How To Make an Ice Cream Cake (Even Better than Dairy Queen!)

I recently discovered that ice cream cake is a surprisingly divisive topic. When I asked friends and readers whether actual cake belonged in ice cream cake, the responses were severely split. Of course! said some. Absolutely not, insisted others. It turns out, you see, that many, many people were raised on the Dairy Queen and Carvel ice cream cakes, which are nothing but pure and cold ice cream, with chocolate cookie bits in the middle, and a luscious layer of whipped frosting over it all.

So today, dear readers, for those of you who dream of nothing more than recreating this childhood memory at home, perhaps with your own homemade ice cream, here is a step-by-step recipe to let you do just that. How to make an ice cream cake — it can be even better than DQ’s, if you can imagine that.

Before we get started, though, I need to level with you. Making an ice cream cake from scratch is not an entirely good deal, economically speaking. Dairy Queen charges about $20 to $25 for its regular round cakes. Making this with good-quality ice cream and store-bought ingredients, like fudge sauce and cookies, will probably be quite a bit more.

Of course, money isn’t the only reason to do something from scratch; you may want to use your own special homemade flavors, or create a cake with dairy-free ice cream. You might want to decorate it specially, or include home-baked cookies inside.

But just fair warning — if you want the cheapest option, pick one up at your local shop. For all the other reasons, proceed!

Now that we’ve talked about that, let’s talk about how long this will take you. Making an ice cream cake is not a lot of work; I dare say it’s easier than a baked cake. But it does take time — almost entirely hands-off time, but still. If you want an ice cream cake for a birthday party, I would start at least three days ahead.

You need a day to create the first layer, which has to freeze until solid. Then the next ice cream layer, and after that, it freezes overnight so it’s stable enough to remove the springform ring. Then you frost the cake with whipped cream, and it’s really best to let it sit in the freezer one more night before serving. You’re always fighting the clock when working with ice cream, so give yourself plenty of time to let things chill out between steps.

Last but not least: freezer space. You need a lot. Enough to slide a whole sheet pan into the freezer. Upright freezers are best for this; side-by-side and bottom-drawer freezers make it tough. Clear your freezer and do a test run with the pans before getting started.