Easy Ice Cream Cake

This cake turned out amazing! It was SO easy! AND you can use any flavor of cake mix or ice cream...endless possibilities! My daughter wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday and I found this genius idea for making the ice cream layer. It worked perfectly. I might force my kids to have ice cream cakes for every birthday. :) See my notes at the bottom.

Easy Ice Cream Cake
1 cake mix (made according to package directions)
1  (1.75 quart) container of ice cream
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Make cake according to package directions (or however you like to make your boxed cakes). Pour into 2 (8in) round cake pans. Bake as directed.
2. While cake is baking line another 8in round cake pan with wax paper. Scoop ALL the ice cream into the cake pan. Press down and smooth out. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer.
3. Once the cake has finished baking, let it cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans. After cake has completely cooled, cut off the rounded tops if desired (left mine on above). Stack one cake layer on a serving plate. Remove ice cream layer from freezer. Pull up wax paper and remove from the ice cream. Place ice cream layer on top of bottom cake layer. Place 2nd cake layer on top. Cover with plastic wrap and return to freezer.
4. To make ganache: In a small saucepan, bring whipping cream to a simmer over medium-low heat. Add chocolate chips. Do not stir. Remove from heat. After 15 minutes, stir until smooth. Let sit for about 1 hour or until cooled.
5. Remove cake from freezer pour ganache on top covering the entire top of the cake, it's ok if it drips down the sides. Do not cover. Return to freezer for 1 hour.
6. After 1 hour, the ganache should be set enough to lightly cover the cake with plastic wrap. Keep frozen until needed. I have had no problems cutting and eating it straight out of the freezer.

Notes:

For this cake I used a yellow box mix and added some chocolate chips to the batter to make it look like 2 big cookies. The ice cream in the middle is chocolate chip cookie dough.

If you only have 2 cake pans, make your cake, and after removing it from the pan, wash the pan and use it to mold the ice cream.

If your ice cream layer gets pushed out by the weight of the top cake layer, you can cut around the side with a knife for an even looking edges. I liked the artisan look, so I left mine alone. :)

You can also spread the ganache to cover the entire cake (see cakes below). Just try to be quick so the ice cream doesn't start melting.

This cake is a white boxed mix with white chocolate raspberry ice cream. I let the ganache cool to spreading consistency and then covered the entire cake, spreading all the way around the edges. IT WAS SO GOOD!

This is the favorite I've made so far. It's chocolate cake with banana split ice cream. Since it was a bday cake, I decided to make the top look like a party with nuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, bananas, cherries, and chocolate sauce.

In 2019 I made a chocolate cookie dough ice cream cake and frosted it with cool whip.