Sand Castle Ice Cream Cake Recipe

Directions

1. Line Baking Sheets: Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets and one rectangle cake pan with parchment paper, and coat with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Bake Cakes: Make a double batch of the cake mix according to the instructions. Use about 3-4 cups of batter in each of the two prepared baking sheets and smooth with a spatula. Fill the remaining cake pan with rest of the batter. Bake the shallow sheet cakes for about 18 minutes, until fully baked. Bake the sheet cake for about 30 minutes, until fully baked. Allow to cool.

3. Empty Ice Cream Carton: Take the Breyers® Natural Strawberry Ice Cream out of the containers and set ice cream side in a bowl in the freezer until ready to use. Wash and dry the ice cream containers.

4. Punch Out Cake: Flip one container upside down onto one of the cooled sheet cakes and press down to punch out two layers of cake. Press one cake layer into the bottom of the container.

5. Assemble "Sand Castle" Blocks & Freeze: Scoop 4 large scoops of the Breyers® Natural Strawberry Ice Cream into the container and smooth it with a spoon or spatula to make an even layer. Top with the remaining cake layer and gently press it into the ice cream layer to adhere. Transfer to the freezer and repeat the process to fill the other 2 containers. Freeze these layers for at least 3 hours.

6. Dye Frosting: While the ice cream cakes are freezing, take this time to color the vanilla frosting your desired shade of blue with the natural blue food coloring to make it the “water” layer for your final cake. We made sure to leave some streaks of white to create a nice swirl effect.

7. Stamp Out Seashells: Place the brown sugar into a baking dish and press it lightly to pack it. Pick out a few seashells and preserved starfish and press them upside down into the surface of the brown sugar to create a deep imprint. Melt the white chocolate (mixing with a little neutral oil if necessary to thin it out), then pour the melted chocolate into the seashell impressions in the brown sugar.

8. Freeze Chocolate Shells: Place the baking dish in the refrigerator or freezer for about 5 minutes to set, then carefully remove the chocolate from the brown sugar and gently brush off some of the residual brown sugar.

9. Optional Decorations: For the optional decorations, we made a batch of matcha meringues piped with a leaf tip for a squiggly, seaweed effect. We also piped some varying sized dots of white meringue for bubbles. We also piped some melted white chocolate onto parchment paper, then sprinkled them with white nonpareil sprinkles, and dusted with powdered sugar to make a beautiful coral effect. We turned store-bought macarons into adorable clamshells by opening up the cookies and adding a little fondant “pearl.”

10. Remove From Mold: Place the graham cracker crumbs in a medium baking dish that is about 3-4” deep. Carefully remove the fully frozen ice cream cake layers one at a time from the mold and place it into the graham cracker crumbs, pressing gently to adhere the crumbs all over. Return the covered layer to the freezer while you repeat the process with the remaining ice cream cake layers.

11. Build "Sand Castle": Place two of the graham cracker-coated cake layers side-by-side in the center of the frosted base layer. Then stack the third cake layer centered on top of those two to create your “sand castle.”

12. Decorate: Apply your decorations, then, finish the top of the cake with a big Breyers Cherry Vanilla ice cream cone, inverted to make the tower of your castle.

13. Serve: Store the finished ice cream cake in the freezer until ready to serve.