Fudgy Ice Cream Cake? Yes, please.

I went home for a visit over Father's Day weekend. My mom, dad, and I had a nice time together.

On Sunday, mom and I grilled steaks for dad, and also served potato salad, corn on the cob, bread, and a fudgy ice cream cake.

I got the recipe out of the June issue of Everyday Food magazine. It is delicious and simple to make, combining layers of ice cream, graham crackers, fudge, and then topped with sweetened whipped cream.

It was 100+ degrees the afternoon we served it, and you can see from the picture that the cake started to melt quickly. But it was still good. I kind of wish I had a piece right now on this sweltering afternoon.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for serving
• Salt
• 3 pints vanilla ice cream
• 18 graham crackers
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
• Unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

1. Lightly coat an 8-inch square cake pan with cooking spray; line pan with plastic wrap, leaving a 6-inch overhang on two sides. Freeze pan at least 10 minutes. In a medium pot, combine corn syrup, 1/4 cup cream, butter, granulated sugar, cocoa, and pinch of salt; bring to a boil, whisking, over medium-high. Remove from heat and let fudge sauce cool. Meanwhile, remove 1 pint ice cream from freezer and let soften, about 15 minutes.
2. Evenly press softened ice cream into pan. Top with a single layer of graham crackers, breaking to fit. Drizzle with 1/4 cup fudge sauce and freeze 15 minutes. Repeat twice, omitting sauce on final layer. Wrap in plastic and freeze until firm, 8 hours (or up to 3 days). Cover and refrigerate remaining fudge sauce.
3. To serve, invert pan and run under tepid water to loosen cake. Invert onto a platter and remove plastic. Microwave fudge sauce in 30-second increments until pourable. Pour over cake and freeze to solidify, 5 minutes. In a large bowl, using a mixer, whip 1 1/2 cups cream and confectioners' sugar on high until stiff peaks form, 3 to 5 minutes. Dollop cake with whipped cream and dust with cocoa. Serve immediately.

A Cold, A Cake, And A Tragedy

I have a cold.

This is bad enough by itself, but something terrible happened yesterday because of it.

I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, because I felt so lousy and there was no one around to give me any sympathy, and was trying to think of a way to cheer myself up. The first thing that came to mind was cake. I know the thought of a baker with a cold is kind of gross, but I did my best to keep away the germs, and I went into the kitchen and whipped myself up a little chocolate cake.

It turned out lovely, which is amazing since I was a little cloudy from some medication, but I noticed as it was baking, I couldn’t smell it. After it had cooled, I cut myself a piece to give it a try, and might as well have been eating plain old rice cakes. You know, the unsalted kind that are like styrofoam. It had no taste whatsoever.

Stupid cold. Zapped my taste buds. And my sense of smell. And I couldn’t enjoy my chocolate cake. Tragic.

So, I wrapped it up and put it in the freezer to save it for a day when I can enjoy it’s chocolaty deliciousness to the fullest.

In the meantime, can somebody get me another tissue?

Olive Oyl

Last week my sister and brother-in-law packed up all their earthly possessions and moved thousands of miles east to the far away state of South Carolina.

The majority of their kitchen's pantry contents made their way to my house, including copious amounts of olive oil. While I was trying to find a place to stash a half-full, five-liter jug of the stuff, I decided i just needed to use some of it up.

I'd seen recipes for olive oil cakes before, but had never made one, so I decided to give it a try. I remembered seeing a recipe a few months ago in Food and Wine, so I started looking through my old issues and found two.

I had all the ingredients for one, and not the other, so the choice of which one to make was easy.

The recipe I chose was very simple, using very few ingredients, and the cake came together very easily. As an added bonus, it smelled heavenly while it baked, almost from the moment I put it in the oven.

Here is a link to the recipe on Food and Wine's website, and below is a picture of my finished cake.



It was quite yummy. Not too sweet and with that kind of fruity taste that comes from olive oil. The recipe article didn't give any serving suggestions, but I think it would be nice served with some sweetened whipped cream and some fresh fruit like peaches or berries. It is just fine by itself, too.



I definitely would make this recipe again, and since I still have a lot of olive oil, I'm sure I will.