Ice Cream Cake (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free)

It would appear that my blogging days are coming to an end, and it has occurred to me that every time I open up my blog (and possibly forever more, when anyone finds themselves here) the last thing that I posted will be here waiting to represent my entire blog. The last thing I posted was a review. Don't get me wrong, it was a good review, but not exactly the farewell post that I had dreamed of. I started YummyAllergenFree in 2008 right after my youngest daughter's 6th birthday. I was testing cake after cake recipe in search of the perfect allergen free birthday cake, and was starting to realize that I thrived on the challenge. Once I started the blog, and started interacting with all of my readers, I knew that I had found my passion. In 2010 I finally came up with an allergen free cake that I was happy with. Another of our favorites was a giant crispy rice treat made into a cake, but I guess I didn't post that one. Well, here we are at birthday number 12. I feel good about bringing this full circle and wrapping it all up with a birthday cake, and I expect that this year's incredible ice cream cake will be a welcome greeting every time I return here looking for archived recipes (yes, I still do that, and I hope you will too).  I can't thank you all enough for joining me on this journey, you have touched and enriched my life so very, very much! Okay, enough with the tears...here's to the inspiration for it all...Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Ice Cream Cake: (this is going to be rambling...I mean instructions... more than a recipe)

      Prepare one package of Pamela's Chocolate Brownie Mix (available to the right in my "Amazon Favorites") as directed on the side panel for eggless chocolate cake. A note here: *Pamela's does have possible cross contamination warnings, so please read the package carefully, and/or call the company, before deciding if it is right for you. Bake in two 8" round cake pans. Put in the freezer to cool.

     While the cake is cooling, soften one pint of dairy free ice cream of your choice. This time around I used Double Rainbow mint chip soy ice cream, which I had never heard of before, but it was the only mint chip I could find, and it was really good. *Double rainbow also carries cross contamination warnings. When the ice cream was soft, but not melted, we mixed a few drops of green food coloring so it would look more like traditional mint chip ice cream. If you really want to get crazy and make your own ice cream, speedbumpkitchen's ice cream shoppe is one of my favorite resources.

     Lay one cake round on your platter. If you are going to be decorating it and want you platter to be clean, lay strips of waxed paper just under the edges of the cake. The frosting will get on the paper instead of the plate, and then the paper strips can be slid out and thrown away when you are finished. Make sure ice cream is soft but stiff. refreeze a little if necessary. Spread the ice cream on the cake, spreading evenly, and all the way to the edges. Place the other cake round on top of that and press down just a bit. Use an icing spatula or a butter knife to smooth the ice cream around the edges of the cake and give you nice flat sides. Pop the cake back in the freezer for about an hour.

     We frosted our cake with Betty Crocker's whipped white frosting, then decorated it using  my buttercream frosting recipe. Thank you to my daughter Amanda for the beautiful decorating job! In order to keep the colors true, we doubled the amount of palm shortening in the recipe and omitted the margarine.

     That's it, put it back in the freezer until ready to serve. I was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and it was really, really good!!!

One last thing...please know that although I may not be posting new recipes (or maybe I will, who knows what the future holds), I will continue to respond to all questions and comments left on all posts, current or ancient. I would still love to hear from you! :)