Homemade ice cream cake covered with marcipan

It was recently my boyfriend’s 30th birthday and we had a small group of friends over for a birthday dinner. I had said that I would make whatever he wanted for dinner, and the wish was beef goulash with mashed potatoes and pistachio ice cream for dessert. I could choose the first course, and decided on crayfish salad with garlic dressing and homemade bread.

But I thought it not ‘just’ going to be plain old ice cream for dessert. . So I decided to surprise him with an ice cream cake – still with his favorite pistachio ice cream.

I started by baking a hazelnut/orange cake bottom and let it could cool down. 

Meanwhile, I took 2 liters of pistachio ice cream out of the freezer so it could soften up a bit. Then I poured it in a large bowl, and whisked it so the ice cream, to a soft ice like consistency. Then I poured the ice cream in ring mold with cake bottom already in. I covered it with plastic wrap so no air would be let in and then put it in the freezer. Let it stand overnight or preferably 4-5 hours.

I had bought a finished Odense marcipan cover sheet which I covered ice cream with about an hour before the guests arrived. I thought it was pretty easy to work with, but you must of course be a little fast as it was an ice cream cake.

Shortly before I served the cake, I melted a bit of chocolate and used a small spoon to make made some ‘creative’ lines on top of the marzipan. My boyfriend loves Maltese chocolates, so I put a nice pile of them on top of the cake and finally decorating with dark and white chocolate hearts.

It turned out great was a real success. I had happy guests and not least a very happy birthday man.

Here is the recipe for the hazelnut cake bottom.

Ingredients

150 g of hazelnuts

125 g of icing sugar

3 egg whites

1.5 teaspoons. grated orange peel

5 g of butter

Put hazelnuts in a food processor with the icing sugar and run it till you have a flour like texture. (Or as I did – due to a lack of food processor  – chopped with a large knife with a lot patience) Add the egg whites and orange peel, and run it together quickly. Add greaseproof paper to a cake tin and butter it with a little soft butter and sprinkle with sugar. Fill with nut mass and bake for 35 minutes. at 180 C° until it is fully baked with crisp edges. Let it cool and gently remove the greaseproof paper and discard it.

Put it backing the cake tin, and begin the rest of the ice cream process explained above.