The Leftover Chocolates & Candy Ice Cream Cake Recipe

The Leftover Chocolates & Candy Ice Cream Cake Recipe

Here’s a slight teaser for my Monday post – 10 Dessert Trends in Vancouver for 2012.

Alright. Don’t lie. How many of you still have chocolate left from Valentine’s Day? I’m sensing some hands. And Christmas? Don’t be shy, I still have some from last year. And then Halloween? Uh huh. And how bout Halloween 2010? There has got to be some of you. You either forgot about them, got sick of them, or went too crazy when they went for 50% off. We’ve all been there and done that, or at least know someone who has been there and done that.

So now what?! It’s almost Easter and you plan to get all the discount chocolate and candies all over again, but you’re not even finished with the ones you have. You can’t really save them for the kids trick or treating this year, or you could, but it’s not in good taste – literally and figuratively. On the other hand, chocolate and candy don’t really go bad, at least not the kind you’re buying at the grocery store; but eventually you want to do something with your stash and not have it sit there for another year. So what to do? Well here’s an idea.

I don’t even have an official “recipe” for this, so just take the idea and run with it. That’s essentially what I’m doing because the cake you see was made by my friend, and I just made my own version using his idea. There are several recipes for this, but here’s mine. I’m not sure if I would even call it a “recipe”, because it’s honestly the easiest thing, but it tastes great!

The Leftover Chocolates & Candy Ice Cream Cake “Recipe”

It’s an Ice Cream Cake 2.0 and it’s more Rachael Ray than Martha Stewart. You can make it more Martha Stewart by making your own ice cream, cake and chocolates, but that’s not the point of this recipe. It would also be a waste to use high quality hand made chocolate for this. You’re supposed to use up your leftover chocolate, not go through the money, time and effort to make your own.

Ingredients:

• 3 Pint Vanilla bean ice cream (get the good stuff that will refreeze well)
• 1 Pint your favourite ice cream (get the good stuff that will refreeze well)
• 1 ½ cups leftover cake/muffins/donuts
• 10-16 wafer cookies or Oreos, depending on size (choose a hard/crispy/crunchy cookie)
• 3 cups leftover chocolates/candies
• My preference of chocolates/candies for texture/flavour: Malteasers, Twix, Bounty Bars, Toblerone, Turtles, Clodhoppers, Ferrero Rochers, pretzels
• 1 cup toasted peanuts and/or crushed pretzels
• 1 can condensed milk

 **You can really use whichever ice cream, chocolates, candies, cake and cookies you want, so personalize the “recipe” as you wish. My measurements are rough, so just eat the leftovers.

Directions:

1. Line a deep loaf pan with plastic wrap until the plastic extends off the edges. Make sure there is enough plastic wrap to cover the finished product after the pan is filled.

2. Roughly chop all leftover chocolates and candies.

3. Mix 2 cups of the chopped chocolate and candies in slightly softened vanilla ice cream. Reserve the remaining 1 cup.

4. Layer the bottom of the pan with half the slightly softened vanilla ice cream mixture. Press down and smooth out with a spatula.

5. Sprinkle with leftover cake/muffins/donuts roughly crumbled.

6. Sprinkle with ½ cup of leftover chocolate and candy mixture.

7. Scoop and drop slightly softened chocolate ice cream. Press down and smooth out with a spatula. Don’t worry if the cake and chocolate rolls into the chocolate ice cream as you spread an even layer. Freeze for an hour.

8. Sprinkle with remaining leftover chocolate and candy mixture.

9. Scoop and drop the remaining slightly softened vanilla ice cream mixture on top. Press down and smooth out with spatula. Again, don’t worry if the chocolates roll into the ice cream as you spread an even layer.

10. Roughly chop the cookies and layer on top of ice cream. Make sure cookie layer is pressed into ice cream layer.

11. Cover with plastic wrap and refreeze for 2-3 hours until firm.

12. Prepare dulche de leche using condensed milk.

13. To serve: Uncover and lift the ice cream cake out of the pan using the plastic wrap. Flip it over so that the cookie layer is on the plate and the top is the ice cream layer. Spread the dulche de leche and sprinkle with toasted peanuts and/or crushed pretzels. Slice and serve.