Impress your friends and make a home made ice cream cake instead of buying one from the store. This is a great cake to serve at a casual birthday party.

Decide what kind of ice cream cake you want to make. You can use any combination of cake and ice cream flavors. Chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream is always a crowd pleaser.

Go to the store and buy the ingredients listed above. This can be done in days before making the cake. Just make sure that nothing expires before you plan to make the cake.

You'll need to create a mold for the ice cream. Let the ice cream thaw a bit. Line one of the round cake pans with wax paper. Once the ice cream has thawed enough to handle, fill the round cake pan with ice cream. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least a few hours (This can be done a few days ahead).

Prepare the cake. Preheat the oven to the temperature specified in your recipe. If you don't know what temp to use, 350 degrees should work fine. Mix the ingredients together then place them in the 2 remaining round pans. Bake the cake until it is done (you should be able to insert a toothpick and nothing gooey sticks to it). When it is done remove it from the oven and cool on wire racks.

Prepare the whipped cream. Put the heavy whipping cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. You can adjust the amounts of vanila and sugar to your taste preference. Use an electric mixer and make the whipped cream. Once you are done let the mix chill in the fridge for a bit.

Assemble the cake! Place one of the cakes on a platter. Take the ice cream out of the round pans and put on the cake. Put the last piece of cake on the ice cream. Ice the cake with the whipped cream that is in the fridge.

Decorate the cake however you want and you are done! You will need to store the finished cake in the freezer until you are ready to serve it to your guests.

Tips:

You can just use 2 cake pans and use one for the cake and one for ice cream. The ice cream can just be the bottom layer and you'll only have 2 layers instead of 3.

Be sure to make sure the ice cream is very frozen when you assemble the cake. If it isn't it can change the shape of the cake and it may not look like a cake anymore.