The Ultimate Homemade Ice Cream Cake
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There’s something extra special about making a cake from scratch — especially when your kids are getting older and every celebration starts to feel a little more meaningful. I needed to make an ice cream cake recently for a celebration, and I wanted something fun, nostalgic, and perfect for warmer weather, so I decided to turn my favorite Celebration Cake recipe into a homemade ice cream cake.
The result? Layers of rich chocolate cake, creamy ice cream, hot fudge crumble, and whipped frosting that tasted even better than the store-bought version, and a room full of boys saying this cake was the GOAT!!!!
If you’ve ever wanted to make an ice cream cake at home, it’s actually much easier than it looks — and completely customizable with your favorite ice cream flavors and toppings.
Why I Love This Homemade Ice Cream Cake
What I love most about this cake is that it combines everything people love about classic birthday cake and ice cream in one dessert. The soft cake layers freeze beautifully, and the hot fudge crumble gives it that classic ice cream cake texture everyone loves.
It’s also perfect for summer get togethers, graduations, parties, or any celebration where you want something a little extra special.
Homemade Ice Cream Cake
For this cake, I baked my celebration cake recipe in two 9-inch round pans and transformed it into a layered ice cream cake using a springform pan. The cling wrap trick makes removing it so much easier later — highly recommend not skipping that step unless you enjoy unnecessary drama with frozen desserts.
How I Made It
Step 1: Bake the Cake Layers
Prepare the chocolate celebration cake recipe and bake in two 9-inch round pans. Grease the pans, add parchment paper and then more butter over the parchment paper. Flour the pans with coca powder before adding the prepared cake batter.
Bake the cakes at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes depending on how your oven cooks. Start checking the cakes at the 25 minute mark. They are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides of the cake are slightly pulling away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven when done let the cakes cool completely.
Step 2: Prepare the Pan
Line a 9-inch springform pan with cling wrap, allowing extra wrap to hang over the sides. Take one cake layer and set it aside, you only need one layer to make this cake. Once cooled, carefully slice one cake layer in half horizontally, so you have 2 thin layers. Place one of the cut cake layers into the bottom of the pan.
Step 3: Add the First Ice Cream Layer
Spread softened chocolate ice cream evenly over the cake layer.
Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until firm.
Step 4: Make the Fudgey Cake Layer
Take the second cut cake layer and crumble it into pieces in a bowl. Mix in a couple spoonfuls of hot fudge topping until the crumbs are slightly coated and sticky. You might need to melt the fudge in the microwave to thin it out a little and make it easier to stir into the cake. Spread this mixture evenly over the chocolate ice cream layer. Then drizzle a little more hot fudge sauce over the top. Cover and freeze again.
This layer gives that classic ice cream cake texture that somehow makes everyone immediately feel 12 years old again.
Step 5: Add the Final Ice Cream Layer
Spread softened cookies and cream ice cream over the fudgey cake layer. Cover tightly and freeze until completely firm.
Step 6: Frost the Cake
Remove the cake from the springform pan using the cling wrap. You can leave it on the springform pans bottom, or what I did, I got a 10″ cardboard cake plate and put the cake on that. Frost the outside with the whipped cream frosting. Add sprinkles, chocolate drizzle, candies, cookie pieces or any decorations you like. Place the finished cake back into the freezer to firm up before serving.
Tips for Serving
- Remove the cake from the freezer about 5–10 minutes before slicing.
- Run a knife under warm water before cutting for cleaner slices.
- Store leftovers tightly covered in the freezer.
And yes…there will probably still be someone hacking at it sideways with a spoon later that night straight from the freezer. That’s part of the birthday tradition too.
Equipment I Used to Make This Ice Cream Cake
To make assembling this homemade ice cream cake easier, these are a few kitchen tools that really helped. The springform pan is really the key tool here since the removable sides make it much easier to assemble and release frozen layered desserts cleanly.
- 9” springform pan
- 9″ cake pans
- offset spatula for frosting
To purchase any of the items I used, here are the links:
9×3″ Springform cake pan | 9″ cake pan | offset spatula | 10′ cardboard cake plate |
Homemade Ice Cream Layer Cake
Ingredients
Method
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour, using cocoa powder, two 9" round pans and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, just until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add half of the cooled, chocolate and melted butter mixture and whisk until completely blended. The mixture will be thick. Add the remaining chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until completely blended. Whisk in the sour cream (or greek yogurt) and the vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.
- Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for a minute. Then remove the cake from the pans and let it cool completely.
- Line a 9" springform pan with cling wrap.
- Set aside one layer of cake – you only need one layer of cake to make this ice cream cake. Take the other layer and cut it in half horizontally to make two thin layers. Place the cut thin layer inside the bottom of the springform pan.
- Take ice cream flavor 1 out of freezer to soften up. Spread softened ice cream onto the chocolate cake layer. Cover with cling wrap and freeze 30 minutes or until firm.
- In a bowl, crumble the remaining thin layer of chocolate cake into it. Add a couple of spoonfuls of hot fudge sauce to the cake crumbles and mix together. Spread the mixture over the first ice cream layer, covering the entire cake. Cover with cling wrap and freeze 30 minutes or until firm.
- Take ice cream flavor 2 out of freezer to soften up. Spread softened ice cream over the cake crumbles and hot fudge layer. Cover with the cling wrap and freeze 12 hours or overnight.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand held mixer, beat the heavy cream, confectioners sugar, and vanilla on medium high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Remove the ice cream cake from the freezer and take out of the pan. Place it on a cardboard cake plate or the bottom pan of the springform pan. Using an off set spatula frost the cake with the whipped cream. You can also pipe on decorations around the border of the cake. Garnish with sprinkles, candies etc. if desired.
- Slice and serve immediately or put back in the freezer for up to an hour. Use a very sharp knife to cut the cake, and dipping it into warm water helps makes clean cuts. Keep any leftover cake pieces in an air tight container in the freezer.
