Malted Milk Ice Cream Cake with Blackberry Sauce

For Mother's Day my sister and I made brunch, we pretty much copied the Mother's Day brunch menu from A Cup of Jo, and it was delicious.  However, for Father's Day we decided to make dinner and unfortunately Joanna Goddard did not oblige us with a complete dinner menu to draw from.  Fortunately my sister had some apps she wanted to try out (pear slices with goat cheese and craisins), and a limoncello cocktail (lemonade for grownups) and we have our Sister Shrimp Pasta that is always a hit.  As for dessert, well I took that on.  I was going to make a truly decadent coconut cream pie, BUT we ended up picking up a friends CSA share for that week (thanks Lisa!), a box full of the most delicious strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and the coconut cream pie idea went out the window because I needed to make something involving berries in some way.  Which is where this ice cream cake comes in.  You make a thin cake layer, top it off with malted milk ice cream, then drench each slice with blackberry sauce.
 

The recipe calls for homemade malted milk ice cream, and while I have an ice cream maker, I also have a family that let out a collective shudder at the thought of using 11 egg yolks in a single item, so instead I used store bought french vanilla ice cream, which I'm sure also has egg yolks in it, but I have no idea just how many and ignorance is bliss.  Anyways, I softened the ice cream in the fridge for about 5 minutes and then mixed in 3/4 cup of malted milk powder, the chocolate flavor as that was all I could find.  The mixing was a pain, so I left as more of a "swirl" aka I got tired and decided it was mixed enough and put it back in the freezer until I needed it again.

Then I moved on to the cake, it was a pretty basic yellow cake but with tiny portions because you are only making one 1/2 inch layer, it was like baking for an Easy Bake Oven.  The recipe said to sift the dry ingredients 3 times, which I think we can all agree is a bit excessive and in protest I didn't sift them at all.  I noticed no ill effects from the lack of sifting, but then again, I probably wouldn't, I hardly ever sift.  You bake the cake in a spring form pan for about 15 minutes, and you may want to put the pan on a cookie sheet when you bake it in case your spring form pan doesn't have the tightest seal and some starts leaking out.  Just a suggestion.

Once the cake is cool, soften the ice cream again and spread it over the cake, leaving the sides on the pan for the time being.  Pop it back in the freezer, you can leave it in the freezer for a few days at this point.

Now, onto the blackberry sauce, take 1/2 of your huge luscious blackberries, 1/2 cup of water, 6 tablespoons of sugar (or more depending on how tart your berries are) and boil them together.

You may may to mash some of the berries with a fork to help them along, when they are adequately saucy, take the pan off the heat and stir in the rest of the berries.  My berries were huge so I mashed them once or twice with a potato masher to incorporate them into the sauce a bit more. 

 

To serve, take the ring off and slice the cake, topping with plenty of blackberry sauce and enjoy!

Malted Milk Ice Cream Cake with Blackberry Sauce, from Bon Appetit 

For the cake:

1 cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, room temp

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk.  Pour into a spring form pan and bake for 15 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  If you quite particular you can shave off the top of the cake when it is done to make it an even 1/2 inch all around.  I am not.

For the ice cream:

1.5 quarts vanilla ice cream

3/4 cup malted milk powder

Soften ice cream in fridge for about 5-10 minutes, until it is soft enough to work with but not melted.  Mix in malted milk powder and return to freezer.  Alternately, make it from scratch from this recipe.

For the blackberry sauce:

2 pints blackberries

1/2 cup water

6 tablespoons sugar

Mix the sugar, water and 1 pint blackberries in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, mashing the berries as necessary, until the sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the berries, cool.

Assembling the cake:

Top the cake with the ice cream and return to freezer.  When ready to serve remove the sides of the pan, slice the cake and top with the blackberry sauce.