Sweet 16 Ice Cream Cake

My baby turned Sweet 16 last week. My baby, it's bittersweet, because you know, you love the smell of babies, but all of their lives, they wear the hell out of your patience and wallet. God love 'em.

Anyway, my "baby" is an ice-cream-a-holic. Ice-cream-a-holic doesn't even begin to describe this child's obsession, gluttony, or whatever you want to call it. So in an effort to indulge the kid because I try to be a good mom, I attempted to make an ice cream cake.

But before we get too excited, the reality is, I can make things taste good, but making them look pretty and making them look amazing in photographs just isn't what I'm that good at. So I'm telling you, I rocked this ice cream cake as far as how it tasted, but looking like a piece of food art, it just isn't.  I used two flavors of ice cream that Kaitlin likes, but you can mix it up and put your own twist on this method of ice cream cake making.

1 quart vanilla bean ice cream
1 quart cafe mocha ice cream
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup caramel ice cream topping
1 cup whipped topping
4 ounces shaved semi-sweet chocolate
20 caramel cookie bars (we used fun size Twix)

Using a 9x5x4 loaf pan, place a sheet of plastic wrap across the length of the pan, leaving about 4 inches of plastic wrap hanging out over two long sides. Place another sheet of plastic wrap across the loaf pan from side to side, leaving about 4 inches of plastic wrap hanging over the short sides of the pan. Leave the ice creams out on the counter for about 15 to 20 minutes, so they can soften just a little bit. Spoon enough cafe mocha ice cream across the bottom of the ban to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Spoon about the same amount of the vanilla bean ice cream over the cafe mocha. Drizzle a coupe of spoonfuls of the caramel topping over the ice cream and then top with a half a handful of the chopped pecans. Then place the loaf pan and the two ice cream containers in the freezer for 20 minutes.
 

After 20 minutes, remove the loaf pan and the ice creams from the freezer and repeat the layering and freezing processes. This will be repeated another 2 to 3 times depending on the depth of your pan and your laying thickness. You want to get the ice cream layers to about 1/4 of an inch below the top of the pan.

Fold the excess plastic wrap over the top of the pan to completely cover the ice cream.  Place in freezer for 2 more hours.

Remove the pan from the freezer, uncover the top of the pan and place a serving plate, invert the pan to allow the cake to slide out onto the serving platter. Put a star tip (or whatever tip you're comfortable with) in a pastry bag or plastic bag with a corner tip snipped off, fill the bag with whipped topping and decorate the top of the cake using your own creativity.  Very quickly, line the candy bars around the perimeter of the cake, soldier style.

Place the cake back in the freezer for at least 2 more hours.  Garnish with shaved chocolate an serve.