
No more trying to pass off an allergy-friendly birthday cake to children. They’re on to us! My ice cream birthday cake is a great alternative to a traditional birthday cake—no apologies needed for being allergy-friendly. 🙂
My birthday falls at the end of a very birthday-filled six weeks’ period in my family. Nobody wants yet another cake at this point. For my 4th birthday, my mom cut the top off a watermelon and stuck candles in it. I have no problems with this because I like watermelon.
The Pinnacle of Birthday Cakes!

However, for my 6th birthday, my mom went all out and made a very special cake for me. It was a vanilla ice cream cake with scoops of raspberry, orange, and lime sherbet embedded in it. She frosted it with whip cream. Wow!
I decided that this year, I’d revisit that cake and see how to make it with allergy-friendly ingredients.
Process

I decided against using the tube pan. I just don’t need that much ice cream in my house at any given time. I used a foil paper-lined large loaf pan instead. Parchment paper or wax paper would also work
I used a French vanilla coconut milk ice cream base. It contains egg yolks in it to increase the creaminess of the ice cream and made it easier to slice.
The vanilla ice cream is straight out of the ice cream maker and has a soft-serve consistency at this stage. After covering the bottom of the pan with the vanilla ice cream, I placed a layer of strawberry chocolate party balls and chocolate covered chai party balls.

I thought I would be able to fit more party balls but I ran out of vanilla ice cream. So I opted for a topping of chopped pecan pralines instead. This allowed me to forgo trying to mirror the original cake with coconut whipped cream.
I went through a LOT of coconut milk testing this recipe.
Lessons Learned
After trying to slice through the chocolate coating in the chocolate covered chai party balls, I would omit it from the cake in the future. Although you could certain enjoy the chocolate covered balls as a dessert treat another time.
This recipe is really just a process. You can alter the flavors and toppings to suit yourself. I also think whole strawberries and other fruits could be embedded in the cake. Just think about how it will look sliced on a dessert plate. You’re only limited by your imagination here!

Make sure you have enough ice cream to fill your mold. My ice cream maker has a 1.5 quart capacity. I thought for sure that would be plenty of ice cream for the loaf pan given that I had a layer of party balls included. In the end, it was plenty of ice cream so I’m satisfied with how it turned out. If you decide to go the tube pan route, I would plan on at least three batches of vanilla ice cream.
It will take a LOT of coconut milk to make all the different batches of ice cream you need for this recipe. I couldn’t bring myself open another can of coconut milk to make the coconut whipped cream for the frosting but it’s certainly another option.
This ice cream cake can easily be made vegan, if desired. However, I would recommend slicing it with a hot knife since coconut milk ice cream tends to be a little hard.
Pecan Praline Ice Cream
Tomorrow I’ll share with you my pecan praline ice cream using the new vanilla base that contains egg yolks. Yeah it was so good that it didn’t last long enough to be made into party balls for the cake!
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