Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.

– Don Kardong

I love ice-cream. Chocolate, vanilla, macadamia, coconut, berry, melon, cookies and cream, cookie dough—you name it and I like it. All except for green tea ice-cream. I hate it, hate it, hate it. Nearly every time we buy an ice-cream cake here in Korea we get a multi-flavoured one so that everyone can enjoy it. There is always a green tea option, but because I can see it, I can avoid it. Well, two weekends ago, one of my friends hosted a barbeque and I opted to bring dessert. Originally, I was going to make something, but I didn’t have time because I was too busy watching Dr. Who (that is a valid excuse, right?). Instead, I went to the local convenience shop and bought a Häagen-Dazs® ice-cream cake as I was convinced that it would be filled with chocolate ice-cream.

You can guess what happened, though, right? Man, I was so excited to eat it and so disappointed when I cut that first piece—green tea and vanilla. I could have cried. I was so annoyed I only ate a few bites and then spent a lot of time complaining about it and how I could have made better myself.

So the following Thursday I decided to conduct an experiment based on the advice in this Food 52 article. It was so much fun making the ice-cream cake and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing it the next day with my friends at a lemonade and ice-cream party. Even better? Everyone gave it a resounding thumbs-up!

Twix and Vanilla with Cookies and Cream ice-cream cake.

Serves 12-15

Ingredients

• 1¼ cup chocolate digestive biscuits,* crushed
• 4-5 tbsp melted butter
• approx. 2 pints vanilla ice-cream
• 1 cup Twix, in bite size pieces
• 1.5 cup peanut butter
• 1¼ cup Oreo wafer biscuits, in bite size pieces
• approx. 2 pints of cookies and cream ice-cream
• ½ cup fresh cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (if available, please use the real thing!)
• 1 tbsp Sugar**

Method

1. Butter a baking tray, or a springform cake pan and set aside. I used an 11x7x1.5 inch tray.
2. Mix the melted butter with the digestive biscuits, put into the baking tray or a springform cake pan and smooth out.
3. Put into the freezer for around 1 hour.
4. Leave the vanilla ice-cream out for around 20 minutes before you are going to use it, so that it softens enough to mix it up. Once soft, mix in the Twix pieces.
5. Remove the digestive biscuits from the freezer and spread the Twix-mix on the biscuits. Place back in the freezer for around 2 hours (don’t go under a minimum of an hour).
6. Remove once more from the freezer, and spread the peanut butter on top of the ice-cream. Sprinkle the oreo wafers on top of the peanut butter and place in the freezer again for a minimum of 2 hours. If you want, you may reserve some of the oreo to mix in with the cream and remaining ice-cream.
7. Then whip the cream well with the sugar and vanilla***.
8. Again, leave the ice-cream out for around 20 minutes or until soft enough to fold in the cream. If using, add the remaining oreos at this stage.
9. Place back in the freezer for a minimum of 2 hours, but longer would be preferable.
10. Remove from the freezer about 10 to 15 minutes before you are ready to serve.
11. Share with your friends and/or family and enjoy!

*Graham crackers can be used in place of digestive biscuits.

**I used only 1 tbsp of sugar, however you can adjust to your own tastes and preferences (remember you are going to mix with the cookies and cream ice-cream so you don’t want it to be too sweet).

***I only lightly whipped it but not enough that it was peaked. I would recommend whipping it a little more than I did as it will hold it’s shape a little better when mixed with the ice-cream. I also only had an hour and a half before I would be serving to friends and it wasn’t quite enough time for this last layer to set, hence the above recommendation of a minimum of 2 hours after the last layer and the slightly melted look in the photo.

TIPS

Make it ahead of time: This is an easy recipe to make ahead, either the night before or a couple of days before. Once everything is set, cover with clingfilm or aluminium foil.

Make it your own:  As mentioned in the Food 52 article (link above), you can always adjust things to your own tastes. If you don’t like the flavours of  ice-cream I’ve used, substitute your favourite.