Eric likes ice cream cake. Every year he requests one on his birthday. In the past I’ve just gone to one of the standard chain ice cream cake maker places and picked one up for him, but this year he’s been doing pretty good at eating gluten free (doctor recommended for candida overgrowth, not because it’s trendy or because I made him do it – and believe me, I’ve tried) and so I went on a mission to find a place that made gluten free/dairy free ice cream cakes (because I might as well get to enjoy it too). And while you’d think there would be somewhere in all of Los Angeles that makes such a thing, I hunted and had no such luck.

So I decided to make one, but really didn’t want to go through the effort of doing everything from scratch. Enter in Simple Mills mixes and Coconut Bliss ice cream. So without further ado, here’s my official slacker paleo-ish (because these products are the closest pre-made things I’ve found to paleo/allergen friendly, when you just don’t have the time or energy to do it yourself but really want to eat the closest to safe ingredients you can find) ice cream cake. I think there are tons of ways you could modify this with homemade ice cream, or homemade cake, or different flavors, but this is what I did. Enjoy!

You will need: 

• 1 Simple Mills Cake mix box plus all the ingredients it requires to make said cake like eggs, oil, and water (I used this one)
• 2 single pints of Coconut Bliss ice cream, which ever flavors tickle your fancy – I used the Mocha Maca Crunch and the Vanilla Island
• 1 container of Simple Mills frosting – I used the Vanilla
• Fresh organic berries to top it and make it look pretty
• Fishing wire (weird, I know, but I’ll explain below)
• Optional – box of pulverized (like – put them in a bag and pound on them until they’re crumbly) Simple Mills Cookies for that signature extra crunch

1. In a spring form pan lined with parchment paper,  bake the cake according to instructions on the box, but remove it 5 minutes early so it’s a little bit mushy. Remove from springform pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. I put mine in the fridge to speed up the process, and it took about a half hour or so.
2. Once the cake is out of the oven, soften the ice cream by placing the cartons on the counter while the cake is cooling (alternately, you can leave them in the fridge for an hour or two).
3. When the cake is completely cooled down, take your fishing wire, line it up in the middle of the cake from the outside, and use it to cut the cake in half lengthwise, so as to make 2 layers. This is my favorite way to make layers out of a cake, although I’m sure there are many other hacks on YouTube. But this is my blog, so I’m giving my hack.
4. Place the bottom layer of the cake on top of the parchment paper back in the springform pan. This will be your ice cream cake base.
5. Take one of the pints of softened ice cream and scoop it on top of the bottom cake layer, and smooth it out until it’s a flat layer. If you did choose to pulverize some cookies, now’s the time to pour them on top of the ice cream. If you didn’t, you really don’t need them anyway, so no biggie.
6. Next, add on your second layer of cake.
7. Repeat with second carton of ice cream.
8. Freeze. For at least 3 hours but try for 6. Or even overnight, if you have time.
9. Take the cake out of the freezer. Frost it with the frosting. Or don’t. It technically doesn’t need frosting, but it does make it extra tasty.
10. Add Berries.
11. Re-freeze until it’s time to serve cake.
12. Eat the cake.

*Side note – I only took it out of the springform mold long enough to take a photo. Since the cake didn’t get eaten in one night, it made it much easier to leave it in the springform in the freezer.

All photos ©Jenna Peffley – it is illegal to use them without credit or permission. Thanks for not being an ass.