Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Cake

On the very last day of welcoming the Halloween, I made a last-minute Halloween treat  – Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Cake out of the Wilton Pumpkin Face Silicone Mold I used on baking the cheesecake, this time I used it to mold ice cream cake with a coat of chocolate. This is another successful edible craft challenge that brings the craft to food.

Unlike normal ice cream cake which is done by layering ice cream in between foam cake, this pumpkin-shaped Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Cake is using the chocolate skin to hold the ice cream in there. The process of handling chocolate melt and ice cream could be a little messy and challenging, especially in the hot weather here. But, it is sure a one-of-the-kind Halloween treats to enjoy for those who love chocolate and ice cream.

Besides silicone mold, you may also do it on a jelly mold. Mandy & I have tested out with a similar jelly mold we used to make Jelly mooncake in last month. We played with some colors and the chocolate-skin ice cream mooncake turned out very beautiful. By that, you can adapt this method to any occasion you like by selecting a correct mold design to use.

If you are living in a warm and humid climate like me, serve this chocolate skinned ice cream cake immediately after taking them out from the freezer. They will sweat and melt very fast after the cake is cut.

Here is the ice cream mooncake we did last month, didn’t manage to share it here as the mid-autumn festival is over too soon.

Chocolate-Coated Ice Cream Cake

Makes 6 mini chocolate skin ice cream cake in pumpkin-shaped

Ingredients:
30 gram baking chocolate (chopped)
200 gram white baking chocolate (chopped)
Orange Candy Color
Ice Cream, Vanilla and Chocolate flavors or any of your favorite choice
Biscuits crumbs
Butter or baking spray (for mold greasing)

Method:

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

Prepare Chocolate Skin
3. 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 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.
4. Melt and temper white baking chocolate. Add orange candy color until it reaches the pastel orange.
5. 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 for 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.

Ice Cream Filling
6. Cut the tip of the vanilla flavor ice cream piping bag, 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.
7. Repeat the filling with chocolate flavor ice cream to about 2/3 full. Put the mold back to the freezer for another hour.
8. Place a thin layer of biscuit crumbs, press firmly. Warm up the orange chocolate, pour onto the biscuit crumbs to seal up the ice cream in the mold.
9. Put the mold back into the freezer for at least 24 hours before un-mold the chocolate-coated ice cream.

Serving Note:
1. Under hot weather, the chocolate will sweat very fast and the ice cream will start to melt in no time after it is cut, so, take it out from the fridge and serve as soon as possible.

Conversion:
For your convenience, please use this unit conversion, powered by UnitConversion.org to convert the measurement to other units.

Preparation: Step 1 & 2
Prepare all ingredients, grease mold and scoop ice creams into a piping bag.
Prepare the pumpkin face: step 3
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.

Fill the pumpkin face: step 3
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 and spillage or overflow if it happens.

Prepare orange chocolate skin: Step 4
You may need quite a few drops (it will be in pastel tone due to the white of the white chocolate)

Make chocolate shell: step 5
Sometimes, the dark chocolate will bleed out and mix into the orange shell, to avoid this, make sure your orange chocolate is not too hot and your dark chocolate is not overly filled.

Filing ice cream: step 6 & 7
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 best result, never fill the mold too high. Mine was filled too high, the chocolate base is ended up higher than the mold.

Sealing the base: step 8
The biscuit crumbs are a 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.
Un-mold for serving: step 9
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 to freezer until they are ready to be served.

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