| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 1 hr 43 min |
| Prep: | 1 hr |
| Inactive: | 3 min |
| Cook: | 40 min |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 cups sugar
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/8 cups cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups very hot water
- 1 pint mint chocolate chip ice cream, slightly softened
- 1 cup cream
- 8 ounces semisweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup cream
- 4 ounces white chocolate
- Drops mint extract, optional
- Drops green food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 17-inch sheet pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment or waxed paper.
- Sift together the 3 cups sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Transfer to a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or use a hand mixer) and blend briefly. Whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl and add to the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add the hot water, mixing at low speed just until combined. The batter will be quite thin. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay) and the center feels firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan. Chill, covered, until ready to build the cake. Make room in your freezer for a serving platter that you’ll build the cake on.
- Place a piece of parchment over the entire cake and flip it out onto another sheet pan. Peel off the original parchment and cut the cake in half so you have 2 pieces 13 by 8 1/2 inches. Place a piece of cake on a rectangular serving platter and schmear the ice cream on it all the way to the edges. Smooth it out with an offset spatula and place back in the freezer.
- After it has chilled 15 minutes or so place the second layer of cake on top, cover with parchment paper and press down with a sheet pan gently to stick the top layer. Return to the freezer while you make the chocolate topping.
- In a small saucepan, heat the 1 cup of cream and once it comes to a boil pour it over the chopped semisweet chocolate and whisk to make a smooth ganache. Do the same with the remaining 1/2 cup of cream and the white chocolate, adding the mint extract and green coloring to make a light mint green color then place it in small pastry bag with a small plain tip.
- Remove the cake from the freezer and working quickly spread the chocolate ganache over the surface of the cake smoothing it with an offset spatula.
- Drizzle lines of the green ganache over the entire surface of the cake at diagonal. Take a toothpick and run it back and forth in the opposite direction to draw it through the ganache and make decorative pattern.
- Return to the freezer until ready to serve. Trim off the edges to even off the cake then cut into rectangle pieces.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 763 |
| Total Fat | 38 g |
| Saturated Fat | 16 g |
| Carbohydrates | 103 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Sugar | 74 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Cholesterol | 82 mg |
| Sodium | 592 mg |
Reviews
Delicious!! We all agreed it was one of the best chocolate cakes they’ve ever had. The cake itself was a bit sticky during assembly. It stuck to my hands when transferring to the serving platter, but that was really the only downside to the entire recipe. Everyone raved about this and said they’d never buy a store bought one again.
The cake was a deliciously moist chocolate cake and I could have even it eaten without the ice cream. I made it for work tomorrow but boy was it messy spreading ice cream, putting top layer on and cutting it into squares. I froze the cake for 1 hour before I cut it and the top almost slid right off. I recommend freezing cake overnight before slicing and hopefully you won’t end
up with the mess I did.
up with the mess I did.
What a delicious cake. Made this for my own birthday cake. Where is Gale Gand? Can she be brought to the Foodnetwork? I remembered her Sweet Dreams program years ago. Everything she does is WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS!
I have been making this cake for 8 years now for my daughters birthdays – she loves it and so does everyone else. its moist and delicious and so easy. And you can make ahead and vary it up. This is a keeper!
We made the cake per recipe, added cookies & cream ice cream and crushed oreo cookies to the middle, then topped it with whipped cream. OMG! It was awesome and delicious! Best one that we have ever made. The cake was soft and moist and tasted great!! My son requested it for the rest of his birthdays, so that is saying something. Thank you!
The cake is basically the same thing as you’d get out of a box. If you’re going to go through the trouble of making a cake from scratch, make a butter cake or pound cake. I thought the cake didn’t have much flavor even though I used good quality cocoa.
The ganache is a good touch. Icing/frosting an ice cream cake was my main concern since I was worried that regular frosting would freeze too hard. With ganache, the cream/chocolate ratio can be tweaked to get it just right.
Do it – so yummy the cake is so moist and great!!!!!
This was a wonderful cake to bake. It was actually my very FIRST home-made cake that I’ve tried – so it’s very easy. The cake is delicious, but the only ‘problem’ that I encountered was the handling of the ganache, which was probably due to my lack-of-experience. However, I’m definitely going to try this again – other flavors, etc.
After having read everyone elses review I made this cake for my daughters bday and everyone loved it. One family member said “This is like a high end bakery cake- its so professional” It was easy to make and so yummy.
I did have to cook it 15 minutes longer than stated but that could just be my oven. This is a keeper for all birthdays.
I did have to cook it 15 minutes longer than stated but that could just be my oven. This is a keeper for all birthdays.
So I thought I would try something new for hubby for Father’s Day. He isn’t a big cake eater, but LOVES ice cream. His exact words were “the best cake ever.” The kids loved it too! Don’t let all the ingredients detur you, this is a winner and using the dutch chocolate made this a heavenly cake. Only thing I would change, minor, but I myself am not a big dark choc fan, so next time I might add a bit of powered sugar to the ganache. Though hubby loved it exactly the way it was.