Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Cake

Please make sure to read the entire recipe before getting started. The baked cake requires several hours of chilling and the assembled ice cream cake requires overnight freezing.

For the chocolate cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate larger bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well-combined. Whisk in the oil, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Whisk in the milk.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch springform cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven.

Let the cake cool completely, then refrigerate for several hours, or overnight.

The next day, remove the cake from the mold and cut the cake into three even horizontal layers. Re-assemble the springform pan. Line the sides with plastic wrap or wax paper for easy removal of the cake so you don’t have to saw the edges of the cakes later on.

Place the top layer (the domed one) of the cake on the bottom of the cake pan. (You’ll spread a thick layer of ice cream on top of it so that this way, the top of the cake won’t be domed. Alternately, if you really want to make your layers even, cut off the dome before layering your cake.)

You’ll need to work quickly for this next part. Add about 4 cups of vanilla ice cream, half of the mashed banana, and half of the chocolate chips and walnuts into a mixing bowl. Mash them together with a wooden spoon. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s more important that the ice cream doesn’t melt. Spread the ice cream over the layer of cake at the bottom of the springform pan. Place the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, so that the layer of ice cream is firm.

Remove pan from the freezer. Place another cake layer on top of the ice cream. Repeat the step above with the remaining ice cream, banana, nuts, and chocolate chips and spread this on top of the second layer. Then top with the final cake layer. Freeze the cake for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Make the frosting. Whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl.

Remove the cake from the springform pan. Spread the frosting over the cake and decorate with banana slices. If the cake starts to melt while you’re frosting it, return it to the freezer for another 30 minutes.

Cut the cake with a sharp knife that you’ve run under hot water. Serve!

Notes:
1. Don’t use butter for the cake. It’ll make the cake very hard when you freeze it.
2. I’d recommend Breyers for the ice cream. It’s airier than most, so it’s easy to scoop, spread and slice.
3. Cake adapted from a recipe for Double Chocolate Banana Bread by Smitten Kitchen.