I took most of last week off from blogging and doing any work so that we could spend some time together as a family and do some things around the house, including taking down all of the Christmas decorations and ornaments that were around the house. So now that Christmas and New Year’s are complete, it is time to get back to regular blogging. I did get a number of things for Christmas this year that are related to cooking, including a couple of great cookbooks that I hope to go into detail about in a future blog post. I also got a great new bread maker that I had wanted for a while and I will do a blog post about that as well as I have already used it a couple of times and I have been very happy with the results. But for now, I have lots of recipes to share as I tried out a number of things and did a bunch of cooking between Christmas and New Year’s, including stuff I made for Christmas dinner. One of the items we made for dinner that day was a special dessert based on a recipe that I found at the blog Life, Love and Sugar. It is for a very easy peppermint brownie ice cream cake that makes use of some quick ingredients so that you can easily put together a fantastic looking dessert in no time at all. The original recipe does call for use of cream cheese to help create a type of ice cream for the filling of the cake. We decided it seemed better to actually use ice cream in the cake itself so we substituted some mint chocolate chip ice cream as an alternative. The recipe that I am posting here is the one that we altered a little bit to make use of the ice cream.

Peppermint Brownie Ice Cream Cake

1 box brownie mix, plus the ingredients required for the recipe on the brownie box

1 pint mint chocolate chip ice cream

2 teaspoons peppermint extract

1 10-ounce bag Andes peppermint crunch candy

1/2 cup chocolate syrup (plus a little more for drizzling)

2 cups whipped cream (homemade whipped cream or store-bought)

For the brownies, make the brownie dough according to the instructions on the back of the box. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms of each pan with parchment paper to allow for easy removal of the brownies. Bake the brownies at the temperature listed on the box, reducing the baking time to about 20 minutes. When the brownies are done baking, allow them to completely cool.

For the assembly of the cake, removal of one of the brownies from the 8 inch pan and place it on a large platter, springform cake pan or cake holder. Spread half of the mint chocolate chip ice cream mixture on top of the brownie. Add the 2nd brownie layer on top of the ice cream. Cover the brownie with 1/2 a cup of chocolate syrup. Top the 2nd brownie layer with any remaining peppermint ice cream. Place the brownies with the ice cream in the freezer. Allow the ice cream cake to freeze completely, about 1 to 2 hours. When the cake is frozen remove the cake from springform pan, if using. Mix the 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract in with the 2 cups of whipped cream. Frost the ice cream cake with the whipped cream and.the top of the cake with the peppermint crunch candy. Drizzle on more chocolate syrup if desired and served.

This is one of the easiest cakes you can put together because you are really using everything pre-made other than if you decide to use homemade whipped cream or perhaps you want to use homemade ice cream instead of store-bought. We could not find a particular peppermint ice cream to use for the cake so he went with mint chocolate chip, but if you can make peppermint ice cream at home or find some of your local store it would fit perfectly. The picture I took of the cake is before we added any of the chocolate syrup, but it is really up to you if you want to add it or not. You really need to make sure that you let the cake set up in the freezer for an hour or 2 before you put the frosting on to make sure that the ice cream is nice and firm in the center. Everyone seemed to really like the cake and it was gone right away so it is certainly one worth trying again since it is so easy to do.

That is all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. I want to thank everybody for a great 2014 as this blog hit all-time highs in the number of visits and followers for the year and I cannot thank you enough for following along and checking things out. I hope 2015 it is just as good and I will continue to work at the blog and make improvements to make things even better than before. Enjoy the rest of your day, and enjoy your meal!