believe it! strawberry mango almond ice cream cake!

this was my first stab at ice cream cake and i think it turned out pretty well, i wanted to make a birthday cake i’d never made and was guessing my way through it. i will warn you that it does take quite a while to make, but it’s not active time. you just have to wait in between layers for it to freeze all the way, so you have to pop into the kitchen every couple hours for 5 minutes. worth it! i didn’t make the ice cream itself, but i do doctor it a bit (see recipe). if you have a food processor or a strong blender this cake will be a breeze.

ICE CREAM CAKE

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/4 c. cashews

1/3 c. walnuts

3 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

a good drizzle of agave

1/4 c. almond butter

3 tbsp melted margarine

2 pints soy or coconut ice cream (1 vanilla, 1 of your choosing, i used one that was vanilla with marbly caramel)

1 mango, peeled pitted and cut into chunks

almost a whole basket of strawberries, topped and cut in half (roughly 15 small ones?)

1/3 c. sliced almonds, toasted (chopped candied nuts would work really well here)

THE CRUST
in a food processor combine walnuts, cashews, graham crackers, cocoa, vanilla, agave and almond butter. pulse until evenly chopped with some texture remaining. press into the bottom of a springform pan and make sure you have it spread out really evenly. bake at 350 for 15 minutes then cool COMPLETELY in the pan.

*if you dont’ have a food processor just chop the nuts as finely as you can by hand and mix the rest in a bowl.

THE FILLINGS

1- while your crust is cooling, take out your flavour-of-choice ice cream and let it soften up on the counter quite a bit. once your crust is cool and your ice cream is soft, spread it evenly over the crust in a single layer trying to get it as smooth as possible. wipe any excess that might have spread up the sides of the pan. freeze until hard.

2- take half of the vanilla ice cream and blend with an entire mango until smooth and all the fruit is incorporated.

*if you don’t have a food processor, chop up the mango into a big mess as close to a puree as you can get  (mash it after you chop it even) and mix it with VERY WELL SOFTENED ice cream by hand. Once layer 1 is frozen solid, spread this mango layer evenly over top as you did with layer 1 . sprinkle sliced almonds even over the surface and then freeze until hard.

3- with the remaining half of vanilla ice cream, blend it with the strawberries until evenly incorporated. once layer 2 is frozen, spread this strawberry layer over top of and this time take extra care the make the top look smooth and even since this is the top of your cake. freeze it!

Once your whole cake is frozen, run a knife around the edges and release it from the springform pan. i would let it sit out for 10 minutes to soften so it can be served (keep an eye depending how hot it is where you are). DONE DEAL! TASTY TIMES!