The very best thing about having birthday cake is the ice cream that goes along with it. This delicious home made ice cream recipe can be made with a few simple ingredients and a couple of coffee cans. Ice cream and cake have long been the staples of birthdays, weddings, graduations and many other types of celebrations. It’s little wonder some culinary genius decided to combine them. Most of the time, ice cream is a delicious dessert all by itself. Filling delicious ice cream between layers of flaky, moist cake allowing the two to melt together is a flavor explosion so good it is sinful.

It would seem that this wonderful combination of two cherished desserts could only be experienced at a restaurant or bought from an ice cream shop or grocery store. Purchasing an ice cream cake can be quite expensive, usually more than a regular cake. But in reality it isn’t that difficult to make a custom ice cream cake right at home and it’s much cheaper. In fact it’s a lot of fun to do. And once you get good at it you’ll probably look for every opportunity there is to make great ice cream cake for your friends and family.

Start with a quart to a quart and half of your favorite flavor of ice cream. The biggest trick to making an ice cream cake at home is to get the ice cream to just the right level of softness. You’ll want it soft enough to mold but not to the point that it is getting melted and runny. So don’t just leave it out for an hour and forget about it. Somewhere around 20-30 minutes should do it. In fact, try setting a timer so you can record the perfect amount of softening time for the next ice cream cake you make. Make it part of your own personal recipe. When you bake your cake, use only about half of the batter. Rather than throwing it out, use the other half to make cupcakes. Follow the directions on the box and remove the cake from the pan and allow it to cool. It should be completely cool before proceeding.

Once you have the ice cream at the right level of softness you’ll need to make the cake using a simple layering technique. Use a deep round cake pan or you can experiment with other sizes and shapes once you are comfortable making the cakes. Bring out your cake and cut it into slabs about an inch thick. Start with a layer of cake on the bottom and then make a layer of ice cream about the same thickness. If the ice cream is at the right softness, you should be able to cut and mold it easily. Continue adding layers of ice cream and cake until the cake pan is full. At this point you’ll want to work very quickly to avoid letting the ice cream melt too much. Always use a layer of cake at the top so you can frost it or use sundae topping or fruit or whatever topping you like.

Now cover the ice cream cake with plastic wrap and put back in the freezer for at least three hours. Once it is frozen, take it out and slice it as you would a regular cake. Now you have an ice cream cake just as good as in any restaurant and for half the price. Are you looking for a unique family friendly party idea? How about throwing an ice cream party? It doesn’t have to be only for the kids. What a perfect way to spend an evening or afternoon during any time of year. This could be a child’s birthday party. Make it just like an old-fashioned ice cream social and invite your friends or neighbors that you haven’t seen for a while to an afternoon gathering at your home.

People have many reasons for wanting to make their own homemade ice cream. It has been done in one form or another for centuries. For many it has become a fun family event to gather the ingredients and congregate on the back porch or in the kitchen to churn up a batch of an original ice cream recipe. When the weather begins to heat up and the days get longer, you get a craving for frozen treats. But not the stuff that you buy in the grocery store freezer; You want the rich, creamy taste that only fresh homemade recipes can offer. An electric ice cream maker is the best choice. But if you don’t have the luxury of splurging on an electric model, a manual machine works just as well. You’ll just have to develop the skills to operate it.

To make these memories become a reality for your family, you’ll need to purchase an ice cream maker for your home. You’re choices are pretty broad. You can get an old fashioned churn that you can work on the porch with family members taking turns working the crank and mixing the ingredients with the ice to make great ice cream. These old fashioned models will definitely take you back to another time in history and an antique maker can really make the experience authentic. On the other hand there are modern ice cream makers that are nothing like the old fashioned kind. There are electric models that are fully automated and they look and function like any other kitchen appliance. You still gather up your ingredients but instead of hand cranking the churn, the device does all the hard work. The gentle whirring sound will let you know your ice cream is being churned. While some of the ambiance of the hand crank is lost you can make a lot more ice cream with a lot less effort.

There are some real advantages to going with the electric ice cream maker. The churning action is continuous and consistent while it is being done automatically by the machine. Because of this the ice cream is made more quickly and efficiently with much less tedium. The machine times the churning and knows when to stop because it can gauge when the ice cream has set up in the interior chamber. With this kind of efficiency you can do much more experimentation of different ingredients and recipes. Everyone in your family can dream up a recipe and try it out. You can whip up several batches of different flavored ice cream very quickly. That way you can satisfy the cravings of everyone in your family or all the guests at your party or barbeque.

Just because you choose an electric ice cream maker that automates the churning doesn’t mean you have to give up the atmosphere and family fun of making your own ice cream. The electric model just takes the dreaded constant churning out of the equation; no body really looked forward to that part anyway. You can spend more time forming your own recipes and ingredients and of course more time sampling your delicious creations. Ice cream makers can be fun to use, can save you money on buying litre after litre from the shops, and will give you an end product that you will feel proud of. They allow you to use your imagination to create new and exciting flavours that you and your family will enjoy, and are a great addition to any kitchen.