I am now 25!  Seems kinda hard to believe..but, I had a great day!  I ate a LOT of ice cream and had two different cakes!  And John made one of them!

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing!  My favorite! It was delicious!  We also went to Casbah for dinner and it was really good!  I think it would have been a lot better if I wasn’t so full from all the sugary things I had enjoyed earlier in the day.  But regardless, Big Burrito Restaurant Group pleased once again!

I said in my last post that I was going to post the recipe for the Chocolate Fudge Peppermint Ice Cream Cake that I made using homemade Peppermint Ice Cream and I am going to do just that.  This ice cream cake is oh so good!  With refreshing peppermint, creamy fudge, Oreo cookie base…yum!!  You should make it!

I found the recipe on Taste of Home but I halved it and put it in a 9 inch spring form pan instead of a 9×13.  So I am going to give you the half recipe that I used.

Chocolate Fudge Peppermint Ice Cream Cake

Base:

9 oz Oreos crushed (half of a normal 18 oz. package)
1/4 c melted butter

Crush Oreos in a food processor, then add melted butter.

Press into 9 inch circle pan (If using a spring form pan, make sure the seal is tight!  If you’re not sure, cover the bottom with aluminum foil).

Fudgey Center:

1 1/4 c chocolate chips
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
dash of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Melt the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and salt on the stove until smooth.

Take off heat and stir in vanilla and peppermint extracts.  Spread on Oreo cookie base.

Freeze for 20 minutes.  While it is freezing, take the ice cream out of the freezer so it can soften to a spreadable consistency.

Ice Cream

1 1/2 quarts Peppermint ice cream (If you made the recipe I posted that would be about 3/4 of the amount made, it would also be 3/4 of a half gallon of ice cream from the store)

Spread over base, and fudgey center.  Freeze.

Fudge Topping:

1/4 c butter
1/2 c chocolate chips
7 oz evaporated milk
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the butter and chocolate chips on the stove.

Add the evaporated milk and powdered sugar.  Bring to a boil on medium low heat, stirring continuously for about 8 minutes.  You will feel it start to thicken.

Take off heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Allow to cool stirring occasionally.  When mostly cool spread on top of the ice cream.  Freeze until solid.

We had a hard time cutting this cake because the Oreo crust was frozen.  I recommend getting it out of the freezer a few minutes before serving.  Even then you may struggle cutting the first few pieces,  but it is worth it!

I love ice cream!  I know that almost everyone does, but I might love it more.  Luckily, my parents are ice cream lovers as well so I grew up with a freezer that most of the time, was stocked with ice cream.  And not just in the summer my friends.  Ice cream is an anytime food!  In fact, it might taste better in the winter when you’re all bundled up in blankets.

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on an ice cream carton though?  You’d think it would be a relatively short list, but nope, there are a ton of ingredients in there and corn syrup is one of the first! gross.  Now this by no means, implies that I stopped eating ice cream.  I definitely didn’t because it’s just to good!  We did cut back though.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I got an ice cream maker for Christmas.  Now I can experiment with ice cream flavors AND I know exactly what is going into it.

We had friends over for dinner this past weekend and had a nice meal (which I obviously forgot to take pictures of), BUT for dessert we had some homemade chocolate ice cream and hot fudge sauce.  That’s right baby, chocolate and chocolate all the way.

I moderated the Simple Chocolate Ice Cream recipe from the Recipe booklet that came with my ice cream maker (I got the 2 quart Cuisinart by the way).

Chocolate Ice Cream

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 c white sugar (I used organic evaporated cane juice)
1/2 brown sugar
1 1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk (the original recipe calls for whole milk if you prefer…)
3 c heavy cream
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp corn starch

Mix sugar and almond milk together until sugar dissolves.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.  Chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Make in ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.  Add any mix ins about 5 minutes before ice cream is done if you want (raspberries, chocolate chips, any kind of candy bar- this recipe is very versatile)

Now, the hot fudge sauce!  This is my moms recipe (I hope it’s not a secret recipe…) and I think it is the best ever!  I always seem to lose the recipe, so I have asked her for it many times.  In the past, When I was waiting for my mom to e-mail me the recipe for the eighth time, I would search Google trying to find any recipe to compare to this one.  But I never could.  Most of the recipes I found use at least 1 stick of butter, and corn syrup.  Not this recipe.  Typically I do half ice cream, half hot fudge.  And I have been known to sneak into the kitchen to eat spoonfuls of it plain (I just ate two spoonfuls about 10 minutes ago…shhh)

The Best (in my opinion) Hot Fudge Sauce

2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 c sugar
1 c milk (I have used all kinds with this recipe-almond, soy, skim- so whatever you want to use!)
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter and chocolate over medium heat in small saucepan.

Add milk and bring to a slow boil.

Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Bring to low boil again.  Simmer 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

So there you have it!  Chocolate ice cream AND hot fudge sauce.

P.S. I am in the market for delicious tried and true ice cream recipes.  If you have any, please send me the recipe!