Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Cake

My brother and I were both born in the middle of winter, but we've long had a strange tradition of ordering ice cream cakes for our birthdays. I have a lot of fond memories of picking out ice cream flavors for my cake at near-empty shops as it snowed outside. (The local Maggie Moo's used to offer free scoops if more than an inch of snow had fallen.)

I've come to associate celebrations with not just cake, but specifically ice cream cake. It's not decadent if there's no ice cream.

I tried my hand at making an ice cream cake at home this year. It wasn't terribly hard, just fussy and requiring frequent trips to and from the freezer. The trickiest part was working quickly enough to keep everything from turning into a melty puddle.

I definitely recommend giving this one a try. Yes, now, in the middle of winter. There's something about making your on ice cream cake that makes you feel so accomplished. Maybe it's just from frantically shoving the cake into the freezer as cream begins to ooze down the sides.

The flavors of this cake is inspired by one of my brother's favorite ice cream flavors from Ben and Jerry's, Chunky Monkey, featuring banana ice cream, walnuts, and chocolate chunks.

You can, of course, swap in whatever ice cream flavors and add ins you want. A few notes, though, on ice cream cakes:

• The frosting: You'll need something that won't freeze solid, so don't use buttercream or whipped cream. Cream cheese works well, as does (forgive me for saying this) Cool Whip. Whatever fake milk thingy is in that stuff keeps it nice and fluffy even in the freezer.
• The cake layers: I've included makes a fairly thin cake (I've always liked a higher proportion of ice cream to cake), so it's a little hard to slice into layers. Here's a great tutorial on how to get even layers (unlike mine). You could also cut it into two layers instead of three, so that your top layer will be ice cream instead of cake. 
• The ice cream: you'll have an easier time spreading and slicing the ice cream if you use an airier one (or, in technical terms, an ice cream with higher overrun. Read all about that here.), such as Breyer's. Since Breyer's has some three times the air pumped into it than something like Haagen Dazs, it make the final cake much easier to slice through. But by all means, break out the premium ice cream if you'd like, you may just need to let it thaw a little bit before you spread it on the cake.

Good luck, and enjoy!
-Caroline

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Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Cake

Yields: one 9-inch cake
Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Click here for the printable recipe

Ingredients
For the Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil*
¾ brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 medium bananas, very ripe, smashed
½ cup whole milk

For the Ice Cream
½ gallon vanilla ice cream**
1 medium banana, very ripe, mashed
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

For Assembly
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium banana, sliced

Notes
*Don’t use butter here. It’ll make the cake very hard when you freeze it.
**I’d recommend Breyers. It’s airier than most, so it’s easy to scoop, spread, and slice.

Directions
Read the entire recipe before getting started. But actually.

Make the chocolate cake. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well-combined. Whisk in the oil, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Whisk in the milk.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch springform cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely, then refrigerate for several hours, or overnight.
The next day, cut the cake into three even layers. Re-assemble the springform pan. Line the sides with plastic wrap or wax paper for easy removal of the cake so you don’t have to saw the edges of the cakes later on. 

Place the top layer (the domed one) of the cake on the bottom of the cake pan. (You’ll spread a thick layer of ice cream on top of it so that this way, the top of the cake won’t be domed. Alternately, if you really want to make your layers even, cut off the dome before layering your cake.)

You’ll need to work quickly for this next part. Add about 4 cups of vanilla ice cream, half of the mashed banana, and half of the chocolate chips and walnuts to a mixing bowl. Mash them together with a wooden spoon. It doesn’t have to be perfect, its more important that the ice cream doesn’t melt. Spread the ice cream over the layer of cake at the bottom of the springform pan. Place the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, so that the layer of ice cream is firm.

Place another cake layer on top of the ice cream. Repeat the the step above with the remaining ice cream, banana, nuts, and chocolate chips. Top with the final cake layer. Freeze the cake for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Make the frosting. Whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. 

Remove the cake from the springform pan. Spread the frosting over the cake, and decorate with banana slices. If the cake starts to melt while you’re frosting it, return it to the freezer for another 30 minutes.
Cut the cake with a sharp knife run under hot water, and serve!

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Fig and Candied Walnut Ice Cream

"Fig and Walnut ice cream?" you might ask. "Ew, figs," you might say. But before you pass judgement on this slightly unusual ice cream flavor, make it and see how fast it'll disappear. Because it is fabulous.

I love trying new ice cream flavors, and while I was in Italy, this was one of my favorites, though it could only be found in a couple of places. (You can read more about my gelato and Italian food ramblings here.) I learned almost zero Italian in the two months of my stay, and could barely manage a "what's your name?" But pointing at a tub of this wonderful ice cream and saying, "una pallina di noce e fichi"? I had it down pat.

This ice cream is rich, smooth, and creamy, with sweet and tender pieces of fig and crunchy walnuts swirled in. The sugar coating the walnuts dissolves a little in the ice cream, giving it little golden-brown streaks of caramel, while the fig flavor is not at all strong, and only gives the ice cream a nice warm, fruity flavor.

This is a basic custard ice cream, with figs and caramelized walnuts thrown in. It's a three-step process of making the ice cream base, fig sauce, and candied walnuts. (I heard that! Don't say ew to the fig sauce. It makes the ice cream magical and yummy.) I used an ice cream maker to make this, which probably gives the smoothest results, but here are a few ways you can make ice cream without a machine.

The only tricky part of making this ice cream is cooking the custard. which requires tempering the eggs, and gently heating them so that they don't scramble. This is the same process you'd use to make other custard-based desserts, such as pastry cream.

You start by heating the milk in a saucepan.

While that's heating, separate the egg yolks from the whites. Save the whites to make other desserts, such as these macarons.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.

Slowly pour about half of the hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking constantly.

Pour the egg yolk/mixture bake into the pot, and continue to cook it, stirring constantly. It's important to keep on mixing, or else the custard will be lumpy.

The custard is done when it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, and your finger leaves a clean trail in the custard on the spoon.

Now pour this mixture into a large bowl and mix in the whipped cream. Chill this for several hours in the refrigerator for several hours, and then churn it in the ice cream maker. In the last 5 minutes of churning, add the fig sauce. In the last minute of churning, add the walnuts.

Serve in a large bowl along with a cup of hot coffee. No one says you can't enjoy ice cream in winter (:

-Caroline

Fig and Candied Walnut Ice Cream

Yields: about 1 quart of ice cream

Ice cream base adapted from David Lebovitz, candied walnut recipe adapted from The Food Network

Ingredients
For the custard base
1 ½ cup milk
5 egg yolks
⅓ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup heavy cream, chilled

For the fig sauce
8 ounces dried figs, roughly chopped
⅓ cup water
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the candied walnuts
1 ½ cup walnut halves
⅓ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions
Make the custard base. Place the milk in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.

While the milk is heating, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt.

Slowly drizzle about half of the hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking constantly.

Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the saucepan and continue to cook it until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. When you run your finger through the custard on the spoon, it should leave a clean trail. Let the custard cool.

Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl and pour in the custard. Mix well and refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.

Make the fig sauce. Place the figs, water, honey, and sugar in a saucepan and cook until it forms a thick paste. Take the saucepan off the stove and stir in the almond and vanilla extracts. Let cool.

Make the candied walnuts. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Blanche the walnuts. Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Boil the walnuts for 3 minutes, then drain well.

Mix together the powdered sugar, brown sugar, and salt.Roll the walnuts in the sugar mixture.

Place the walnuts on a baking sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes, until the walnuts are a deep golden brown. Let cool.

Break the walnuts into the smaller pieces.

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. In the last 5 minutes of churning, add the fig sauce. In the last minute of churning, add the candied walnuts.

Scoop the ice cream into a container and freezer for several hours until firm before serving.