Boyfriend's Birthday = Ice Cream Cookie Cake

Today is my boyfriend's birthday!

Yet, to both of our displeasure, we are not in the same state or even time zone today. He's in Georgia at Graduate School and I'm back home getting ready to travel to London. Very different places, not to mention he had class today so it wasn't all that fun for him.

But! to try and make up for me not being there, his birthday being on a Tuesday, and the loneliness that involves a birthday without that group of friends beside you, I made him a birthday cake last Friday before I left on the bus Saturday. I stole his car Thursday, loaded up with ingredients, hid them, and then while he was taking a 3 hour nap on Friday I baked. I think the best part of that was that he woke up and asked "Were you cooking?" and I told him no. He assumed it was some weird dreams. tehehe.

The recipe came from my good friend Betty Crocker: Here.

It is entitled: Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Dessert.
I call it the Ice Cream Cookie Cake.

It took me a while to debate between this or Brown Eyed Baker's Root Beer Float Cake. Yet, when it came down to it, my boyfriend looooves ice cream, ice cream cakes, and cookie cakes. So what would be better than mixing it all together?

Not to mention the ingredient list was pretty simple:

• a 1 pound 1.5 oz bag of Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix
• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 7.25 oz bottle of hard shell chocolate topping (like the Hershey or Smuckers ice cream kind)
• Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (it says 6 cups, I got a big thing and used however much I wanted and had leftovers)

You begin, of course, by preheating to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You should then either spray, butter, or cover in tinfoil a 13 x 9 inch pan. I did tinfoil since a lot of reviews said it was hard to get the cookie crust off the pan. Then you stir in a bowl the cookie mix, softened margarine (or butter), and egg to form a soft dough. This may be more difficult than you expect,especially if you're like me and you're used to brownie or cake mix that uses oil and not margarine. The softened margarine is a lot less liquidy and it'll take more effort to mix it together to get a consistent soft dough.

Then you take a cookie sheet and spoon out 5 cookies worth of dough. I just used a teaspoon and made smaller cookies, since they'll just be crumbled on top of your finished product and you'd rather have more to spread over the bottom of the pan.  Bake these 9 to 11 minutes, if you make them smaller it may only take 8 though. Then cool them for around two minutes, remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack. The two minutes isn't as important, but you don't want them to fall apart when you take them off because they're too hot. I know, seems silly since you are crumbling them, but that's a lot later and the crumbles don't belong on the stove or the counter.

While they're cooling, you can begin the grueling task of putting the rest of the cookie dough into the bottom of the 13 x 9 inch pan. This is one sticky job. A lot of people recommended using wax paper to press the dough down, since it's messy, but I don't mind really getting my hands in there. Instead I wet my fingers lightly and used them to press the dough after I spooned a bit into each section. Doing it in sections also helped me be able to spread them across the pan evenly. It reminded me a lot like trying to press pizza dough into a round shape - the only difference is the enormous difficulty you'll have trying to get it all evened out. You want it even like cake batter, but it's a lot harder to spread across when one side is thicker. It took a lot of time, but ended up being kind of fun having doughy fingers afterward. Once it's even and you feel satisfied with the dough, bake it for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookie is set. Then you have to cool it for quite a while - it says 30 minutes, but mine took closer to 45 minutes to completely cool (which is what you want).

Beginning the ice cream process on top of the chocolate

When it's finally cool to the touch, spread the hard shell chocolate topping over the baked crust. Again, recommended 1/3 cup, but I just made sure it was a nice, pretty even layer over the entirety of the cookie crust. Flash freeze that for 10 to 15 minutes in the freezer to help it set quickly. Also: NEVER keep a bottle of the hard shell topping in the fridge. It says not to, so read that and do it. Instead keep it in a cupboard or other room temperature state, because it'll become a shell and not come out of the bottle until you re-melt it if you keep it in the fridge. I was really frustrated after the cookie had cooled and I had to hold the chocolate topping bottle under hot water to get it to melt.


                                                                 Speaking of melting... you see that transition there? Pretty nice.

You'll want the ice cream to soften just as you're taking the crust with the frozen topping out of the freezer. This way it'll be ten times easier to spread evenly over the crust in the pan. Which, again, is pretty time consuming and more difficult than you think. Especially since i wanted not too thick of a layer and for it all to be even. Those cookie dough bites just get in the way! I used my hands, a spoon, and a butter knife to help me even it out all across. The hands might be more risky if it's for more than just your boyfriend, but either way make sure you clean your hands a lot.


With ice cream set, even, and beautiful you crumble your baked cookies on top. This may be the most fun, especially if you steal nibbles like I did. Smoosh the cookies up and make them whatever size you'd like on top. Then drizzle more chocolate topping over the cookie crumbs and ice cream however you'd like. As you can see, I did a swirl and waves for a fun ice cream topping look. Cover this and then freeze for 2 hours.




When you're ready to surprise your boyfriend, or just serve up your delicious Ice Cream Cookie Cake, let it thaw for around 5 minutes and cut into it. Just be sure that you aren't serving up the tinfoil as well.
Doesn't it look yummy?

Just be careful using a fork to break it apart, the other side might fly across the room - aka what happened to my boyfriend. It was a sweet, simple tasting, warm dessert for my love's special day. I hope you can make your loved ones smile with it too.

- Mollie

Birthday Sweetness

A whirlwind of finals, spring break, and new adventures in my life has left me with a lot to write and a lot less time to do it in. Therefore I will write now to tell you about the great baking adventures this first week of class has left me with.

My friend Caylie's birthday was on Tuesday. During spring break we had discussed playing board games Monday night and going out at midnight to celebrate her turning 21 at that exact moment with drinks and revelry. From that point on I was on a quest:  to make her a beautiful birthday cake.


I enlisted her room mate via facebook to help find out what kinds of cakes she enjoyed while I scoured the internet and my own supply of recipes for something fascinating. It came down to me agonizing over various options the Sunday beforehand with no clue as to what would be perfect. I came down to a funfetti, because it's bright, colorful, and fun just like she is. I also discovered a Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe that was a tantalizing combination of cream cheese and whipped cream that I had to try. Home made supplies in tow I was prepared to make the cake.

I found a site with some Google searching that showed how to make and box your own cake mix as well as make funfetti cake. This Smockity Frocks' recipe turned out particularly delicious, with a nice softness and a delicious I-can't-keep-my-fingers-out-of-it batter.
The Simple, but Delicious White Cake recipe:

Ingredients

•   2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
•  1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To begin, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl. I'm usually pretty terrible about actually sifting things, but I recommend it when you want light, fluffy cake.
Then it states to "cut" in shortening until fine crumbs are formed. While I had no idea what this was, the internet described it as a process to have the fat more separated than usual. I used a butter knife, but the internet again recommended a fancy cutting tool that is apparently pretty cheap. I just cut it up, pushing and mixing as I cut it, and kept playing with it until a crummy mixture seemed to be forming that fit.
Now add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat at low speed for 1 minute, and high speed for 2 minutes. Make sure you get all of it in there, so scrape the sides frequently. It recommends beating the egg whites separately for a lighter cake which I didn't try, but my cake was still very fluffy.
Now is the fun part! Dump in your sprinkles! I just shook in all sorts of oblong sprinkles, of all colors and seasons, but the recipe itself recommends 1/4 cup of oblong sprinkles. Either way it's important that they are OBLONG and not the little round ones, which will just make the batter weird colored and not pop as well when baking. Pour batter into your pan, I split it into two circular cake pans sprayed with pam, and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. The recipe itself calls for 25-30, but my sides were a bit burnt at 25, so I suggest keeping an eye on it once it hits 20 just to see how your oven handles the cake.

From here on out I got a lot more particular with everything I did. I followed All Recipe's Cake Frosting tips rather than just slopping everything together because I want to see the final piece as soon as possible. This means making sure the cake is cooled completely. I let mine sit in the pan for a while, removed it from the pan to cool even more, and then began to do what I think of as "cake shaving". This means trimming the top and bottoms of each layer of the cake to get off that brownish outside section, make the cake flat, and keep off that crunchier sections that may have baked faster. This is really yummy for the chef, especially if you haven't had dinner yet.
But before I did all my trimming and as the cake cooled, I began with the frosting recipe. This has gotten a lot of mixed reviews due to some people having problems with the cream and getting the wrong consistency. This is why you should ALWAYS read reviews to find out what changes the recipe might need. This led me to start by placing my medium sized bowl, the beaters, and heavy whipping cream in the freezer while I began getting the rest of the ingredients together.

In another bowl I placed 1 softened (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, 1 cup of sifted powdered sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. I used low-fat cream cheese and still came out with an amazing frosting, so feel free to be a little healthy in your fatty frosting. The important aspect is I didn't mix this bowl yet. I kept everything there without letting the mixer touch it. Instead I pulled out the heavy whipping cream, beaters, and bowl from the freezer (letting them sit there for around 10 minutes total) and began to work on that. Pour 1 1/2 cups of the heavy whipping cream into the bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. I've done this part with my mom before, so I knew what to look for, but if you don't feel free to google search for videos or photos. You don't want to beat past the stiff peaks aspect or it'll be a lot harder to have the right texture.

Now that the whipped cream has formed stiff peaks you can beat together the cream cheese mixture. It's okay if some of the whipped cream gets into this mixture from the beaters, but it can't be the other way around. If the fatty cream cheese sticks to the beaters when you're trying to beat the stiff peaks it'll be a lot harder - this is why I waited to beat the cream cheese mixture. Once it's beaten, fold in the whipped cream. Give it a taste or two and sweeten if you feel necessary. Remember though it'll get sweeter once in the fridge - which I didn't expect to happen.

From there I did a quick crumb coat, again following the Cake Tips to do a thin layer on the top of the first layer, placing the second layer on top, and frosting a thin layer all over the tops and sides to keep it all together and looking nice. This was placed into the fridge with the rest of the frosting to chill for a bit. Then I was able to pull out the cake and have some fun!
Here you can feel free to lob on large amounts of frosting and smooth all over. Make it tastey, smooth, and use the spatula to try and make the edges not so rough. This was a very tedious task, but fun once I felt I knew what I was doing. Once most of the frosting was on the cake and pretty well spread all over I used a butter knife with water on it to try and keep it smoother. This was hard since it was so small in comparison and left some lines on my cake, but for a first time at really working at icing a cake I felt good about it. From there on out I just enjoyed decorating it bright and fun for my friend. I wish I knew a better way to get the small rainbow ball sprinkles on the sides rather than shaking it at the cake like I did - hoping they'd stick right.

I don't think I'll ever be a writer for a cake company - my handwriting is too terrible, but it was fun. That's what counts right? Plus I used purple princess sparkle icing that had a glimmer in it that even caught their attention while cutting it. I thought that would be a little detail only I would enjoy, but it was noticed, which always makes you feel extra special.

The cake itself turned out light, fluffy, and sweet. I learned later from my friend Ashley that I should have tossed a drop of lemon juice in to really make the sprinkles pop inside the cake, rather than just random colors throughout.

This cake adventure was large and made me appreciate the simpleness of a cupcake. Yet it also made me want to learn the more extensive decorating techniques of making a cake. I think I'm going to play around with it much more than I usually do now that I have a basis of knowledge.

Most importantly though, Caylie got two cakes and was pretty thrilled with cake, birthday, and friends. And this is why I love baking.

- Mollie