Peppermint Stick Ice Cream Cake ~

My sister's granddaughter Laina, discovering her first Christmas Tree.  Oh Holy Night.....

I have been making this knock off ice cream cake for a long time.  And once again I have no real recipe for one, I just make what I thought up from having so many Carvel Ice Cream cakes through the years.  After awhile, I kept saying, how hard would it be to make a cake that cost so much?  Again, I come back to think the way Ina Garten says on many of her shows.  Use good ingredients.

For one 9" cake, have a spring form pan and wrap the inside with plastic wrap, leaving extra overlapping.  Use 1/2 gallon of good ice cream, or make your own.  And two and 1/2 sleeves of oreo cookies, crumbled in the food processor.  I used to do a layer at a time, so I know that I use a sleeve at the bottom and another in the middle layer and a half of sleeve on top of the cake.  The possibilities are endless, all you need to mix up your layers is your imagination.

Start with a layer of oreo cookie crumbs, pressed in the bottom of your prepared 9" sprinform pan.

Let your ice cream set out on your counter for about an hour.  Unless you keep your house extra warm, or it's very hot outside, then do 1/2 hr.  Just enough to soften, not melt.

Next, spoon in 1/2 of your ice cream and don't even bother with spreading it around.  It will settle just fine.

Next, sprinkle with the second sleeve of oreo cookie crumbs.

For this cake I chopped up two large candy canes (I crushed the candy canes with my rolling pin in a zip lock bag.  Set aside the larger pieces to decorate the top.

I also chopped up 1/2 box of Ande's Christmas Crunchy Mints.  Again, saving the bigger pieces for the top layer.

Now, sprinkle half of the smaller candy cane pieces and half of the Ande Mint pieces all over the top of the oreo cookie crumbs.  And gently press down with the back of a tablespoon.

Add the rest of your ice cream.  In the summer, I place the cake in the freezer between layers to harden up a little.  I don't in the winter, but the ice cream will be very soft by this point.  So gently spread the ice cream to the edges.

For the top of the cake, decorate with the rest of your oreo cookie crumbs and your candies.  I do cookie crumbs around the edges and make a circle in the center.  But, you can do it anyway you want.  This cake is a crowd pleaser any way you make it.  Cover cake with more plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Take it out of the freezer about 1/2 hour beore serving.  Remove the sides of the springform
pan and peel down the plastic wrap.  Take a knife and smooth out sides of cake.  Serve with a basic chocolate sauce if you like.

Here is mine ready for the freezer.  Oh, I really love to use peppermint stick ice cream for this cake, but every store was sold out, so I used mint chocolate chip.  It works.

Enjoy ~