Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake
Mother’s Day is just around the corner!
Celebrate with a slice of this Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake!
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How in the heck have I never heard of a freak cake? I spend my days reading, writing and thinking about food, but somehow the concept of a freak cake has eluded me…until now! The freak cake movement is a spin-off of freakshakes, which are mega milkshakes topped with everything under the sun. Imagine a milkshake topped with cake, brownies, cookies, whipped cream, candy, etc. You name it, and it belongs on top of a freakshake! And now we have freak cakes. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake (phew, there’s a recipe title for ya!), pays homage to its freakshake cousin…but in a form that can be eaten with a fork. Seriously…how does one go about eating (drinking?) a freakshake??
Laura is the middle of 3 sisters, and they are all separated by just 4 years total. I can only imagine growing up in that household! I would definitely have needed a man cave for escape. Laura was telling me the other day that one of her favorite birthday traditions was getting to pick out her own cake. The birthday girl would go with mom to the store and pick out whatever flavor cake she wanted. (That sounds like my typical Sunday, by the way.) And Laura’s cake of choice? An ice cream cake. Every year. Never mind the fact that her birthday is in late September when the weather can start to get a bit chilly. Laura wanted an ice cream cake!
So this year, I want to surprise Laura with an ice cream cake. And since I don’t want to wait until September, I decided that Mother’s Day is the perfect opportunity to celebrate. Robbie just discovered the wonders of ice cream, so I know he will be on board with this plan, too. But as good as ice cream cakes are by themselves, I decided to turn this one into a freak cake. A Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake. Also known as delicious!
One of my favorite things to do with Robbie after I pick him up from daycare is to swing by the store and pick up a bunch of flowers. Then when we get home, he hides behind the kitchen counter holding the flowers. As soon as Mom (aka Laura) walks in the back door, he runs around the corner holding the flowers out for her. It’s the cutest thing ever! And then Robbie talks about how he gave Mommy flowers for the next 4 days. Life with a toddler can be trying at times, but then he does cute stuff like that, and it’s all good again!
This Chocolate Peanut Butter Freak Cake is actually quite easy to make. I used Carvel’s® Ice Cream Cookie Cake as the base, and it was perfect! Imagine 2 huge chocolate chip cookies with a creamy layer of vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between and surrounded by those chocolate crunchies. A gigantic ice cream cookie sandwich? Sign me up for that one please! I also grabbed all sorts of chocolate and peanut butter themed toppings, and I set to work turning that Ice Cream Cookie Cake into a Chocolate Peanut Butter Freak Cake. Mission accomplished!
Have you seen all of the fun ice cream cakes that I Love Ice Cream Cakes makes? In addition to the Ice Cream Cookie Cake that I used, they also have the classic sheet and round Carvel Ice Cream Cakes that Laura used to get for her birthday each year. And then when I was in the store, I spotted several other ice cream cakes, including an OREO® Premium Ice Cream Cake and an OREO-Ice Cream Roll. Cookies ‘n Cream is one of my favorite ice cream flavors, so those cakes definitely need to happen. Maybe for Father’s Day this year? (Hint, hint, Laura…) The bakery department at our local Walmart carries a bunch of different varieties of I Love Ice Cream Cakes, too. So I’m thinking Memorial Day…Father’s Day…4th of July…Sunday…Labor Day…Any Day. There are a lot of opportunities to celebrate during the summer!
I am honored to share a home with one of the best mothers ever. Seriously. Laura does an amazing job with Robbie, even when the little guy is throwing a tantrum or having nightmares in the middle of the night. She deserves every bunch of flowers that we get for her, and she also deserves every bite of this delicious ice cream cake. Thank you, Laura!
What are your plans for Mother’s Day this year? Don’t you think a Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake sounds like a great way to celebrate? Enjoy, and Happy (early) Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. (And, yes, having fur children totally means you get to celebrate Mother’s Day, too!)
Want more cake inspirations and helpful ideas? Check out I Love Ice Cream Cake’s Party Tips page and also sign up for their Crunchie Club! – Crunchie Club members are the first to find out about new product news and coupons. – Coupons on new ice cream cakes? Sign me up for that!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake
Ingredients
For the Ganache
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 oz. semisweet chocolate chopped
- {optional} 1 Tbsp corn syrup
For the Cake
- 1 Carvel® Ice Cream Cookie Cake
- 2 ice cream cones broken
- ½ cup brownie wafers/brittle broken
- ½ cup peanut butter wafer cookies chopped
- ½ cup peanut butter sandwich cookies
- ½ cup chocolate peanut butter cups chopped
- ¼ cup salted peanuts
- white and gold sugar pearls for decoration
Instructions
For the Ganache
- Using a medium saucepan, add whipping cream and place over medium heat. Heat, stirring occasionally, until hot.
- Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate; stir until chocolate has fully melted.
- {Optional} To create a shinier ganache, stir in corn syrup.
- Let ganache rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes, or until cool.
For the Cake
- Once cooled, spread the ganache around the center of the Carvel® Ice Cream Cookie Cake, leaving ~1” on all sides.
- Working in the center of the cake, gently press several pieces of broken ice cream cones and brownie brittle into the cake.
- Gradually work out towards the edges of the cake, adding other toppings like peanut butter wafer cookies, peanut butter sandwich cookies, peanut butter cups, salted peanuts and other candy decorations.
- Keep cake frozen until ready to serve. (Tip: Run warm water over a knife before slicing. The warm knife will help slice the ice cream cake easily.)
My life will not be complete until Cookie hides behind my kitchen counter to surprise me with flowers. Robbie is just the cutest kid ever! I’m glad you said that having fur children means it’s OK to celebrate Mother’s Day because I’ve already picked out my present from Cookie. And now I know what I’m having for dessert too! This cake looks freakishly delicious 🙂 Happy early Mother’s Day to Laura!
Haha! So I think we can totally make the Cookie and flowers experiment work. Do you think we can get her to carry the flowers in her mouth? (Although, in case you didn’t know, tulip stems aren’t good for dogs. Why do we know this? Because of a certain Maximus.) And since our pups can’t have chocolate, that just means more of this freak cake for us, right? 🙂
I have never seen a cake like this but it looks so good. My family would love it.
The concept of a freak cake was brand new to me, too, Gerlinde! But they’re a real thing. And somehow I’ve made it this far without discovering them. But now that I know about freak cakes, I’m all in! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! 🙂
Completely new idea ( the cake, I mean 🙂 ) to me. Love it. Give a hug to young gentleman for me 🙂
I will absolutely give the little guy a hug for you! And, yes, the concept of a freak cake was new to me, too. But I’ve gotta admit that it’s pretty fun to make. The crazier, the better! 🙂
I haven’t hear about this freak icecream cake before but it sure looks yummy! Robbie is such a cute boy!! Hugs my friend!
Ok, good. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard of freak cakes yet! They’re such a cool dessert idea…I mean anything goes! 🙂 And thank you for the kind words about Robbie. I’ll make sure to pass them on to the little guy tonight after daycare. Thanks, Gaila!!
This freak ice cream cake looks freakishly good (sorry 😉 ! And, David, Robbie is just adorable and he looks so happy.
Haha! I don’t blame ya one bit on the fun pun there, Marissa. I mean freak cakes are freakishly good…especially when ice cream is involved! 🙂 Thanks so much, my friend!
I can totally imagine Robbie picking flowers, My goodness David he’s growing up so fast. I love when you post pictures your little cutie. I’ll take flowers from him anyway. I’m not even going to mention your chocolate peanut butter ice cream freak cake.I just want to let you know you have officially ruined my diet and I’m ok with that.
Robbie really is growing like a weed these days. I feel like I don’t notice it on a daily basis, but then I look back to a month or two ago and I’m like woah! Fortunately, he prefers flowers over weeds, and he’s so cute when he gives Laura flowers. And this freak cake? Uh, awesome! How have I never heard about these before!? Either way, I’m a fan! Thanks so much, Mary.
I’ve never heard of a Freak Cake either, David (I’ve only heard of a Frankenstein dessert). Although this cake is loaded with thousands of calories (millions?), I won’t be able to resist a slice or two. After all, this is ice cream, and ice cream belongs to a dairy category which is beneficial to us (Solid argument, right?) This is delicious (aka ship me a huge slice ASAP please).
Ah, yes, the good ole Franken-dessert. We know those all too well in our house. 🙂 Now the Freak Cake idea is a new one to me, too, and I have no idea how I’ve been blogging and talking food for this many years without discovering freak cakes. I’m here to help you discover them, too, so I’m putting a slice in an envelope today. I hope it’s not too hot out in the mailbox. Haha!
Mother’s Day in the UK is celebrated in March, so I already had my treat but I wouldn’t mind having a second Mother’s Day in May 🙂 Who could say no to a Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Freak Cake, yum! What a wonderful Mother’s Day surprise for Laura and I am sure Robbie will be delighted as well, he is such a cutie, love his smile!
Interesting! I didn’t realize UK Mother’s Day is earlier. Hey, I’m ok with that. Moms should get 2 days to celebrate…you guys (uh, gals) do so much! 🙂 Also, have you heard of freak cakes before? They seem to be a European trend? All I know is we need ’em here in the States, too! Thanks for the kind words about the little guy. He’s going with Mom this weekend to make a little potted plant craft to give Laura on Mother’s Day. He just learned about seeds, so I think he’ll love this one! Thanks so much, Miriam, and I hope you have a great weekend ahead!
SO MUCH AWESOMENESS in this post, David! I dunno where to start!
First off, Lil Shashi and I always say we are gonna try one of those freakshakes when we get to NYC and then chicken out (whats wrong with us???) but a freakcake – now that’s some hefty awesomeness I could take my time eating – with a fork! I have seen those I Love Ice Cream Cakes – and try to walk by super fast cos the flavors are ridiculously delicious sounding! And – Awwww – Robbie handing his mom flowers when she walks in…I just had a mental picture of that and that is just too cute! Also – LOVE that idea of Laura and her sisters picking their own cake – (chuckled at it being your thing every Sunday!!!) – and the coolest tidbit – I knew I liked Laura from the sec I met her and, other than her being ridiculoysly fantastic – we share the same birth month! BTW – it’s not too cold for ice cream cakes down here in HOTLanta in September…just saying in case y’all wanted to move or something… 😉
So I must admit that the concept of freakshakes and even freakcakes was new to me. How have I not discovered these yet!? But I’m on board now! And since it’s finally getting hot outside, the idea of using an ice cream cake as a base is perfect. 🙂 So next time you come visit, maybe I can convince Robbie to give you some flowers, too! I mean you know how it is with toddlers…one second, it’s a great idea. The next second, he’s too shy to talk. Also, moving back to the ATL is sounds pretty awesome right now…although I might have to enjoy the summer up here and then move right before the winter snow comes in again. Haha! Thanks, Shashi!
I’ve never heard about freak cakes, but have heard about those shakes now that you mention it. Those shakes aren’t for me, but I could totally get down with a piece of this deliciousness. Love a cuppa coffee with something sweet and now I’m craving that so thanks 😉 And how CUTE is Robbie?! What a sweetheart! And that smile? Too adorable! Have a wonderful weekend, my friend!
So I must admit that I’ve never had a freak shake, Dawn. They do seem a bit crazy, though. However, I had a ton of fun making (and then eating) this freak cake! I mean it involves ice cream, and now that summer is (almost) here…ice cream is always a winner! And I couldn’t agree with you more about Robbie. I was gone for a curling tournament this past weekend, and I swear he grew 6″ while I was away! Hah! 🙂
The ice cream freak cake is new to me too! Now I don’t know I’ll have to decide to make one or hide from one! If I make one, then I have to eat it!!! That’s all good….and bad! Such a dilemma! 🙂
Ok, I”m glad I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard of freak cakes! But I have to admit that they’re really fun to make. It’s like a blank canvas just waiting for delicious toppings! 🙂 And I hear ya about the dilemma…I say go for it! Plus, you have a whole bunch of people in your house who would be glad to help you finish this one I bet. Haha!
WHOA! This cake looks ridiculous… in the best way! My older brother always picked a Carvel ice cream cake as his birthday cake growing up. I don’t know if they still have it on their menu, but they used to offer their ice cream cakes with fudge and nuts on the outside and OMG it was the best! My father in law is an ice cream nut, so I may have to make this for him for his birthday.
And by the way, the Robbie flower story is adorable! I think that you’re raising a gentleman who’s learning that flowers make a woman smile 🙂
I can’t remember if I saw a Carval cake with fudge and nuts on the outside, but I bet you could make one! Grab this cookie version and then dress it up with homemade fudge and chopped nuts. Sounds like a delicious idea to me! Plus, it would be fun to relive old memories, right? 🙂
And thank you so much for the kind words about Robbie. What’s funny is he loves giving Laura flowers, but he gets so shy when he hands them to her. He’s a good kid for sure!
Looks delicious, nephews will devour it for sure, haha! 🙂
Thanks so much, Codrut! I bet your nephews would go crazy over this ice cream freak cake! 🙂
I am, legit, freaking the freak out about this freaking freak cake. GAH! I’m on this dang no sugar low carb cleanse for another 6 weeks but you BEST believe I’m going to freak out when it’s cheat day and I can get freaky with this cake. Hmmm, sorry about that last bit. NSFW.
HUGE shout out to you for buying flowers for your son to give your wife. It’s those types of actions that stick with young boys. He will probably grow up to do the same thing for his partner. And if they have offspring, he’ll probably keep the tradition alive. Freaking adorable 🙂
6 more weeks of no sugar and low carb!? What the heck, Christina!? But, yes, this cake can be your temptation (temptress?) when it’s time to cheat a little bit. We all need a cheat day now and then. Heck, that’s what keeps me going during the week when we’re eating healthier meals…or trying to at least!
Also, I’d like to point out that Robbie bought those flowers. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂
This cake is definitely freaky. But somehow, it being made of ice cream seems to make it cool.
I say it’s time to get your freak (cake) on, Jeff! 🙂
I would love to have this freak cake for Mother’s Day. Wow, Robbie is getting so big. He is such a cuttie!!
Thank you so much, Dawn! And, yes, Robbie really is growing up so fast. I was away last weekend for a curling tournament, and I swear he grew a foot while I was gone! 🙂 Happy (early) Mother’s Day, my friend!