Birthday Treats

Last Sunday wasn't just Easter - it was also my 28th Birthday, woohoo!  The night before my birthday we went out to a local bar called the Broken Barrel Tavern with some friends for BBQ and beers.  But my biggest excitement for my birthday this year was this ice cream cake that I thought up...

I started by making some homemade cinnamon ice cream.  I mixed up my base and put that in the ice cream maker (it takes around half an hour).

While the ice cream was churning, I cut up two granny smith apples and cooked them over medium low heat with some butter, cinnamon and sugar.  I just cooked them until the sugar was melting and starting to carmelize and the apples were tender.

I set the apples aside to cool until the cinnamon ice cream was almost done.  When there were only a few mins left on the ice cream timer, I poured the cinnamon apples in the ice cream maker and let it mix the into the ice cream.  Yum!  I poured the ice cream into a 9" springform pan and put it in the freezer to help it continue to set.

While the ice cream is freezing, I decided to make the cake layer.  I chose a recipe I saw online for a caramel apple cake.  I cut the recipe in half because I only wanted one 9" round and I omitted the frosting part.  I definitely want to make just this cake on its own eventually, it was really moist and flavorful.  You can find the original recipe here: http://www.ahintofhoney.com/2009/10/caramel-apple-layer-cake-with-apple/

Set the cake aside to cool - it's time to make some candied pecans.  I chopped up some pecans and then tossed them in a pan over med low heat with some butter, cinnamon and sugar (very similar to the apples) and cooked until the sugar was carmelized.  I spread them out on a piece of wax paper and then broke up any chunks that stuck together once cooled.  Once your ice cream is at least mostly firmed, your cake is cooled and your pecans are cooled...it's time to assemble the cake!

I spread some caramel sauce on top of the ice cream, making sure to stay away from the edges of the cake in case the caramel didn't firm up.  I recently learned the hard way that the hershey's syrup (chocolate or caramel) don't freeze and I feared that this caramel might do the same thing.  I thought about making my own caramel but I did want to use up the jar of caramel I had.  Then I sprinkled the candied pecans on top of the caramel and covered the whole cake.

Then put the apple cake on top and return to the freezer to get everything to set.  Once it's all set you can take the cake out of the springform pan and it will be ready to frost.  I attempted to make my own stabilized homemade whipped cream but I must have messed up because it still wasn't freezing quite right.  So I turned to Cool Whip instead for the frosting.

Apparently I was so excited to eat this cake that I didn't get any pics of the cake after it was frosted and/or cut.  Let me tell you - it really is as good as it sounds.  And DO NOT skip the candied pecans.  The ice cream is good...and the cake is good...but the sweet crunch of the candied pecans in the middle is what makes this the best ice cream cake i've ever had.

Ok ok...so who looked at the picture and sees a weird middle section that's fallen or crumbled?  Well, when I took the cake out of the oven it looked perfectly done.  The sides pulled away from the pan, the top was springy, the color looked right, the timer was up and a toothpick came out cleanly.  But after I let the cake cool, I went to cut off the top to make it level and found out that the center of the cake wasn't cooked all the way through, aaahhh!  You can't just rebake it or it will dry out the parts that are already cooked.  So I took a gamble and cut the center section out of the cake and just rebaked that part, LOL.  it didn't work great but it wasn't noticeable to anyone but me once it was frosted.

This might have to be my birthday cake every year, yum YUM YUMMM!