13 Year Ice Cream Cake

Well, my daughter just turned 13 and I know she loves ice cream cakes. She let me know "especially ones from DQ!" I couldn't just let that lie...let DQ show me up. This cake was 13 years in the making.

I spent an hour on Pinterest looking for inspiration and found some inspiring ice cream concoctions. You can look here if you want to see my "yummy" board.

In then end, though, I winged it! I thought you might enjoy checking out the process. First, I knew it needed to be peanut butter and caramel for the feature flavors.

Crust (I love how this turned out...a bit soft...even when frozen...easy to eat that way.)
2 Cups mini oreos
1/4 Cup peanut butter
1/3 stick of butter, chilled
Add Oreos to a food processor and turn to crumbs. Add 1/4 Cup peanut butter and chilled butter and process until combined. It will be fairly soft. Throw it in a spring form pan that you've sprayed with a bit of food release such as Pam.

Layer 1

Add 1/2 Quart of Dulce de Leche ice cream or similar flavor to the cake. I like to use a rectangular ice cream and "slice" it with my spade to get thin pieces to add to the layers.
Chop 30 small caramel filled chocolates and add to the cake.

Freeze for 2 hours

Layer 2
Add 1/2 Quart vanilla ice cream.
Add peanut butter onto top (I used a no-stir, natural peanut butter that was at room temperature).

Spread the peanut butter. It may mix with the ice cream, which is ok...

Chop 25 small peanut butter cups and add them to layer.

Freeze for 2 hours

Layer 3
Add the final layer of vanilla ice cream and pour caramel sauce on top.
Freeze for 2 hours or more.

Before you serve it, remove from the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Place the cake on a serving plate and take off the spring form side. Depending on how thick the caramel is, it will run down the sides...yummy.

Cover with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel. ENJOY! We sure did!!!

Ingredients
2 Cups mini oreos
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/3 stick of butter, chilled
1/2 Quart of Dolce de Leche ice cream
1 Quart vanilla ice cream
30 small caramel filled chocolates
25 small peanut butter cups
Small jar of caramel sauce
Whipped Cream 

Some Beach Time

What a blast! Over President's Day weekend, we had some friends visit from Colorado. It was wonderful showing them snippets of the Island, sharing our favorite restaurants and just catching up. But the tour de force was beach time!!! We took our buds over to the Breakers Beach.

The kids had a blast frolicking in the water while we had ice cold margaritas! The photos seem to ring of what I "classically" imagine as crowded upscale commercial beach...and evidence of a holiday weekend. Do enjoy the tour. If you come visit, maybe we'll go there too!!

 

 

  

Hope you have a great day and "don't forget the sunscreen."

A pink-cheeked sun-drenched girl.

Goodbye, old friend

There is an over one hundred year old Coral tree that stands between the Rectory and The Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach. It is a stunning old anchor that separates the two places and marks the entrance to the lovely Cluett Memorial Gardens just north of the Rectory. We are saying good-bye to it over the next three days.

as viewed from my craft room, through the screen

 It's hard to express my feelings about this loss. It is a necessity at this point as the tree is diseased and damaged and could come down in any kind of storm. But it seems such a sheltering presence that even though we've only been under its branches since June, it is affecting my profoundly. So I wanted to share a few images of it with you and share some of its delight and astounding stature. Enjoy!

 

 

Good night, dear friend!

To read more about this remarkable tree, click here!