Lemon Raspberry Ice Cream Cake: Happiness Happens Day Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Happiness Happens Day, which happens to be tomorrow. Plenty of time to make this recipe and bring on the smiles. 

There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

For my Happiness Happens Day project I made a Lemon Raspberry Ice Cream Cake. 

What's a better dessert, ice cream? Or cake? No fighting, I've got the answer, it's both. Put a smile on everyone's face this Happiness Happens Day and serve an ice cream cake.

Lemon Raspberry Ice Cream Cake

In my house, we're huge fans of raspberry and chocolate. I got this love from my mom and the boys got it from me. Hubs, he's just along for the ride. 

When I decided to make an ice cream cake, chocolate and raspberry was the first thing that came to mind. But I had just made a Chocolate Berry Cobbler a few days ago (delish, btw) so I didn't want to use the same flavors again just a few days later. And, truth is, ice cream cakes just scream refreshing, and I wanted flavors that did too. Raspberry and Lemon go well together and certainly are refreshing flavors. Perfect. 

I was going to make the cakes from scratch but since this recipe has so many steps, I decided to take a short cut on the first one.  

I started with a white cake mix, divided the batter in half and added lots of flavor. To half of the batter, I added lemon extract and fresh lemon zest. 

I baked the raspberry layer with raspberry lemonade crystals and raspberry extract. 

I used the same pan to form the ice cream layers that I had used for the cakes to be sure the size worked. I started with raspberry sherbet, so refreshing on a hot summer day.

I crushed strawberry and lemon flavored cookies to add some crunch in between the sherbet and the creamy vanilla ice cream. 

I froze everything, making it much easier to work with, then layered my cake. I started with the raspberry cake, added the ice cream layers, then the lemon cake. Once I trimmed the sides I put my cake into the freezer again. It's easier to frost when it's well frozen.

 I used whipped cream for the frosting, and then decorated. A fun and easy way would be just to use multicolored nonpareils and twizzlers.

 Or you can use a little food coloring in some of the whipped cream and pipe it onto the cake.

 Place in the freezer one more time to allow the frosting layer to harden and you're done. This cake takes time but it really is easy. 

  

 

And pretty. And SO good.

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:


Alicia of TaylorLife shares Spreading Positivity Rocks.

Tamara of Part-time Hockey Mom shares 100 Happy Days. 

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares her recipe for Keto friendly Parmesan Chips.

Minette of Southern Belle Charm shares her recipe for Strawberries and Cream.

Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog shares how to make a Happiness is Back to School Wall or Door Decoration.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares her Backyard Clubhouse DIY.

Be sure to stop by again next month for more theme based projects.

Lemon Raspberry Ice Cream Cake         
                                    ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

 

Ingredients:

1 package white cake mix

1/4 cup raspberry lemonade crystals

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tsp raspberry extract

2 tsp red food coloring

2 tsp lemon extract

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp yellow food coloring

2 cups raspberry sherbet

2 cups vanilla ice cream 

6 lemon flavored Oreos

6 strawberry cheesecake flavored Fudge Stripe cookies (if you can't find these, you can substitute with strawberry Oreos or just double the lemon flavored Oreos).

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3 TBSP powdered sugar

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 X 8 baking pans.

*Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions. Move half of the batter to another bowl.

*To half of the batter, beat in the lemonade crystals, sour cream, raspberry extract and red food coloring. Spread evenly into one of the prepared pans.

*To the other half of the batter, add the lemon extract, lemon zest and yellow food coloring. Spread into the other prepared baking pan.

*Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes or until the center springs back to the touch. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans. Remove and allow to cool completely. Place, side by side, in a freezer. 

*Place the cookies in a food processor and crush to large crumbs. Set aside.

*NOTE: If you have three 8 X 8 pans you can do this step while baking the cakes, If not, wash one of the pans used for the cake and prepare the ice cream while the cakes are in the freezer.

*Remove the sherbet and ice cream from the freezer and allow to soften slightly. 

*Line an 8 X 8 pan with plastic wrap so the bottom is covered and the wrap is hanging over the sides.

*Spread the raspberry sherbet into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the cookie crumbs. Top with the vanilla ice cream making sure the top is flat. Freeze for an hour and a half.

*To assemble: remove all layers from the freezer. Place the raspberry cake layer upside down onto the vanilla ice cream. Top with your serving plate and flip over. Gently remove the plastic wrap and discard. Top with the lemon cake layer. Return to freezer for 3 hours or up to overnight. 

*Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks hold. Remove cake from freezer and, with a large serrated knife, trim the sides. Frost with the whipped cream, decorate as desired. Return to freezer. When ready to serve, move cake to the counter for 10 minutes. Slice with a large serrated knife. Store leftovers in the freezer.