Ice Cream Cakes

Ice cream cakes make great desserts for birthdays, holidays, or any kind of celebration. First marketed by the Carvel ice cream company, ice cream cakes are traditionally shaped as a round or rectangular cake with thick layers of ice cream (often one vanilla and one chocolate) separated by delicious crunchy vanilla and chocolate cookie-like filling. With a thin coating of specially formulated icing, the cake is then decorated for a very festive look.

And Carvel did not stop their ice cream cake creative-genius to just round and rectangular cakes. They later introduced themed-cakes for various holidays and celebrations.

Some of the most popular of these "Carvel Signature Cakes" are:

• Fudgie the Whale
• Hug Me the Bear
• 3-D Butterfly
• Clown Face
• Thanksgiving Turkey

Carvel also sells some great ice cream logs including "coffee toffee crunch", "cookies 'n cream" and "strawberry crunch"

Other famous ice cream restaurants that sell ice cream cakes and logs include: Friendly's, Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Dairy Queen and Coldstone Creamery.

While ice cream cakes are absolutely delicious, they may be a little pricey for a tight family budget.

Depending on the area in which you live, many will be priced somewhere between $18.00 and $40.00. To save a couple of bucks, keep your eye out for manufacturers coupons. Check the Sunday inserts of your local newspaper and visit the manufacturers' websites, as well.

But there is another way you can enjoy the ice cream cake experience at a fraction of the price. Make one at home!

There are many ways to make an ice cream cake. Here are three recipes for you to try:

• Traditional Layered Ice Cream Cake
• Like Dairy Queen
• Easy Ice Cream Cake from Real Simple
• Matzo Chocolate-Mint Ice Cream Cake from Martha Stewart

As only Martha Stewart can do, this Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake recipe is a gourmet's delight.

You will need: sugar, strong freshly brewed expresso, optional coffee liqueur (Kahlua works), vanilla sponge cake, finally ground expresso, coffee flavored ice cream, expresso flavored ice cream, chocolate curls.

Here is the full recipe: Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake

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