Strawberry Cake Ice Cream

There is something so wonderful about being all wrapped up in a cozy blanket, eating cold ice cream in winter. Having an elephantine sweet tooth, I go ga ga over cakes. And when its Cake with Ice cream, I admit I am absolutely shameless. The best thing about this dessert is it can be made and frozen well in advance. (Not that it will  remain uneaten for a long time:-)). Imagine, just removing a dessert from your freezer and serving it to an unexpected guest. Or just feeding your sweet tooth when  the dessert craving hits on a lazy day. I would make this and stove it into the freezer just to have the comfort of having a dessert ready at hand anytime. Uuummmmm....

Blog hopping and seeing the sea of recipes, I rued myself for not having tried more variety in the basic cake recipes. Though I had made the basic sponge just a few days ago, I was itching to try the same once more, just to know if slight variations would give the same results. I also wanted to test the new strawberry essence I had got from my latest expedition to Nilgiris. I tried this one from Deeba.

Strawberry Sponge ( please read this recipe here for more details if baking a fatless sponge for the first time)
Ingredients:

• Eggs - 3
• Castor sugar - 1/2 cup
• Flour - 1/2 cup
• Strawberry essence - 1 tsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line, grease & dust a Swiss roll tin.
• Beat the eggs, essence & sugar till mousse like (almost 10 minutes). I added a couple of drops of pink food color.
• Lightly fold the flour in 3 goes in figure 8 movements (so as no to release the air bubbles).
• Gently turn into prepared tray & bake for 10-12 minutes till light brown & spongy. I baked the sponge in my regular cake tin as I do not have a Swiss roll tin.

The sponge was airy and light. It was ages since I had made Ice Cream cake and it helped that I had some left over Vanilla Ice Cream in the freezer. So it was going to be a Strawberry Cake Ice Cream with chocolate chips.

More Ingredients

• A packet of Vanilla Ice Cream
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• Simple sugar syrup 3/4 cup

The Ice Cream needs to be kept out of the freezer till it becomes soft. I microwaved mine to hasten the process. Add chocolate chips and mix to distribute them evenly in the ice cream. Slice the cake horizontally into thin layers. Place the loaf tin on the cake layers and cut out slices measuring the bottom and the sides. Don't forget to reserve one slice for the top layer.  Keep aside.

 I lined my non stick loaf tin with cling film. This makes getting the Cake Ice cream out of the tin a breeze.The cling film  length has to be enough to over the  bottom and the top of the tin completely. In went slices of cake at the bottom and sides. Moisten the cake well with simple sugar syrup(water and sugar in 1:1 ratio, adjust sugar to taste if needed).  Fill the ice cream in the cake till almost full . Top with another slice of cake, moisten with sugar syrup. Cover well with cling film. This helps prevent crystallization, making the dessert smoother. Freeze

I find that this works better at a lower freezer setting for atleast 4-5 hours or better still overnight. This helps the dessert set well without making it too hard.  Check and remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving. Slice with a sharp knife dipped in hot water. Serve immediately.

Please Note: If the dessert becomes too hard, remove from the freezer and keep in the fridge till it softens. You could also try microwaving for a few seconds.

Try making this with Vanilla sponge and Chocolate Ice cream  or Pista Ice Cream and nuts, Pista Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream, Vanilla sponge with coffee ice cream and praline etc.