Cake #9 Peppermint Ice Cream Candyland Cake by Sherie

Ooooh, Ahhhh  - Doesn't this look straight out of an old-timey cookbook?  And like it would be super duper hard to make and not that good to eat?  Good news - not too hard, but time consuming and tastes great, if you pick the candy brittle off the top to save your fillings.

Oh sure, now as I link to the picture of the cake do I read that I should try to match the candy brittle to the color of my peppermint ice cream.   Though that would have involved seeing my peppermint ice cream in advance, but Ben was at the store buying it while I was making the brittle.  And, the brittle was largely driven by the bits of hard candy I stole from the left-over dregs of Christmas baskets around the office.  If anyone is missing their candy canes, see me in cubicle 14.

This cake was FUN to make.  It was difficult in that it required many steps and planning and space in the freezer.  Mindy & I had need for at least 3 cakes between us over the holidays and we decided on this and 2 others.  I was going to have this on Christmas Day, but after starting it and realizing it might have some good "wow" factor, namely for little kids - I moved it up to Christmas Eve.  But that also meant transporting it and clearing space in my mother-in law's freezer.  And still, it was worth it.

My helpers with mallots and hard candy, smashing away with gusto for the candy brittle.

The cake itself tasted great - but could also have used box brownie mix if pinched for time.  Edy's peppermint ice cream is tasty - thankfully since we hadn't tried it beforehand.  I did get knocked by a couple people for not making my own ice-cream, which I would have liked to do, but it called for 3 quarts and hey, people's presents were suffering at the hand of our cake project.  And finally, the comment I liked best was "Wow!  It looks like a 1960s hair salon!"  And, I did not take this as an insult. I thought it looked like a fruit cake - but the taste was GREAT and when I forgot the chocolate sauce after many had finished their cake, a few asked for a second piece to try with the chocolate sauce, you know, the way it was intended.

You can't see the 300 degree clear syrup we made and poured over this candyland.  I was worried it would not set or would otherwise go wrong - but my Mom was here to help and it was quite successful.

I left the ice cream out for almost an hour to soften and started assembling layers. You have to put it back in the freezer to set between layers - not hard, but not easy to carve the time or space.  The cake cooks in 1 sheet pan - supposed to be 10x15, but I could only find a 10x14 - and then cut it in thirds to stack.

Stumbled across my spoon from my rice cooker when I was spreading the ice cream - it was the best tool for the job - what luck.