Easy Homemade Ice Cream Cake (with chocolate crunchies)

The best part about ice cream cake is the chocolate crunchies. We all know it’s true. Through research, I found a way you can make your own chocolate crunchies at home and bring a homemade ice cream cake to a whole new level. This recipe gives plenty of room for creativity as you can experiment with different ice cream flavor combos, toppings, etc. Have fun with it! My boyfriend’s mom claimed my cake was better than Carvel. Try it out and let me know what flavors you play with and how you think it compares to store bought!

Ingredients:
2 cartons of ice cream – whatever flavors you want
1 container of Oreos – could substitute gluten free oreo substitutes if needed
1 bottle of Magic Shell
2 regular size container of cool whip or one big one
toppings of choice

The first thing I do is thaw my ingredients. With that, I will note that the cool whip will take the longest to thaw, and you might want to wait to thaw the ice cream until after the cool whip is pretty soft. This could help save time of sticking the cake in the freezer to set up or help reduce the flavors running together.

While the ingredients are thawing, make the chocolate crunchies. Take two rows of Oreos (or off-brand chocolate sandwich cookies) and crush them up. I used a food processer, but you could also use a blender or a rolling pin and ziplock bag. Pour the crushed cookies into a bowl and add the entire bottle of Magic Shell. Mix well until all of the cookie crumbs are coated in Magic Shell. Don’t worry, the chocolate won’t harden until it gets cold.

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In a 9 x 13 pan (note that glass can break if frozen so I’d stay away from a glass pan), try to line the edges with cool whip. I’ll be honest, it isn’t easy and it probably won’t look pretty. But this is to get the “icing” on the sides of your cake as well as the top. I use a spatula and spread it along the sides.

Next, take the ice cream you want at the bottom of your cake, and scoop it into the pan. With a spatula, smooth out the ice cream.

Spoon out the chocolate crunchies and spread them evenly on top of the ice cream. I’ll be honest, my ice cream was pretty soft and it made it a little difficult to get the nice even layer I wanted. If you feel your ice cream is a bit too soft, I’d recommend popping it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to get it to harden up a bit more. That should make it easier to add those crunchies.

After I added the crunchies, I had put my cake in the freezer to set, but if you chose to do that before adding the crunchies, you might be able to skip that step. Regardless, the cake will taste delicious, it more so depends on how ‘pretty’ and ‘even’ you want it to be.

Next, take the second flavor of ice cream and scoop it out into your pan. Carefully spread the ice cream out like you did with the other flavor. I will note that if the layer below isn’t frozen the crunchies could shift or flavors could mix at the sides. Again, I’m here for the taste not the beauty, but if you’re a perfectionist, you might want to make sure the first layers sets a bit.

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To top off your cake, you’re going to spread a nice layer of cool whip along the top. This serves as your ‘icing’. Lastly, add whatever toppings you want to make the cake more festive. I chose sprinkles and Butterfinger bites!

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Place it back into freezer to set up all the way and then cut in and enjoy!