Cakalicious

My daughter had her 16th birthday yesterday.

Rather than say "Sweet 16 and never been kissed", we woke her up with a shower of Hershey's Kisses. Not a bad start, eh?

Her Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake was a group effort, and the recipe can be found here, at Taste of Home .

Daughter #3 was in charge of the Hoho cutting and did a fab job. We lined a glass bowl with saran wrap, then placed the sliced Hohos cut side down in the bowl, courtesy of Daughter #2, who fought for the privilege. We popped it in the freezer to firm up a bit.

Next we added the ice cream. One box Vanilla Chocolate Swirl. While I usually beat softened ice cream to make something like this, this time I cut it in slices (economy bargain box brand) and placed the slices in a complete layer using my hands. I'm not going to show a picture because it looks messy. Fun though. Just saying.

Freeze again and repeat with the second ice cream. We used plain old chocolate. Again we cut it in slices and pressed it into place. The advantage with cutting is that the consistency of the ice cream doesn't change with too much melting and refreezing. Also, it can be ready to eat faster. And yes, I was being lazy.

Cover with saran wrap and freeze.

When frozen and ready to go, peel off the saran wrap and invert it onto a plate.

We call this picture "The Unveiling".

Anxious for a slice....

 Not the prettiest shot. Found out that the ice cream was soft because the outside freezer had been unplugged all day. We had fired some beads that morning and only one plug fits at a time in that outlet. Probably a good thing we had this treat or who knows when we would have checked on the freezer again. Uggg.

Overall, it was a success. Only three plates? Someone must have put theirs in the dishwasher!

Pretty sweet with all the Hohos. I think I'd rather just go with straight ice cream, but it was definitely good and looked pretty nifty up close. If you give this a shot, I'd recommend placing the Hohos (actually, we used Little Debbie's Swiss Rolls) closer together than we did. Don't squish 'em, but no gap-age.

 This is what happens when you leave the camera on the table when you're done. =]