Ice Cream Cake: Chocolate and Mint Chocolate Chip

I'm a baker and part of my gift to my boyfriend is a cake, his birthday has long since past but now to tell you how I made his cake. I decided to try my hand at making an ice cream cake for him and even though I though, more than once, that I had failed it ended up fantastic! I will be making more of these in the future hopefully with more variations and I'll be able to help you make them successfully as well



German Chocolate Cake:
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plus 3 tbsp butter, softened
2 1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Ice cream- I used mint chocolate chip

Stir together cocoa powder and water into a small bowl until smooth then set aside. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. While in a large bowl beat butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well. Stir in the vanilla extract. Then alternate adding the cocoa and buttermilk and flour. Pour in to two 9 inch spring form pans with lined and greases bottom and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Allow to cool completely, refrigerating to speed up the process. Once cooled loosen from pans and  scoop softened ice cream on top of one cake and smooth, keeping it in the pan. Place the second cake on top and re freeze.
For frosting I used the ganache recipe from a previous post. The ice cream provided a sweet flavor contrast  against the rich ganache. The trick is to pour and spread quickly so the warm ganache doesn't melt the ice cream and it can go into the freezer again sooner.