. I am using coffe ice cream with milk chocolate cake! I am in college and all my friends think this is going to be amazing!!!!
I just made these as cupcakes, and they came out soooo well!!
I used oreo ice cream mixed with a really rich chocolate cake mix. For the icing, I mixed a LOT of oreos in a food processor and then blended it with cream cheese frosting.
Thanks so much for sharing this great recipe!
Made it last night. AWESOME cake.
This is the best cake recipe in the entire world!! I tried it last weekend, and it was superb!! thank you!!
You’re evil. Pure evil. I stumbled on this page, and I’ve already been banned from baking (my specialty is red velvet cake from scratch, my grandma’s recipe), b/c the hubby is trying to loose weight. I’m going to have to sneak this in for a co-worker’s birthday or something. I want, I want, I want!!!!
[...] was clicking through StumbleUpon.com the other day and came across THIS recipe for cake that looked amazing. It uses any kind of box cake and any kind of ice cream to make [...]
[...] 8. Ice Cream Cake. But not how you think! A simple cake that you mix ice cream in. Makes it super moist. I must try this asap too! [...]
Who knew you could have your cake and ice cream too!
What is a pint in grammes, for icecream? and a “c” o water?? Sry I’m from Argentina, we don’t use pints.
[...] 2. Omnomicon.com: Author Profile Box in the Sidebar [...]
I tried this last night, followed directions exactly, baked it at the specified temperature for the specified time … and it could not have been a worse disaster. The batter, as it baked, expanded over the top of the tube in the pan, spilling through and onto the bottom of my oven. The cake only baked about halfway through — it was still gooey and ‘raw’ more than 1/2 inch beyond the outside edge. And it didn’t just fall, it imploded when I took it out of the oven. I know my oven temp is correct, there has never been any problem with it before. I really wish it had turned out, and I may bite the bullet and try it again at some point, but I just wanted to say I’m glad all yours turned out well, as I was very disappointed. If anyone has a clue what happened, I’d love some ideas.
[...] Omnomicon makes » recipe: ice cream cake (but not like you think). Leave a Comment Leave a Comment so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Click here to cancel reply. Line and paragraph breaks automatic, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> [...]
this very well could replace masturbation. Not recommended I’m sure, but it could. I’m making it tomorrow- after I, well, you know.
I found this recipe from Stumbleupon.com. I had a box of white cake mix that I’d had forever. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey changed that. It was by far the best cake. I think I might go baking happy right now… How does white cake & green tea ice cream sound?
[...] cake. But don’t be fooled by the name: you bake this ice cream cake. I got the recipe from Omnomicon, and added the bananas for a little twist. Ya, because there’s no way this could blow up in [...]
I tried this today, and it turned out awesome! Do NOT try to remove it from the pan though, unless you want to burst into tears…then start eating it off the plate with your hands like a hobo.
http://grubbygirls.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/i-scream-you-scream-we-all-scream-for-ice-cream-cake/
Ive made this cake twice now in less than a week. The first was a marble cake with the chocolate side made from white cake mix and bunny tracks ice cream. it was really good, but i had to cook it for almost 1 and a half hours (i did use two boxes of cake mix). My second cake, was a devils food cake and cherry ice cream. O.M.G. add a little diced and sweetened cherries on top and you have a cake people will line up for. I made the second in a 9×13 sheet cake pan and it turned out perfectly at 45 minutes.
Hi!
I made it with strawberry ice cream and vanilla cake mix, it was awesome!
Thanks a lot!
Just put my yellow cake with dulce de leche ice cream in the oven!
This sounds great! I’m going to make this for my best friend for her birthday except im going to try vanilla cake with cookie dough ice cream!
I have made this twice before. Fabulous recipe. My grown daughter raved about and wants it again for her birthday tomorrow. Hint use a rich good ice cream.
This is for ceallaig above or anyone else out there who might have had trouble with overflow.
For our first cake, we took a lemon-flavored mix and added strawberry ice cream. This was topped with a glaze my wife cobbled together from butter, powdered sugar, and strawberry preserves. It turned out beautifully and was a big hit.
We had another gathering and I was left at home to make a cake with caramel mix and vanilla-toffee ice cream. I was minding our son, so I didn’t notice that this combo of mix/ice cream exceeded the 2/3 level on my bundt cake pan, and it overflowed into the oven, making almost a small round-cake’s worth of excess glop. Further, at 45 minutes, the inside was “raw” and the cake fell apart when half of it came out of the pan.
So on my second go-round, I carefully kept the batter at around 2/3 and made 6 cupcakes as well. It turned out well, but I made sure to let the cake bake an extra 10 to 15 minutes (with periodic checks, so that might have let some warm air out of the oven). It was also stubborn coming out of the pan, but it eventually let go with some extra cooling.
The difference, I think, has to do with the quality of ice cream. Our first cake was a Breyers ice cream that was pretty cheap (on sale at $2 for 1.5 quarts), while the second used a $3.50 pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Perhaps higher-quality ice creams produce a “fluffier” batter and/or make the cake rise more? I’ll leave it to the chemists in the audience.
But I’ll say this: That caramel cake/vanilla toffee ice cream combo is to die for. The wife cruelly added some caramel topping and crumbled Heath bars. I’m going to look like a 6-foot Oompa Loompa in a month…
This is INSPIRED.
My best friend had a birthday today – what luck! She wanted lemon cake, so we picked strawberry ice cream. (With strawberry bits in!) I “frosted” the cake hot – so it glazed beautifully and melted in/off. This was an excellent choice.
The whole thing turned out just frighteningly tasty, and so moist we couldn’t actually stand forks up in it.
I might not be able to escape making birthday cakes for EVERYONE this year.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! (Thank you also, Mr. Williams, for linking to this page!)
Has anyone tried this with sherbert?
This cake looks absolutely perfect…I’ll bet it is very moist!
[...] been enjoying San Francisco for the last few days, City Lights books, giant redwoods, cookouts, baking cakes, amazing coffee, writing bad prose but good poetry, and applying for sustainable agriculture school [...]
I get to eat this cake today!!!
Does any one know the time/ temp for 2 round cake pans?
OMG!! This was great. Made choc cake w/ choc ice cream for Father’s Day and he LOVED it!! Great recipe…can’t wait to experiment with diff flavors! Thanks!!!!
[...] not an icing fan), but it contains a pint of ice cream in it! The recipe is actually called “Chocolate Ice Cream Cake (but not like you think).” Click link for [...]
This has been a great hit with my friends and I. The next time I make it I want to try coffee ice cream!
Update:
I made the chocolate and chocolate cake for my mom’s birthday, my very large and loud Italian stopped talking for a solid 5 minutes to just eat it. Followed by them telling me how good it was. I sh*t you not they even stopped fighting to just eat this cake.
This cake… is magical o_0
oops! I meant to say ‘family,’
“my very large and loud Italian family”
Does this cake need to be refrigerated? How far in advance can you make it?
Try it with Phish food or Fossil Food and you get delicious chunks of chocolate left in after baking.
Is that 1c of water 1 cup = 250ml?
Thanks……….
[...] 8. Ice Cream Cake. But not how you think! A simple cake that you mix ice cream in. Makes it super moist. I must try this asap too! [...]
Just made this cake and Im waiting for my mom to get home so we can dig in. I made it just chocolate on chocolate with a creamy white frosting. While it was cooking, there was so much batter it baked all the way out of the pan, but quickly deflated when it was cooling.
Yum!
I’ve made this cake (with variations of ice cream and cake mixes) one of our FAVORITES is golden cake mix with Dulce de Leche ice cream and then when the cake is right out of the oven-I start pouring caramel sauce down the sides of the bundt pan-inside and outside. It SOAKS up the caramel and then I take it out of the pan and dump the rest of the caramel over on top. Sprinkle with some chopped toasted pecans – or not
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