Gluten Free Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake

Well, it looks like all of August has passed me by and we’re nearly through September.  I have to share with you a little change in my life. For those of you that don’t know, I was a Lieutenant in my fire department.  Early this Summer I began preparing for a promotion to Battalion Chief, which is kind of like a shift supervisor. This preparation pretty much wiped out a relaxing Summer. However, I got the promotion about a month ago. It has been a very exciting change but it has kept me busier than I imagined it would. I haven’t been cooking up too many new dishes to share on my blog. Although, I did have the opportunity to surprise my wife with a tasty cake for her birthday last month. My wife will sometimes buy Glutino chocolate sandwich cookies and break them up in Dairy Queen soft serve vanilla ice cream for dessert. This gave me the bright idea to make a cookies and cream ice cream birthday cake. Without further adieu, here it is:
Gluten Free Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake:
Cake:
1-2/3 cup GF flour mix
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Filling:
1 quart Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve ice cream
7-10 Glutino or Kinnikinnick chocolate sandwich cookies
Frosting:
2-Pillsbury vanilla tubsIn the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl or cup, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry until thoroughly combined.Divide the batter between 2 buttered and gf floured 9 inch round pans. (on a side note, if you are looking for an easy tasty chocolate cake to snack on, use this same recipe but put it in an 8” square pan and bake at 35o degrees F for 35-45 minutes) For the ice cream cake, bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cakes, then wrap them individually in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer for at least 4 hours. It’s best to work on this cake a day ahead of time.At this point you need to work quickly to keep the ice cream from melting too much. I started out by lining a baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, remove one layer of cake from the freezer and discard the plastic wrap. Place the whole quart of vanilla ice cream in the bowl of your stand mixer, add about 7-10 cookies and crush them to bits with the paddle attachment. Working quickly, spread the ice cream onto the bottom layer of cake and then add the top layer on. Try to smooth the sides of the ice cream and fill in any gaps. It should look like a giant ice cream sandwich. Get the cake back in the freezer for about 2 hours. When you are ready to frost the cake, remove it from the freezer and work, wait for it………quickly!!!, to get a thin base layer of frosting on. The frosting doesn’t want to stick to the ice cream very well, just do the best you can. It doesn’t matter if the whole cake is covered at this point. Stick the cake back in the freezer for about an hour. Take the cake out and finish frosting. Now that you have a base layer of semi-frozen frosting on, the second layer of frosting should go on easily.Sprinkle some crushed cookies on top along with a few whole ones for decoration. Get the cake back in the freezer until you are ready to serve it. I didn’t want to mess with trying to take the cake off the baking sheet, so I just left it on. My wife was too excited to care anyway. There you go, one gluten free cookies and cream ice cream cake. Of course yours doesn’t have to be cookies and cream, this would work great with Butterfinger, peanut butter cups, etc. Enjoy!!!