Xavier's Ice Cream Cake!

The order came in as most orders do... a quiet request for ice cream cake for two-year-old Xavier's birthday.

YES, YES, YES!!!!!!

Who doesn't want to avoid a $40 charge for a gallon of ice cream?  So sure, you can do the norm and just use a couple of great flavors and I've done that often to rousing applause.

(Cue the canned applause!!!)

But this time, oh THIS TIME I SAW THIS AT SAM'S CLUB!!!!

Schwan's ice cream.

I've always wanted to try Schwan's. I mean the very idea of an ice cream truck rolling into your driveway, delivering frosty goodness to your door on a regular schedule????  Oh My Stars, that's a dream right there!!!

So then I thought: Create This Cake.

So I did this:

Yup, I whipped out a box of Pillsbury traditional brownie mix (affordable and the basis for so many brownie recipes it should be against the law!!!!)  I made it and baked it and then did this:

Oops, not that, that is Dave's cell phone, the cheapest most simplistic electronic device known to man, a device that should be in his pocket at all times in case his wife needs him.... Clearly this device is left where I generally find it, uncharged and sitting on the counter.

Hmm....

Okay, moving on:

I chunked up about 1/3 of a 13" x 9" pan of baked brownies....

And then I tossed them into the freezer to firm up because I didn't want to smush them into the ice cream...

How did those disinfectant wipes get in there? Honestly, the CHEEK of some things... (Ruthy spirits them away to downstairs bathroom, a room in chronic need of quick wipe downs and maybe put the container in the pic deliberately so folks wouldn't think she's quite as messy as she makes out... they'd be WRONG, DEAD WRONG, but it's okay for folks to cut the Ruthinator some slack...)

Okay, this is more like it! A gallon of high quality ice cream, Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips, a big bowl and thou.... Pure poetry, I say!!!!

So I took about 1/3 of the ice cream and softened it in the bowl.... (this means I went off to keep painting the dining room windows while the ice cream sat, with the TIMER ON. Otherwise we'd have soup.)

That's another blog, another day.

So I stirred up the ice cream and spread it in the bottom of a 15 x 11' baking dish. (13 x 9"'s big sister)

Then I added the chocolate brownie chunks into it... and drizzled it with chocolate syrup because why wouldn't you????

Okay, I may have reversed that order, no matter!!!

Then I softened the next third of the gallon (I put this big bad boy into the freezer to stay firm while I worked the next layer.)

I added about 1 cup of those dark chocolate Ghirardelli bad boys and stirred, then spread it over the C-O-L-D cake in freezer....

Then more crushed chocolate cookie.... You can never have too much crushed chocolate cookie!!! I pressed this down with the palm of my hand... Very "Ma Ingalls", remember?  "Pa says that the imprint of my hand on the loaf is sweetener enough for him."

Dave has never said any such thing to me. He has not even come close to saying any such thing. He has said things like: "Why did you put your hand on the bread?"

But I digress.

Okay, now you soften the last 1/3 and spread it over the top as smoothly as humanly possible. But do not fret the homemade whipped cream frosting will cover dents and dings!!!!

 Hmmm.... Beth has the final picture of the finished product and she forgot to bring it buy and doesn't have Internet in her cave-in-the-woods so I'll add that later.... In the meantime, let's just enjoy this the way it is!