Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Cake

Instructions

Preparation

1. Lightly grease the Wilton Pumpkin Face Silicone Mold with butter or baking spray. Set aside.
2. Scoop ice creams into 2 medium size piping bags respectively, and seal the bag opening. Leave the ice cream to soften in the bag at room temperature.

Prepare Chocolate Skin

1. Melt and temper baking chocolate. Scoop into a piping bag. Cut a small opening at the tip of the piping and fill the pumpkin face cavities. Use a tooth-pick to assist the filling of the chocolate. It needs a few tiny drops to fill each cavity, don’t over-flow. Wipe clean any spillage. Let the chocolate set. You may put it into the freezer to shorten the waiting time. [1-Fig & 2-Fig]
2. Melt and temper white baking chocolate. Add orange candy color until it reaches the pastel orange.[3-Fig]
3. Scoop a tablespoon of orange chocolate into the mold cavity. Swirl the mold to let the coat the chocolate around the wall of the cavity, pour out excessive chocolate back into the bowl. Repeat the same to the rest of the cavities. Let the chocolate set, repeat the coating 2 to 3 times for a thicker shell. Clean out the mess around the mold. Leave the balance orange chocolate in the bowl and seal it with cling wrap for later use.[4-Fig]

Ice Cream Filling

1. Cut the tip of the vanilla flavor ice cream piping bag, and fill each cavity with softening vanilla ice cream (about 1/3 full). Knock the mold to level the ice cream. Put the mold into the freezer for an hour to slightly harden the ice cream. [5-Fig]
2. Repeat the filling with chocolate flavor ice cream to about 2/3 full. Put the mold back in the freezer for another hour. [5-Fig]
3. Place a thin layer of biscuit crumbs, and press firmly. Warm up the orange chocolate, and pour it onto the biscuit crumbs to seal up the ice cream in the mold.[6-Fig]
4. Put the mold back into the freezer for at least 24 hours before un-mold the chocolate-coated ice cream.

1-Fig
Prepare all ingredients, grease mold, and scoop ice creams into a piping bag.
Melt and temper the chocolate in a tall bowl or cup (non-heat conductive) over simmering water. Follow this instruction for proper steps on tempering chocolate.

2-Fig
Cut the tip of the piping bag only when you are ready to fill the greased mold with dark chocolate.
Just a tiny drop of dark chocolate is needed for each cavity, do not let the chocolate overflow.
Clean up any spillage or overflow if it happens.

3-Fig
You may need a few drops (it will be in pastel tone due to the white chocolate's white).

4-Fig
Sometimes, the dark chocolate will bleed out and mix into the orange shell. To avoid this, ensure your orange chocolate is not too hot, and your dark chocolate is not overly filled.

5-Fig
You may place the up-open chocolate ice cream piping bag into the fridge section if your weather is hot so that the ice cream is not too runny.
For the best result, never fill the mold too high. Mine was filled too high, the chocolate base ended up higher than the mold.

6-Fig
The biscuit crumbs are good insulation to isolate the warm chocolate from getting in contact with freezing cold ice cream. The cold ice cream will harden the warm chocolate too fast and make it hard to smooth out. The warm chocolate will also soften the ice cream and make the surface hard to smooth out too.

Pull the sides of the silicone mold to release the chocolate shell from sticking to the mold. Flip the silicone mold upside down on a clean surface, lightly press the pumpkin face, and feel the ice cream drop. Remove silicone mold.

Place them back in the freezer until they are ready to be served.

Adapt the method to make the chocolate skin ice cream cake to meet the theme for another special occasion.