Ice-cream Cake with Chocolate Ganache

It was my MIL's 75th birthday. We had lunch at the restaurant (I was a little lazy to cook up a storm; anteeksi äiti!) but I 'assembled' an ice-cream cake for her. It was a 'short cut cake' as I have used store-bought sponge layered cake and ice-cream. Nothing made from scratch except for the ganache. But nevertheless, it was good and all of us were happy.

Fresh strawberries for decor

A good peek of the cake 

Ingredients

1 tub of 2-litre vanilla ice-cream
30g of crushed almond cookies (something I got from the store here but you can always replace with chocolate flakes, sprinkles, nuts or anything that you can think of)
1 store-bought pack of 3 layers chocolate sponge cake 
Fresh strawberries (for decoration)
50 ml of whipped cream (for crumb coating)
A tsp of icing sugar

Chocolate Ganache
180ml of whipped cream
20g butter
200g of dark chocolate

Method

1. Line your pan with cling wrap (with extra for wrapping the cake later) and put in the first layer of sponge cake.
2. Mix the vanilla ice-cream and crushed almond cookies well and scoop half of the mixture into the pan. 
3. Level the ice-cream well.
4. Put another layer of the sponge cake and press it down firmly and put in the remaining mixture.
5. Top up with the last layer of sponge cake.
6. Wrap it up with the cling wrap and store in the freezer for 5 hours or overnight. (I usually leave it overnight)
7. Whip up the cream till peak first and then take out the cake. Do a thin layer of crumb coat and store in the freezer again for 2 hours. 
8. Then take it out and do a second layer of crumb coat, make sure that the whole cake is covered and store in the freezer again.
9. Crush the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat up butter and whipped cream in a pot and as it starts to boil, take the pot away from the heat.
10. Gently, pour the mixture into the chocolate and use a spoon to stir well-make sure all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is well-combined. (Try to be gentle as you do not want to have air bubbles trapped in the mixture)
11. Take out the ice-cream cake and place it on a wire rack. 
12. Pour out the chocolate ganache (starting from the middle) and work very quickly with a spoon/spatula and let the ganache spread all over the cake. 
13. Let the ganache settle in for a few minutes and store the cake in the freezer again.
14. Decorate with fresh strawberries and sprinkle some icing sugar just before serving.
15. Enjoy!

Note: You can refer to my oreo ice-cream cake for the setting up of the pan. :)

Sinful Butter Cake

This block of butter cake is simply divine. Moist and crumbly, and full of aroma. Perfect for tea!


Ingredients
220g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 tsp salt (whisk into the flour mixture)
200g flour (sifted)
2 tsp of baking powder (added into the flour and sifted together)
50g + 80g of white sugar
4 medium-sized eggs (separated)
60ml of full fat milk

Method

1. Line with baking paper and grease all over a baking pan. (I have used a 10 X 4.5inch rectangular bread pan) Set oven temperature at 180degs.
2. Cream butter with 80g of sugar till soft, light and fluffy.
3. Whisk egg whites and add sugar gradually. Whisk till it is at peak form.
4. Add egg yolk (one by one) and beat till all combined.
5. Add in flour in 2 batches to the butter mixture and beat at low speed. (KA at speed 2-4) while alternating with milk. 1st-flour, then milk and the same process again.
6. Add in half of the egg meringue and beat at low speed.
7. Lastly, fold in the remaining egg meringue with a spatula.
8. Pour into the baking pan and bake for 40-50mins or till the skewer comes out clean. If it starts to crack on the top, you can cover it with an aluminium foil or lower the temperature. I baked the cake at 160 degs in the last 20mins.
9. Let the cake cool down completely before slicing.
10. Serve with your choice of afternoon beverage. Enjoy!

*Recipe is taken and adapted from wendyinkkblogspot and Mrs. Ng S.K.