I know it’s fall. And that means it’s time for warm foods, like soups, roasts, and all things comforting.

But I really, really wanted to make an ice cream cake. I’ve never done it before. So to justify this creation, I made some candy skulls and got some candy corn, and out came a Halloween themed ice cream cake. Oh yes, it did.

It makes me happy every time I look at it. I didn’t take very many (ahem… any) step by step photos because I was using all my will power to resist eating all the ingredients, but the wonderful thing about ice cream cakes is the simplicity and creativity of them. Boyfriend is a major fan of peanut butter, so the flavor choice was obvious, if not absolutely critical.

To be honest, I’ve only been able to justify having one small piece. Thank goodness people came over for the game Saturday night to help Boyfriend and I eat it. Otherwise I would be wrestling with a belly full of guilt peanut butter. Then I would swear off of baking for a month and have nothing to post on here. Everybody wins.

Nearly all ice cream cakes start with a cookie crumb crust. Mine is very simple- Oreos with the cream scraped out, ground in a food processer, then mixed with melted butter. Here are the layers from bottom to top. You will feel guiltier and guiltier as the list continues.

  1. Oreo crumb and melted butter crust
  2. Peanut butter cup ice cream
  3. Crumbled peanut butter cups
  4. Chocolate cake
  5. Reese’s peanut butter filling
  6. More peanut butter cup ice cream

And just to remind you:

 

Oh yeah, and I swirled in a little hot fudge on top. Mmm.

To make your own ice cream cake, just pick out your favorite ice cream and coordinating candies and cake and layer it all on top of a crust in a spring form pan. It’s wise to freeze for at least a half hour (longer for the ice cream layers) between layers and a final four hours to set it when all layers have been added.

Although it’s pretty easy to throw all these layers together, it’s a long time to wait. Especially for something so delicious. It’s even harder to not just eat all the layers while you’re building it. I made the mistake of buying the ingredients a few days in advance and it was a challenge to keep Boyfriend out of the freezer.

To make the candy skulls, I picked up skull molds and lime green candy melts from Jo Ann’s (click photos for link).

Who cares if it’s October, have fun with your own ice cream cake! And dress it up for Halloween, if you’d like. More spooky treats to come 🙂