Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake with Salted Caramel — need I say more? I’m not into neat, perfectly sculpted cakes, so here’s my take on a gloriously messy ice cream layer cake.
This cake is a little over the top, but exactly the kind of showstopper I wanted. Although I’ve been blogging for more than three years, I’d never made a proper layered cake for the site until now. My sister Chris once made a rainbow cake for Red Nose Day, but this is my first multi-layer effort on the blog.
The cake came together because I had been testing a sponge recipe and ended up with three leftover layers. I briefly considered serving them with jam for dinner—yes, sometimes we really do have cake for dinner—but instead I decided to go all-out.
I dug through the freezer for ice cream and raided the cupboards for peanut butter, Nutella and a jar of caramel (I stirred in a pinch of sea salt). Then I roughly layered and swirled everything together to create a slightly melty, delightfully indulgent cake.
That night we kept dinner light with a salad and finished with this epic pudding. The kids and I watched a Percy Jackson film while we tucked into large slices — Gracey still has her nose in a Percy Jackson book most evenings, so it was the perfect pairing.
I’ll never be a precision cake decorator like my sister—she makes breathtaking wedding and birthday cakes—but this tasted absolutely delicious, and that’s what matters.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake with Salted Caramel Recipe:
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Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake with Salted Caramel
Ingredients
- 250 g (1 cup + 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 350 g (1 3/4 cups) caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs, room temperature
- 100 ml (1/3 cup minus 1 tbsp) Greek yoghurt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 350 g (3 cups minus 2 tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 50 g (2/3 cup) ground almonds (almond meal, the grainy kind)
Filling and Topping:
- 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) quality vanilla ice cream
- 4 heaped tbsp peanut butter
- 4 heaped tbsp store-bought caramel sauce (stir in a pinch of sea salt)
- 6 heaped tbsp Nutella
- 2 tbsp chopped roasted hazelnuts
- 45 g (1.6 oz) milk (semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped into chunks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/380°F (fan). Grease and lightly flour three 20cm (8in) cake tins.
- Beat the butter and sugar together for 3–5 minutes until pale and creamy. With the mixer still running, add the eggs one at a time, then fold in the Greek yoghurt and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and ground almonds. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in three additions, folding gently until combined.
- Divide the batter between the three tins and bake for 22–25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Leave the sponges to cool completely in their tins on a wire rack.
- Take the ice cream from the freezer and let it soften for 10–15 minutes, then spoon it into a large bowl.
- Stir in three-quarters of the peanut butter, half of the salted caramel and one third of the Nutella, swirling gently so you retain visible streaks rather than fully blending.
- Remove the cakes from their tins. Place one sponge on a serving plate and spoon on half the ice cream mixture. Top with the second sponge and spread the remaining ice cream on top.
- Place the third sponge on the stack. Spread over the remaining Nutella, then add small blobs of the leftover peanut butter and caramel. Use a cocktail stick to create pretty swirls. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and chocolate pieces. You can serve immediately if you like a softer cake, or freeze for about 30 minutes to firm it up. Note that salted caramel can slightly lower the freezing point of the ice cream, so colder freezers work best.
- If frozen for more than a couple of hours, remove the cake from the freezer 30 minutes before serving so the sponge softens slightly.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should be used as an estimate only.
