Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cake Recipe

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When you first go gluten-free, it can feel like you have to give up on some of the goodies other people take for granted. But that’s not true! What it does mean is that -sometimes – you have to find a gluten-free recipe from scratch and make your own. But not to worry! With a little practice, gluten-free baking isn’t hard at all.

I knew that making the cookie part would be easy, I already had a fabulous recipe for homemade gluten-free copycat oreos lined up, and all I had to do was make them egg-free so my husband could enjoy it with us.

But I wasn’t sure how to go about the ice-cream part. Cutting frozen ice cream would be difficult, and partially melting, spreading, and re-freezing ice cream sounded like a great recipe for freezer burn.

Then this Buzzfeed video showed up in my Facebook timeline.

Genius! No ice cream churn needed. I could do that!

I know you’re not suppose to try experimental recipes on guests, but with Garrett’s birthday party two days away, I decided to risk it. (after all, you can’t go wrong with whipped cream, right?)

It turned out beautifully! Being a sucker for peppermint ice cream, and especially a chocolate and peppermint combo, I flavored the “ice cream” with peppermint essential oil, and the family and party guests (more family) gave it rave reviews!

Personally, I thought it could have used some more peppermint, but they thought it was perfect. Such is the life of a peppermint addict. 🙂

As you read through the recipe, you’ll see that this recipe is time consuming. But the good news is that most of that time is spent hands off, with the cake chillin’ in the freezer.

And it’s worth. every. minute.

Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cake

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour mix
1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (use dark cocoa if possible)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon chia seeds, or ground flax seeds
3 Tablespoons milk
1 quart heavy cream
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla (or other flavoring) or 10-15 drops of peppermint essential oil

For the cookies:

preheat oven to 375º
Mix Chia seeds with milk and set aside.
Combine first six ingredients.
Beat sugar and butter together until fluffy.
Beat in chia/milk mixture.
Gradually add dry ingredient, and mix until a ball of dough forms.
Add a bit more flour if too sticky, or more milk if too dry.
Divide dough into four pieces.
Trace four 9×5 inch rectangles onto parchment paper.
Roll dough to fill parchment rectangles.
Place on cookie sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

For the ice-cream:

Note: You can whip the whole quart of cream at one time, but I recommend only doing half, or even one quarter of it so that you can freeze each layer of ice-cream until firm so that weight added to the top will not squeeze unfrozen ice cream out, without worrying that your cream mixture will thin out while waiting in the refrigerator.

Don’t worry, it will all make sense in a minute. 😉

Chill all ingredients, bowls, spoons, and beaters/mixers
Whip one cup of cream until peaks form.
Continue whipping while adding half of a can of sweetened condensed milk.
Beat in desired flavoring.

To assemble:

Carefully remove a “cookie” from parchment paper (mine held together nicely, and I didn’t really have to be all that careful. Still…) and place on your cake-serving tray. If there’s one that happens to be larger than the other, use that one on the bottom.
Evenly spread “ice cream” over cookie.
Freeze until firm.
Remove from freezer.
Top with another cookie.
Spread a new batch of ice cream atop.
Refreeze.
Repeat until all cookies and ice-cream are used.
For the last layer, spread the ice-cream over top and sides to hide the cookies.
Freeze the whole shebang.