Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Ice Cream for Christmas

I knew as soon as I saw this ice cream cake in the December 2007 issue of Cooking Light that I had to make it. I love the cakes that come from Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin Robbins that combine regular cake with a layer of ice cream so I couldn't resist trying to make one at home. I figured it would be the perfect dessert to bring to Joe's aunt's house for Christmas Eve. The only issue I ran into was that I could not locate any peppermint ice cream at the grocery store, so I wound up using mint chocolate chip. I also cheated and instead of using the chocolate cake in the recipe (below), I used a boxed mix and a can of Diet Pepsi to make this even lower in calories and fat. The cakes didn't rise as much as I felt they should but that actually worked out well in producing and even layer cake. I may try the from-scratch cake next time, but this was great as it was and everyone gobbled it up after Christmas Eve dinner. I'm anxious to try it again with different flavor combinations.


Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients
Cooking spray
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup boiling water
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup egg substitute
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
(I used a box mix cake)

3 cups low-fat peppermint ice cream (such as Edy's/Dreyer's Slow-Churned Light), softened (I used mint chocolate chip)
3 cups frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
8 peppermint candies, crushed

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Coat 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray. Line bottom of each pan with wax paper.
Combine cocoa, water, and butter, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cool.
Combine sugars in a large bowl, stirring well until blended. Add egg substitute; beat 2 minutes or until light and creamy. Add cocoa mixture, and beat for 1 minute.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to bowl; beat for 1 minute or until blended. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 28 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans. Wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze for 2 hours or until slightly frozen.
Spread ice cream in an 8-inch round cake pan lined with plastic wrap. Cover and freeze 4 hours or until firm.
To assemble cake, place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a cake pedestal. Remove ice cream layer from freezer; remove plastic wrap. Place ice cream layer, bottom side up, on top of cake layer. Top with remaining cake layer.
Combine whipped topping and peppermint extract, and stir until blended. Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. Sprinkle with crushed peppermints. Freeze until ready to serve. Let cake stand at room temperature 10 minutes before slicing.
Yield
16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 251(24% from fat); FAT 6.8g (sat 3.3g,mono 2.1g,poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 4.3g; CHOLESTEROL 19mg; CALCIUM 63mg; SODIUM 207mg; FIBER 1.7g; IRON 1.6mg; CARBOHYDRATE 44.4g

4 comments:

~Amber~ said...

This looks really yummy!! Nothing better than ice cream.

Namratha said...

Hi Brooke, the cake looks awesome! Can almost taste the mint and chocolate..would love to try it. You have a lovely blog here, nice recipes :)

Unknown said...

This looks great! I think my dad would really like it. I pulled this from my magazine, but like most recipes I've pulled, it's just sitting in my Cooking Light file@!

Carrie said...

Thanks for sharing! I finally made this!