This is the easiest no-bake Ice Cream Cake recipe ever! So simple to assemble in 15 minutes using a premade pound cake (we love Sara Lee), your favorite ice cream flavors and candy, a chocolate shell coating, and finished with crushed cookies, sprinkles, or more colorful candy.
Ice Cream Cake Recipe
Our Ice Cream Cake recipe is more of a suggestion with simple steps rather than a list of required ingredients. It’s completely yours to customize and layer with your favorite cake, candy, and ice cream flavors.
This recipe is prepared with pound cake because it’s dense and holds up well beneath the layers stacked on top of each slice. But if you prefer to use chocolate cake, yellow cake, or even ice cream sandwiches, this simple ice cream cake is yours to customize so it’s your perfect cake and ice cream pairing.
For more ice cream cake ideas, check out my S’mores Ice Cream Sandwich Cake, Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake, Banana Split Ice Cream Sandwich Cake, and Buster Bar Ice Cream Cake for inspiration.
Ice Cream Pound Cake Ingredients
- Pound cake: I used a 16-ounce Sara Lee family-size pound cake found in the frozen food section of the grocery store. You can use any store-bought brand or bake your own.
- Ice cream: I love chocolate brownie, cookies and cream, and French vanilla for my ice cream layers. Feel free to pick your favorite three flavors. You can use chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, mint chocolate chip ice cream, or any of your favorite flavors.
- Candy: I picked Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s, and crushed Oreo cookies in between my layers. Choose your favorite kind of candies or cookies.
- Chocolate candy shell: You can use a store-bought brand or make your own homemade chocolate magic shell.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Easy Ice Cream Cake
- Cut The Cake: Remove the pound cake from the foil pan and cut it into 3 even slices.
- Assemble: Place a layer of pound cake in the bottom of the pan (Image 1), cover with ice cream (Image 2), and sprinkle candy on top (Image 3). Repeat the layers (Image 4 and 5), ending with a layer of ice cream, and cover with the chocolate shell topping.
- Decorate Your Dessert: Before the shell completely hardens, sprinkle with candy and cookies. (Image 6)
- Freeze: Place in the freezer UNCOVERED for 5 minutes to harden the shell and ice cream. Wrap in plastic and store in the freezer until ready to serve.
- Slice And Serve: Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Tips & Variations
- Let the ice cream soften for at least 10 minutes. This will allow it to spread a lot easier!
- Be sure to line the cake pan with plastic wrap so that it covers all 4 sides. This will make it easier to cover and then remove the cake from the pan later for slicing.
- Before you wrap and put the cake in the freezer, I highly recommend you place it first in the freezer, UNCOVERED, for about 5 minutes to quickly harden the shell and ice cream a bit. This will make sure the candy shell coating won’t stick to the plastic wrap.
- To make cutting the ice cream cake easier, run your knife under warm water before slicing.
How to Serve
- Decorate Your Dessert: You can cover your cake with dollops of whipped cream, chocolate syrup, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, chopped candy bars, chocolate chips, crushed cookies, sprinkles, chopped nuts, M&M’s — the options are endless!
- Cover Your Ice Cream: Get creative with your cake! Add drizzles of caramel, chocolate fudge, or fruit-flavored sauce over each ice cream layer. Craving some crunch? Sprinkle on some crushed Oreos, graham crackers, or your favorite kind of cookies.
How to Store Ice Cream Cake
- To Store: Leftovers should be covered with plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for about 1 to 2 months. Before serving, let the cake sit at room temperature for a few minutes to ease slicing and enhance flavor.
- Prepare in Advance: This cake is the perfect make-ahead dessert. The entire ice cream cake can be assembled ahead of time and stored in the freezer for 1-2 months before serving it. When you’re ready to serve, simply slice and enjoy!
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Easy Ice Cream Cake
Serves — 10
This Easy Ice Cream Cake is completely customizable with your favorite cake, ice cream, and filling flavors! Perfect for a birthday party, barbecue, holiday, or summer celebration!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Freeze 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 15 minutes
Video
Ingredients
- 1 16 ounce frozen pound cake (family size)
- 3 cups ice cream different ice cream flavors We like to use 3 different ice cream flavors about 1 cup each. We used Chocolate Brownie, Cookies and Cream and French Vanilla
- ⅓ 8 ounce bag Mini Reese's peanut butter cups
- ½ cup M&M's
- 8 cookies Oreo cookies
- chocolate candy shell
Instructions
- Remove the pound cake from the foil pan and cut it into 3 even layers (sort of-ours were hilariously crooked)1 16 ounce frozen pound cake
- Line the foil pan with enough plastic wrap to go over all 4 sides (this is to make it easy to cover and then remove from the pan later for slicing
- Place one layer of pound cake in the bottom of the pan and cover with 1 cup of ice cream. Sprinkle with candy.3 cups ice cream different ice cream flavors, 1/3 8 ounce bag Mini Reese's peanut butter cups, 1/2 cup M&M's, 8 cookies Oreo cookies
- Repeat layers and top the last layer of ice cream with the chocolate shell topping.chocolate candy shell
- Before the shell completely hardens, sprinkle with additional candy and cookies.
- Place in the freezer UNCOVERED for about 5 minutes to quickly harden the shell and ice cream a bit.
- Wrap up tightly and store in the freezer until ready to serve. (approximately 4-6 hours)
- Once you’re ready to eat it, remove from the freezer and pull gently on the plastic wrap to lift the ice cream cake out of the pan. Use a warm knife to quickly and easily slice through the ice cream and cake layers.
Jenn’s Notes
Pro-Tips:
- Let ice cream soften for at least 10 minutes. This will make it spread a lot easier!
- Be sure to line the pan with plastic wrap, it will make it much easier to remove from the pan.
- Before you wrap and put in the freezer, Place in the freezer UNCOVERED for about 5 minutes to quickly harden the shell and ice cream a bit. This will make sure the candy shell coating will not stick to the plastic wrap.
- Run knife under hot water before you are slicing it (this makes it slice easier)!
Nutrition Info
Calories: 351kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 102mg | Potassium: 98mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 190IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 1mg
Originally posted on May 18, 2016
An interesting recipe! I will try to cook it on the weekend. Thanks you!
Very tasty cake! Thank you for such a detailed recipe! This is a really delicious recipe that my kids liked! You have a very exciting blog, I have found for myself many new recipes that I would like to try!