Frozen Surprise Cake

 We are birthday busy in the month of July at our house.  K turned five earlier and David's birthday is tomorrow.  Last weekend we had a Frozen birthday for K.  I had suggested an ice cream cake several months back thinking I'd buy one from Dairy Queen (those cakes were all the rage when I was growing up!) but then when this month's Daring Baker's challenge came up, I figured I'd make one.  For the July Daring Baker’s Challenge, Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to bake a cake. But not just any cake; she asked us to add in a special surprise for our eyes as well as our taste buds!

I had done lots of pinterest searching and found some fun ideas to do with the outside of the cake and the inside as well.  All in all, this cake was REALLY easy.  I just made two 8-inch cake rounds and dyed each a different "frozen" color. 

Then I placed a half-gallon of ice cream in the other 8-inch cake round and put it in the freezer.  It all went together like this:  cake - ice cream - cake - layer of icing - fondant.  I was really pleased with the outcome.

David did say at one point that we weren't going to do anything creative next year, we were just going to buy everything.  I told him that was fine...he didn't have to do anything creative, I'd do it.  I think that stemmed from trying to find free printables for the other food, which I'll share soon.  I didn't have any....well, only had one break down when I was making the fondant.  I had rolled it out and was trying to transfer it onto the cake. 

Well, it was breaking and I thought "I can lightly roll it and then roll it out over the cake."  Yeah...fondant won't unroll.  It stuck together.  Let's just say, that fontant got a good beating.  Yikes!  I did reroll it and had David help me put it on the cake. 

Then the morning of the party, I put Olaf on top and we had a frozen cake!  It turned out really fun.  Even the inside was colorful and festive.  I didn't get any complaints!  This was such a fun challenge!

Frozen Ice Cream Cake
1 box white cake mix, made to instructions on box
1 half gallon ice cream, your chosen flavor
1/2 can frosting
1 recipe Fondant:

• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Slightly thaw ice cream.  Spread into round cake pan and place pan in freezer to solidify.  Bake cake per package instructions.  Divide into two cake pans.  Use you desired color of food coloring (or mixin would be fun too!).  Allow cake to cool.  When ready to assemble, take ice cream out of freezer.  Place on cake layer on a cake plate.  You can protect the plate from future decoration by putting wax or parchment paper under the cake, but sticking out so it can be removed after decoration.  Then place the ice cream layer on top.  To loosen from the pan, turn it upside down (holding it in with a layer of wax paper on top!) and hold the pan under warm water for a few seconds.  this will "melt" the ice cream so that it pops out easily.  Place the ice cream disc on top of the first cake layer.  Then place the second cake layer on top of the ice cream layer.  At this point, you can go ahead and ice or you can place into the freezer to decorate later. 

To make fondant, blend the butter, corn syrup, vanilla and salt on medium speed with a paddle attachment until smooth and well-combined.  Add the powdered sugar all at once, and mix on slow speed, gradually increasing speed to medium until well-combined. The mixture should cling together in the bottom of the bowl and be smooth to the touch.  When done, place in desired food coloring to get the color you desire and mix in with beater (you could use your hands and knead it but then you would have dyed hands, trust me...I know!).  Roll out to appropriate shape about 1/8 of inch thick.  At this point, you are ready to put it on your cake.

Prior to placing fondant on the cake, you need to put a crumb coat of icing.  Put a very thin layer of icing on the cake.  Then cover with your fondant.  It is highly likely that you'll need some help doing this, I did!  Then decorate as desired. Enjoy!