Yah that was a mouthful I know. But there was just no other name for this thing. I had a seriously bad experience with this torte. It started off great and I was feeling oh so full of myself. Then bad things started to happen. Yet there was no turning back. I am not a quitter. I will not throw in the towel. I will not....oh whatever, I just didn't want to waste good ice cream. That's the bottom line.
So this one can be done with NO ICE CREAM MAKER!!! I know some people don't have them. This is for you folks. Those of you who have not jumped on the ice cream maker bandwagon. You could make your own ice cream for this dessert. But it is totally acceptable to cheat and use store bought. I did this just to show you not everything has to be hard. Bah, maybe that was karma for me. My ice cream maker got jealous and had a single white female moment. It conspired against me and ruined my chances to make a torte without it. Ah, ice cream maker, I still love ya. But sometimes I just gotta see other kitchen appliances. It's not you, it's me. Don't take it personal. We can still be friends.
So this is going to be the anti-recipe. All the things not to do. As I learned all the things NOT to do when making ice cream cake/torte. The first thing you should always do, and this applies to every recipe, is to read the whole recipe all the way through. I am shocked anything of mine ever turns out as I rarely do this. You'd think I'd learn. Second thing to do is give adequate time between the layers. Do not try to rush. It will go horribly wrong if you do. Do not double batch your chocolate sauce, I did and should not have. It's too heavy and makes the bottom layer pop up. Also it's just too much. I am a big fan of too much on most occasions but here I'd say pull back a bit. Don't overdo the middle layer. And here's the kicker, the best advice I can possibly give you. When you put it in your freezer after half a day of working on this thing, make sure there's enough clearance so your door doesn't cut off the tops of all your ladyfingers. This is of utmost importance people, seriously, this thing looked like I took a weed whacker to it in the end. There's more but I'll get on with it and pop some tips in along the way. So here it is. I found this in Williams Sonoma Frozen Desserts cookbook. I adapted a bit. Enjoy!
The Everything That Could Go Wrong Did Ice Cream Torte:
Ingredients:
48-56 store bought sponge-cake ladyfingers, 7-8 oz(220-250g) total
1 2L vanilla ice cream
1 2L chocolate ice cream
⅓ cup water with 1 tablespoon of vanilla mixed in
2- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder for dusting at the end
½ cup chocolate sauce, I made home made, you could purchase it
Directions:
Prepare a 9 inch spring form pan by lining it with plastic wrap or parchment.
Arrange the ladyfingers around the outside of the pan with rounded side out, then line the bottom.
Brush the water and vanilla mixture over the ladyfingers. You can use alcohol for this step if you'd prefer.
Stick in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Soften the chocolate ice cream.
Once it's soft (you can toss it in the mixer if it needs help) you can pour it into the pan. Smooth it and stick it in the freezer for about 1 to 2 hours. (tip-the ice cream should bring it to half full)
Take out of the freezer and spread the chocolate sauce over top. Pop back in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
Soften your vanilla ice cream for next step.
Take your torte out of the freezer and add your vanilla layer. Smooth it out. Stick back in the freezer for 3 hour minimum and up to 24 hours.
Remove and release from spring form pan and garnish with cocoa or anything else your heart desires.
Cut and serve with a smile.
Recipe for chocolate sauce:
Ingredients:
8 oz semisweet chocolate
⅓ cup corn syrup
¼ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
Chop your chocolate and set inside a heat proof glass bowl. Set aside.
Put your corn syrup and sugar in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is bubbling.
Stir in cream, cook over medium heat while stirring until mixture is smooth and large bubbles form around the edge. The mixture should foam in the center. Once it foams up you can remove from heat.
Pour the mixture over the chocolate, making sure to cover the chocolate with the liquid. Let stand without stirring for about 2 minutes.
Stir in the vanilla. Stir until smooth for about 1-2 minutes.
Can be used or stored.
TIPS OR WHAT KIM DID WRONG:
Mistake #1- Buy enough ladyfingers. I did not.
Mistake #2- Decide on a way to soak ladyfingers, if you can't have alcohol, ahead of time. I did not.
Mistake #3- Cut the bottoms of the ladyfingers to make them sit level. It took me a ton of tipping over to figure this out.
Mistake #4- Make sure you let the bottom layer freeze enough. Otherwise when you put the chocolate on it will pop through. I did not do this so I am warning you instead.
Mistake #5- Do not double batch the chocolate, it's too much chocolate, and too heavy. I double batched mine. *sigh*
Mistake #6- Do not try and hurry and pour warm chocolate sauce over ice cream. It will melt it and ruin your pretty layers. Then the chocolate will melt and leak out into the sides of the pan and ruin your pretty ladyfingers. I cannot stress enough to let the sauce cool. For the love of the ice cream gods, let it cool people.
Mistake #7- Make sure you let the sauce harden in the freezer long enough. Otherwise you ruin pretty layers....again.
Mistake #8- When you put it in the freezer make sure there is enough clearance or you will chop off the tops of your ladyfingers as I stated before. It's an ugly mess. And you'll feel bad and your cake won't be pretty.
Mistake #9- Let the ice cream melt just a teeny bit so your cocoa sticks. You'd think I'd know better after the whole sugar on dry muffins a la Paula Deen incident. But apparently I am losing it and forgot.
Mistake #10- Okay here's the biggy, the utmost of importance. You must listen to this advice. It is so important. Make sure your spring form pan is not a crappy piece of old metal that breaks at the most important time of the procedure. If it breaks before you release the cake well good luck getting it out. I know as this did happen to me. I knew they were well used and I had beaten the tar out of them. But seriously after hours of prep and leading up to this special moment and it comes down to this.... and you cannot getting the freaking thing out of the pan as the mechanism breaks. OMG, I was not a happy camper. I had to pry the thing out with butter knives. Yup, sure looked so good by the time I was done.
So there you have it. I am nothing if not helpful. I swear this was like the little ice cream that could. I kept thinking about that children's book. This torte has some heart. It stuck it out until the end. It was battered, bruised and leaking chocolate ice cream everywhere but it held out for me. So I suppose the honking mess I made was worth it. Or I could have just gone to dairy queen and been done with it. *sigh*
Hope you enjoy this post and it makes you hungry and inspires you to go make some ice cream. It's so fun to make your own. There's 2 no ice cream maker recipes here so there's no excuse to not make your own treats. Hope you make the most of the rest of your weekend.
Toodles and smoochies. xx
Dzoli
You wanna kill me?It is freezing here adn I feel like icecream after reading the post.Actually I am most drawn to the torte;))
Lizzy
Oh, gosh, from your photos, you'd never know this didn't all go perfectly!!! I usually have a fiasco or two with every project, so I'm glad I'm in good company! Your torte looks DELISH!
Pretend Chef
I think this turned out so beautiful despite all of the don't dos. Looks so delicious. I would love this right now for breakfast. Haha! Yummy!
Pegasuslegend
gorgeous!
Ali's Answers
OMG! This torte looks amazing and you are hysterical! I am following from vB. Happy Sunday!
Ali
onceuponarecipe
Wow Kim, this ice cream torte looks nothing short of amazing! I do own an ice cream maker, but I am ashamed to say that I have never used it! I made a promise to myself that I would break it in this summer, and time is running out! Perhaps this is a good excuse to get on it?
Stephanie @ Eat. Drink. Love.
Kim, you may have had difficulty this with this torte, but it looks AWESOME! I really need something chocolatey right now and this would be perfect with that amazing chocolate sauce!
Lindsey@Lindselicious
Great tips and thanks for sharing your mistakes Kim! This still looks like it came out great!
Erin
This looks great! Can't believe how many things went wrong for you! But thanks for all the tips!
Kels
Your ice cream cake looks delicious! I can safely say that I have the same problem when it comes to not reading recipes all the way through... oops! Thanks for sharing!
Anne@frommysweetheart
Kim...the funny thing is....if you hadn't told us all the things that went wrong...I'd never know anything went wrong! That's a beautiful ice cream torte! And the bottom line....I bet it was delicious! But thanks for posting your tips! It's really helpful in more recipes than this. I still have to learn the 'less is more' rule! Sigh! : )
Jeff Rasmussen
I love the step by step photos of you making the cake! What a great addition! As for the cake itself, it looks beautiful!
Ann
First off - it looks amazing! I would enjoy this even if you scooped the mess off the floor and stuck it in a bowl.
Secondly - I'm sorry you went thru those mistakes, but thank you for sharing them - it will make it easier for us to make...
And Third - Thanks for making this....you ROCK!
Kim Bee
@Dzoli- lol, I apologize. Just trying to make you jealous, not kill ya. rofl
@Lizzy- Thanks. This one was a challenge, luckily the taste was not affected.
@Pretend Chef- Thanks. Just had a slice, it tastes incredible.
@Claudia- Thank you. xx
@Ali- Thanks. Happy sunday to you too!
@onceuponarecipe- Thanks. You must dust it off and test it out. So worth it!
@Stephanie- Thanks. Still some left if you want to bring a spoon.
@Lindsey- Thanks. It was a great learning experience.
@Erin- This was definitely my biggest challenge to date. I was not having a good day. lol
@Kels- Thanks. Glad I am not the only one.
@Anne- Thank you. I swore I'd share my oops as much as my woah's so this is for those who think all recipes go smoothly. It so does not. LOL!
@Jeff- Thanks. I love the shots with me pouring it. I had the camera in one hand and the bowl in the other. So hilarious. All in my front window where the neighbours could watch it all. lol
@Ann- Lol, thanks. I think it hitting the floor was the only thing that didn't happen. I hate that the cookbook says to let sit for 15-30 minutes. There's no way that's enough time, unless they had a flash freezer. So wanted to make sure people took their time. And thanks, I like to ...ROCK! lol
Christina of Form V Artisan
Umm...that looks incredible. Whatever you did wrong was so right.
Tori @ The Shiksa in the Kitchen
Okay, the title of this blog is my favorite ever, I think! I love the mistake list. Doesn't look like any mistakes were made to me, though, honestly... it looks absolutely delicious!
Terri @ that's some good cookin'
Just have one thing to say: hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
Okay, more than one thing. Thank heavens I am not alone on the fiasco merry-go-round. Most often words heard in my kitchen? "Oh crap. I can't believe I just did that" and "Are you KIDDING me????". However, your catastrophe still looks delicious. You saved it in the end.
Manu
I LOVE this post: it is so helpful! I think your torte still looks great and what's more important I am sure it tasted a million bucks! I just wish I could have a slice... look at all that chocolate sauce... OMG! I don't care if it is heavy!!! LOL
Joy @ Joy Of Desserts
I'm a big ice cream aficionado, so I love seeing all these recipes. 🙂
bakerunlive.com
Glad to know I'm not the only one who screws things up and still rolls with it (you're right- why waste the ingredients). Yesterday was one of those days for me. 🙁
Thanks for the ice cream links. I have been on an ice cream kick this summer, so I see a few of these being made in my near future. 🙂