#chicksthatchow version

Christmas is just around the corner …can you believe it? Every year we seem to be spammed with images of a white Christmas, with Santa Claus and reindeers all dressed up in their winter woollies. Of course this is what a European winter Christmas is all about but a few thousand miles to the south in the southern part of Africa, we always find ourselves in the middle of a scorching summer!

We live in Africa and its kinda 30°C hot. It is a time of sun, surf and sunscreen … So I decided to share my decadent ice-cream-christmas-cake-dessert with you. Believe me this is a showstopper. It is also the easiest thing to prepare – the kids and adults will just LOVE it.

I read about this recipe in Sarie Kos a few years ago and since then I have tweaked it to become one of my own favourite dessert delights. I have made it for a variety of different occasions, just a couple of weeks ago I made it for our #chicksthatchow summer soiree at my friend Errieda’s house and you will also see it featured in the latest Get It Magazine.

#christmas version

The best thing about this decadent dessert is that you can easily prepare it a few days before Christmas – then put it in the freezer and decorate just before serving. This two-layered-ice-cream-dream is so versatile because you can decide on which sweet fillings you may want to hide inside this ice-cream-beehive … whether you want fruit, nuts, chocolate or even a few Christmas “tikkies”, the choice is yours. Remember the good old days when your mom or gran used to serve the Christmas dessert with the coins hidden inside the pudding?

#cherries

For my Christmas delight, I am going to add some cranberries, peanut brittle and some of those melt-in-your-mouth chocolate balls. All these ingredients are going to be locked into our ice-cream-igloo – so let your imagination run wild. Take your frozen cake out of the fridge, pour some chocolate ganache over the top and decorate the cake with strawberries, cherries, red roses or whatever you think will add that Christmas feel. Merry Christmas everyone!

#peanut brittle

#cranberries

ice cream cake = delightful christmas dessert

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour

 

Author: Anél Potgieter

Ingredients

• For the ice cream cake
• 2 L Full-cream vanilla ice cream
• ½ L Chocolate ice cream
• 2 Peanut brittle (200g) – broken into small pieces
• 6 Lindt chocolate balls (whatever flavour you fancy)
• 150g Dried cranberries
• A shopping bag or cling wrap
• For the Chocolate Ganache
• 100g Dark chocolate
• 80 ml Cream (I use less cream – as I like a thick ganache)
• ¼t Vanilla essence
• For decorating
• Fresh cherries
• Fresh strawberries
• Red roses
• Lindt chocolate balls

Instructions

1. For ice cream cake - Take a mixing or serving bowl that is be large enough to contain all the ice cream. Line your bowl with a shopping bag or cling wrap. The plastic shopping bag just seems to give the finished ice-cream igloo a really authentic Alpine look!
2. Now take ¾ of the vanilla ice cream, put it into a mixing bowl and stir until the the ice-cream becomes a little softer. Do not let it melt or become to fluid. Put the rest of the ice-cream back in the freezer as we are going to use it a little later for the last layer of our cake
3. Scoop the stirred ice-cream into the lined plastic bag bowl and make sure scooping out a fairly sizeable round hollow in the centre. Put the ice-cream filled bowl into the freezer for about 20 minutes to let it harden somewhat.
4. Now, take the chocolate ice cream, scoop into bowl and stir this until it is softer as well. Add the peanut brittle, chocolate balls and cranberries – whatever you prefer.
5. Take the bowl with the vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and scoop the chocolate ice cream and peanut brittle mix into the hole you made in the vanilla ice cream. Put in freezer to harden for about 15 minutes.
6. Lastly, put the last layer of vanilla ice cream over the chocolate ice cream and put in freezer to set.
7. For chocolate ganache - Break some good quality chocolate into blocks put in glass bowl. Heat the cream in a little pot till nearly boiling. Then pour the hot milk over the chocolate blocks - stir until the chocolate is melted to form a thick chocolate ganache. Add the vanilla essence and set aside to cool down.
8. To serve - Take the ice cream out of the bag and place on a lovely serving dish. Pour the chocolate ganache over it and then I always decorate with fresh roses, cherries, strawberries and Lindt balls.

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