4 Levels of Ice Cream Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist

[batter trickles]

[meringue drips] [mixture bubbles]

[ice cream spreads]

[light uptempo music]

Hi, I'm Clarke, and I'm a Level 1 chef.

Hi, I'm Jon, and I'm a Level 2 chef.

Hi, I'm Chef Jurgen.

I am the director of pastry research and development

at the Institute of Culinary Education.

I've been a professional pastry chef for 34 years.

[light uptempo music]

I love ice cream cake.

Every summer as a kid, it was a must-have staple.

A regular cake, hate it.

Ice cream cake, fantastic.

The best, every time.

People think you need to have a party

to have ice cream cake.

I don't think so.

You can have ice cream cake any time you want.

[air whooshes]

[instrument booms]

[chimes tinkling]

So we're gonna start with the base,

which is actually baking the cake.

I'm gonna use the strawberry cake mix,

which is my all-time favorite,

the one that comes out the moistest in my opinion.

So the ice cream cake I'm making today

is gonna have a brownie bottom.

I figured it would be nice to have

a light and fluffy base instead of a hard base.

Sometimes that last little [hand taps]

takes a lot outta you.

So I want it to kinda glide through.

We're gonna stick in all of our wet ingredients,

the butter, the eggs,

one egg, and two egg,

the sugar, the vanilla extract, how important.

Time to do some whisking.

Is this the greatest invention?

Imagine what people had to do before this, mix?

Now I'm gonna whisk this up.

Grab another bowl and add in my egg yolks,

the water, vegetable oil,

and all of these are exact measurements from the cake mix.

Throw this in the bowl.

The base of my ice cream cake

is going to be a vanilla cookie.

I'm using unsalted butter because that way,

I get to choose how salty my dough will be.

I'm actually going to add some salt.

I'm using powdered sugar.

I have a very expensive and beautiful vanilla bean.

Run my knife over the back to make it flat.

Cut it in two.

And here's the best trick to get all the seeds out.

Use the back of your knife,

and scrape all that beautiful vanilla goodness,

and add it to your cookie dough.

I'm going to add one egg at a time.

So I'm gonna turn off this mixer.

We're gonna work on our dry ingredients now.

We got flour, cocoa powder, very important for brownies,

our salt, baking powder.

Nice light whisk,

just to incorporate everything in there.

I'm gonna mix in my dry ingredients and my wet ingredients.

Now we whisk, not too much.

My mom used to always say like, Don't overmix.

Gotta respect the mom.

I'm adding the flour in three editions

so that we don't send a big cloud of flour.

[mixer hums] You do not want

to work this too long

because that is going to create gluten,

that's gonna make this tough.

No one likes a tough cookie.

Everything is combined, perfect.

That's beautiful.

I think I'm all set with the whisking.

I have to put this brownie mixture

inside a nine-inch round pan.

There's a piece of parchment paper in here

that lines the bottom so I can take out the cake later.

That's very important.

If you don't do that,

you gotta go through hell

to take out [laughs] your ice cream cake.

I have some Pam cooking spray

and I'm just gonna spray this all along the pan.

I'm going to use an eight-inch ring for this cake.

Roll the cookie dough between two sheets of parchment paper,

the thickness of about quarter inch.

I'm gonna put this in the refrigerator just to chill it

before I cut it with this ring.

It's now nice and firm.

I can remove the paper.

Use this cake ring,

and then you have a perfect disk.

Use a fork to dock this.

Docking is something that you do

so that your cookie stays flat.

[Clarke] Now I'm gonna add the mix in.

I've got my oven preheated to 350,

following the box instructions,

and I'm just gonna bake that for like 30 minutes.

Spread out this brownie mix at the bottom of the pan,

just to make sure that we have a nice even brownie.

I'm gonna put this in the oven,

bake it at 350 for 20 minutes.

This goes into the oven at 325 degrees

until it just starts to get

a little tiny bit of color on the edge.

We are back from the oven.

It smells amazing.

It's gonna look so nice once I actually cut into it.

So you'll see that bright pink center,

which is always so fun.

At this point, you are going to want to eat the brownie.

Don't, do not eat the brownie.

I want to eat the brownie so badly.

Our cookie is ready.

It has a little tiny bit of color.

Make sure you let it cool,

before you place it in the freezer.

Everything for the assembly of this cake

needs to be freezer cold.

It's ice cream cake.

So for my ice cream, I'm gonna be using

vanilla and chocolate.

What I'm using today is green tea or matcha ice cream.

It's a little more muted.

These ice cream layers, I want them to be

a little less sweet than everything else.

I'm going to be making my own ice cream from scratch.

I have never made my own ice cream in my life.

The remaining sugar, and the salt,

will go with the egg yolks.

I'm just trying to dissolve the sugar in here.

While the sugar is dissolving in the milk, in the pots,

use the hot milk,

and temper it with the egg yolk mixture,

so that I bring the temperatures closer together.

I make sure that way

that this mixture does not overcook.

Add the egg yolks in here. [whisk taps]

Gently stir until this mixture reaches woo, 170.

This is done.

We're putting it on the ice bath

to stop it from cooking.

Add a heavy cream to this.

This is one of the most satisfying things

I get to look at when I make ice cream.

This paste will now go into the refrigerator

and mature for 24 hours.

The ice cream base is separated into three batches.

By adding cherry puree,

I'm going to make the cherry ice cream,

pistachio paste for the pistachio ice cream,

vanilla paste for vanilla ice cream.

Now that this is mixed together,

the next step will be to make each ice cream batch

and process it in the ice cream machine.

It will take about 30 minutes per batch.

We're looking for soft serve ice cream consistency.

The ice cream looks like it's done, nice and fluffy.

So let's turn it off.

[ice cream maker hums]

Ready, yum, no snacking.

That happens later.

Cherry ice cream and vanilla ice cream next.

After all that work, we have our ice cream.

Do not ask me to pick my favorite of these three.

They're all equally delicious.

For my layers, I'm gonna be using some hot fudge

and cookie dough right in the middle of the cake,

and that's gonna make the perfect crunch.

Let's talk about the layers for my cake,

Oreos and hot fudge,

just like the ice cream cake that I grew up with.

You need that crunchy, chocolatey layer in there,

to tie it all together.

I'm going to be making a nut meringue.

It's called a dacquoise in French.

I'm gonna make my own hot fudge today.

Start with pouring in my condensed milk.

Oh, this is gonna take a bit.

Adding to the condensed milk

is going to be my chocolate chips.

Stir it until the chocolate chips melt fully

and are fully incorporated into the condensed milk.

Put in the butter, also the vanilla extract.

Can't go without it.

And once the butter's melted, congratulations.

That's a hot fudge, and you could put it on anything.

You could even just drink it by itself.

Not that I've ever done that.

Take the egg whites.

[mixer hums]

Start adding the granulated sugar slowly.

I'm looking for a firm peak on this meringue.

How do you know that this is ready?

Have you heard about the cotton ball test?

All right, so, [mixer slows]

what I'm looking for is if I put this

between my fingers and I squish it,

it should feel like a cotton ball.

It's not quite ready.

[mixer hums] The meringue is going to start

to look less shiny,

because that is also a telltale sign that it's ready.

Feels like a cotton ball.

This meringue is beautiful,

and I will show you the test my grandma showed me.

I'll see if it has the right consistency.

Wah, she used to do it over my head anyways,

so it was always very thrilling.

Now that my meringue is ready,

I will fold in the almond flour very carefully.

So it's basically making a smooth movement

through your mixture.

It's like the letter J, for Chef Jurgen,

Chef Jurgen, Chef Jurgen.

This will make enough to make three eight-inch disks.

Now there are many methods to crush Oreos.

I could have used my just bare hands, gotten in there,

but today I'm gonna be civil.

I'm gonna chop them, [Oreos crunching]

get 'em tiny, get 'em crunchy.

And there you have it.

Starting from the center,

I will pipe a big spiral.

That's a very satisfying look,

dusted with some powdered sugar.

The powdered sugar will provide a little crust

and some extra sweetness.

I'm going to do this three times

and get them into the oven.

Back from the oven.

This is looking great.

That little extra texture, and I love that.

Now it's time to assemble my cake.

I took my cake outta the pan.

Now I'm gonna add

some Cling Wrap into it Cling Wrap.

So that I can lift the cake out once I've layered it.

And now I'm going to add the cake back in.

Oh my god.

That was really nerve-wracking, but we're in,

and we only have one little crack.

Going in with my chocolate ice cream first.

This is softened a little bit to make it easier to spread.

We're going edge to edge.

I'm gonna use this entire pint of ice cream.

It's my favorite flavor of ice cream on the planet.

I hate matcha.

A matcha Oreo cake?

I have no words.

Wait, I'm speechless.

And I have my first layer of matcha ice cream

on top of the brownie.

I gotta throw this in the freezer,

just until it hardens.

The pistachio ice cream will be the first layer

on the cookie base.

I'm using an offset spatula.

It makes it nice and flat.

The dacquoise, I like to put the flat side up,

so that the next layer also will be nice and flat.

Back into the freezer.

It goes immediately.

[lid pops]

[Jon] I'm going in with

the hot fudge. Fudge.

[Jon] You gotta do this real fast,

so I'm gonna try to get it all over as much as I can.

Smooth it out, smooth it out, smooth it out.

And Oreos are going in.

So there's my middle layer.

I gotta stick it in the freezer right now.

Back from the freezer,

we're going to build layer number two, vanilla ice cream.

Press that in here once again.

I'm going to place these amazing Amarena cherries in it.

Create a small indent for each of the cherries.

It's going to complement the cherry ice cream

that's gonna sit on top of that.

Cold meringue disk goes on top.

No time to talk.

Let's get this back to the freezer.

Now I'm gonna add my cookie dough bites.

These are like the edible cookie dough bites, though.

So none of the raw stuff.

I'm not gonna say what I was doing

when I came up with this recipe.

This is the cherry ice cream,

so that means we're gonna have

three beautiful colors later on.

Flat, back into the freezer,

until it's completely set.

And now I'm gonna add on the final layers.

We're doing big scoop of ice cream.

Oh, this is perfectly spreadable.

More of that cookie dough, right on the top.

Take the Cling Wrap, and press this all together.

So I'm gonna freeze this one more time.

I'm out of the freezer yet again.

It's ready for the final layer of matcha ice cream.

Plastic wrap is on top.

It's back to the freezer.

Now it's time to decorate.

I'm gonna start by putting my Cool Whip all over the cake.

I am not a frosting on an ice cream cake kinda girl

because it's just too sweet, I think.

I do not like Cool Whip, tastes like plastic.

Next question.

Like This is a masterpiece, honestly.

And we're done.

I'm just gonna cover this quickly with strawberries.

The strawberries bring a little touch

of freshness to the cake,

and brings us back to that strawberry cake layer

that's all the way on the bottom.

So we really have like a little sandwich

of symmetrical flavors.

There's one last thing that I need to do,

and that's just put matcha powder on top

for a little pizzazz, for a little decor.

Everybody likes a little matcha powder.

Just a little bit in the sifter,

and that's lookin' nice.

And I'm gonna make some whipped cream.

It's going to be the frosting for my ice cream cake.

This is just cream.

There's nothing in it.

There's no vanilla, there's no sugar.

It doesn't have to be sweet,

since the rest of the ice cream cake is.

All right, whipped cream is ready.

Let's get this cake put together.

Take my unsweetened whipped cream,

I'm gonna place it on top,

on the side as well.

I'm using a medium to large star tip on that.

That makes it look nice and fluffy and fancy.

And for the final touch, unicorn sprinkles.

Actually, I love sprinkles

because they even add some extra texture,

and some sweetness that's also really nice.

Where does it go?

Say it with me now, in the freezer.

Off we go.

Our cake is complete.

This is my ice cream cake.

[door closes]

And this is my ice cream cake.

[door closes]

And this is my ice cream cake.

[door closes] [soft whimsical music]

[Clarke] This looks great,

dare I say, even perfect.

[Jon] Look at them layers, what a cross section.

See how straight and separated everything is?

That's wonderful, that's just what I want,

because we eat with our eyes first.

[soft whimsical music]

I am not gonna say I'm a chef,

but this is good as hell.

Every bite, you get a little bit of the crunchy texture.

And then of course, the cake is there,

which is most of it, which is my favorite.

The soft, fluffy brownie at the bottom.

The layers of matcha ice cream

that break up the sweetness,

and the little crunch in between

that I loved as a little kid

and still love as an adult,

makes this a wonderful ice cream cake.

The cherries are nice and soft.

Everything just works together really well.

You saw that this takes a lotta steps,

a lot of waiting in between steps,

but it's definitely worth it.

This ice cream cake is everything I want

in an ice cream cake.

[instrument booms]

Ice cream cake is all about celebration.

Let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs.

[instrument booms]

Clarke used a pre-made strawberry cake mix.

The cake's pretty pink color is from artificial Red 40,

which is synthetic coloring approved by the FDA,

but sometimes associated with adverse health effects.

Jon baked a brownie for his base layer.

The only part of baking in this entire recipe,

thank the Lord.

Brownies already have a denser,

less porous crumb than cake,

and Jon's choices made his brownie cakier.

He used cocoa powder, which has more starch

and less fat than melted chocolate.

As a result, his brownie was much more cake-like than gooey.

[instrument booms]

Clarke used store-bought chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Most commercial ice creams contain gums like carrageenan,

which are polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates.

These are used to stabilize the delicate combination

of cream, sugar, air, and ice,

by replacing some of the cream.

They prevent the ice cream from melting as well.

Jurgen made French or custard style ice cream,

which starts as a creme anglaise,

which is a flowing custard with enough viscosity

to coat the back of a spoon.

Cream is added

to the cooled creme anglaise before churning

to make it thicker and even more decadent.

Churning the mix serves two purposes.

The addition of air called overrun

inflates the volume of the initial mix,

while freezing forms ice crystals

and concentrates the milk proteins, sugar and air together.

[instrument booms]

Jon made his own hot fudge by cooking chocolate chips

with sweetened condensed milk,

which is 42% sugar and viscous.

The almond dacquoise Jurgen made is a type of meringue

that's equal parts almond flour, egg whites, and sugar.

The structure is derived almost entirely

from the egg white proteins, which can increase

up to eight times their original volume when whipped.

The final mixture is piped onto disks

for baking at a low temperature,

so that the egg proteins don't overbake or collapse.

Egg white proteins start to denature

at 140 degrees Fahrenheit,

and slightly higher with the addition of sugar.

So low gentle heating is the best method

for the crispest, but tender and slightly chewy result.

All three of our chefs were careful

to keep each layer cold during assembly.

My cake is back-

[Everyone] From the freezer.

[Rosemary] Jon crumbled Oreos

between each ice cream layer.

Oreos have an intense chocolate flavor

because of the highly alkalized cocoa used in the cookie.

The higher pH affects the anthocyanin pigments,

making the chocolate very dark, almost black.

Jurgen added Amarena cherries to his cake,

small dark cherries stored in syrup,

and grown in Modena and Bologna, Italy.

They're the perfect balance of sweet, sour,

and slightly bitter.

Ice cream cakes are irresistible.

Next time you're making a frozen dessert,

we hope you'll take tips

from our three marvelous chefs.

[light whimsical music]