Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

Now, that title is a mouthful!

This past weekend was Gary’s 30th birthday! I told him I would make a cake for him that would be dairy free. Who knows what store bought cake has in them, unless you specifically ask for something that is allergen free.

I thought up an ice cream cake with a chocolate peanut butter swirl ice cream sandwiched between two layers of chocolate cake, then topped off with a peanut butter frosting. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull it off, but it came out pretty good. It tasted amazing and you would not know it’s vegan unless I told you.

I’ve used the chocolate cake recipe previously when I made chocolate cupcakes for a coworker. Since it tasted great the first time, I decided to use it again for this cake. Since what I wanted to make didn’t come from one particular cookbook, I found recipes for each component of the cake from different sources. Each component tasted good on it’s own already, it was just a matter of everything tasting good together, and of course it did! This photo does not do justice to how amazing it tastes.

The cake was served after leaving it in the fridge for about an hour or so, so the ice cream was a little bit melty to a pudding like consistency. I suggest leaving it in the freezer until serving if you have space, because the leftovers tasted great straight from the freezer.

 

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl ice cream adapted from: The Vegan Scoop
Chocolate cake adapted from: Go Dairy Free
Peanut Buttercream frosting adapted from: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
printable recipe

ingredients:

ice cream	cake	frosting
1 cup coconut milk, divided	3 cups all purpose flour	1/2 cup Earth Balance butter
2 TBSP arrowroot powder	2 cups sugar	4 TBSP shortening
1 cup dairy free cream	1/2 cup cocoa powder	2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar	2 tsp baking soda	3 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder	1 tsp salt	2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup chocolate chips	scant 2/3 cup canola oil	2-4 TBSP dairy free milk or cream
1 TBSP vanilla extract	2 TBSP white vinegar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter	2 tsp vanilla extract
	2 cups cold water

directions:
at least a day before, make ice cream:
In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup coconut milk with arrowroot and set aside. (I only had 3/4 cup coconut milk total, so I used the cream for this).

Mix cream, remaining coconut milk, sugar, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and mix in arrowroot cream. Add in vanilla extract.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled, at least 2-3 hours (I left it in the fridge for about 24 hours).

Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last few minutes of freezing, add in peanut butter.

Line a cake pan the same size as one you’ll be baking the cake in with plastic wrap. Pour ice cream into pan, smooth out and cover with more plastic wrap. Freeze in freezer until solid. If you don’t have enough pans, you can remove the ice cream from the pan after it’s solid and leave it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.

at least 6 hours prior, bake the cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 8 or 9” cake pan (I used pam baking spray on my 9” pans). Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients: flour through salt.

Make 3 small wells in the flour mixture. Place oil in the first well, vinegar in the second, and vanilla extract in third.

Pour water all over and stir well to combine.

Divide batter evenly between the 2 pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Original recipe called for 30-35 minutes in an 8” square pan. I put both pans in the oven at the same time, and at 30 minutes the edges were a little overdone.)

Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before inverting them onto wire racks to cool.

After it’s cooled, you can cut off the top domed part to make a flat cake.

while cake is almost cooled, prepare the frosting:
In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening at medium speed until smooth.

Add peanut butter and vanilla and beat until very smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in sifted sugar (make sure it’s sifted, or you’ll have lumps).

Set mixer to low speed and slowly pour in milk or cream until frosting is pale tan and very fluffy.

This makes just enough frosting to frost this entire cake.

assemble:
On a 9 or 10” cake circle, line parchment paper along the edges and let hang off, leaving room in the center to place a little frosting. This is to keep the cake circle neat while frosting, so it will be removed later. Spread a dollop of frosting on the center of the circle. Place one layer of cake on the center of the circle.

Add a thin layer of frosting on top of the cake.

Remove ice cream from freezer. Place on top of the frosted cake layer. Remove plastic wrap.

Frost with another thin layer of frosting. At this point, you must work quick, or the ice cream will melt.

Place the last layer of cake on top. If you feel you need to place the cake back in the freezer, do so at this point.

Frost the cake on top and sides with the remaining frosting.

Place in freezer until ready to serve.

Store leftovers in a freezer tight container.