Ice Cream Cake with Strawberries
An ice cream cake with strawberries is the ultimate cake for summer days. It's just perfect with a crunchy pretzel crust, swirls of strawberry jam in the vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.
- Prep Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 6 hours 40 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake 1x
- Category: Dessert
Ingredients
Scale
Pretzel Crust:
- 4 oz pretzels ((3 cups))
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 8 Tablespoons butter
Ice Cream Cake:
- 1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (softened)
- 3/4 - 1 cup strawberry jam
- toppings: fresh strawberries
- 1 cup heavy cream whipped with a few Tablespoons of powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Brush the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with melted butter. You can line the bottom and the edges of the springform pan with parchment paper to make the ice cream cake easier to remove later.
- Place the pretzels and sugar into a large ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush the pretzels into crumbs. You can also use a food processor. Pulse the pretzels and sugar in a food processor, about 15 pulses, until coarsely chopped. There should still be small pieces of pretzel; don’t obliterate the pretzels into sandy crumbs.
- Pour in the melted butter and mix to combine. Press the pretzel mixture into the bottom of the prepared springform pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.
- Scoop out the softened ice cream into a large bowl and mix it with a spoon or with a mixer until it is smooth. It's important to work quickly, so that the ice cream doesn't melt completely. Otherwise, ice crystals could form when you freeze the finished cake.
- Transfer the ice cream to the cake pan, spreading it out over the cooled crust. Ice cream melts really quickly, so if yours has gotten too soft at this point, put it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes, before adding the jam.
- Dollop spoonfuls of the jam over the top of the ice cream. Use a butter knife to swirl the jam throughout the ice cream. Place the ice cream cake into the freezer until completely frozen, about 6 hours. (You can also add chopped up strawberries to the vanilla ice cream as well.)
- When you are ready to serve, whip up the heavy cream with powdered sugar using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
- Take the cake out of the springform pan and place onto a serving plate or cake stand. If you use parchment paper it will be much easier.
- Pipe out the whipped cream around the edges of the cake. I used a Wilton 1M piping tip. I also spread a thin layer of strawberry jam over the surface of the cake as well. Decorate the top of the cake with fresh strawberries.
- Serve immediately, using a very sharp knife to cut the cake, making sure you are cutting all the way through the crust. To make it even easier to cut, run the knife through really hot water before making the cuts and it will help to keep the slices very clean with a sharp edge.
- Store the leftover ice cream cake in the freezer.
Notes
I used homemade strawberry jam to swirl into the ice cream. It has a thinner consistency than store-bought jam. If your jam is really thick, mix it up first with a whisk or even blend it up in a blender/food processor before dolloping it over the ice cream.