You can make these mini ice cream cakes with any flavor ice cream and cake you like. They are great for a birthday party, dinner party, or just to have individual-sized desserts in your freezer as a fun treat.
These are a great make-ahead dessert. You can serve them directly from the freezer without any extra preparation too.
These cakes include your favorite flavor of ice cream sandwiched between two 1-inch disks of cake and topped with a chocolate coating and sprinkles. I used two flavors of cake, one devil's food, and one angel food.
This recipe can easily be scaled depending on how many servings you need and how much freezer room you have. I made four little cakes, which worked for a lunch for four.
Ingredients You Will Need:
Cake: You can make your own homemade cake for these little cakes or you can use store bought cakes. I used a store bought angel food loaf cake that my grocery store usually keeps near the strawberries. I also bought a small devil's food cake from the bakery section. The hardest part was not snacking on the leftover pieces of cake after assembling these mini cakes.
If you are making several of these mini cakes, I'd suggest baking your own cake in a sheet pan, similar to a pan you'd use for a cake roll so you can cut out lots of rounds in a single layer.
Ice Cream: You can use any flavor you like or even make your own ice cream. I used store bought chocolate ice cream and butter pecan ice cream.
Chocolate Topping: I used chocolate Magic Shell topping, which hardens quickly and holds up in the freezer. To make your own, melt together eight ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup of coconut oil, let it cool a bit, and spoon it over the frozen cake. Be sure to add the sprinkles before the chocolate totally hardens.
You can also use chocolate candy wafers. It just won't spread as thinly as the Magic Shell.
If you like, you can use your favorite ice cream topping. Just add it after plating the cakes just prior to serving.
Sprinkles: Optional, but they make everything better!
To Make These Mini Ice Cream Cakes:
These cakes are fairly easy to make as long as you don't expect perfectly neat edges. You could try forming the layers separately and then freezing them before stacking them, but that seemed to be a bit much. Besides, they look pretty cute as is, right?
First, cut the cakes into one inch thick slices, and then, using a three-inch round biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut the cake into rounds.
You will need two rounds per mini cake.
Next, place one of the cake slices in a three-inch round cake pan or cake ring. If your cake pan has a bottom, line it first with plastic wrap with some over hang so you can use it to de-pan the cake.
After that, let the ice cream soften in the carton for about 15 minutes, and then scoop some of it over the cake slice and flatten it into a disk.
Next, top the ice cream with another slice of cake. Place the cakes in the freezer to fully harden.
When the cake and ice cream have hardened, remove them from the cake rings, and place them on a plate and drizzle them with Magic Shell and decorate them with some sprinkles.
Finally, serve them immediately or return them to the refrigerator to serve later.
Equipment You May Need:
For the cakes, I used three inch cake rings. Because they are bottomless, it's easy to push the mini cakes out onto a plate or a pan.
You could also use 3 inch cake pans with removable bottoms for the same results. They're also great for mini cheesecakes.
P.S. The cake rings are also great for when you want to portion side dishes such as rice and make them look fancy pants on the plate.
You could also make these in large muffin tins, or even standard muffin tins and just have one layer of cake on the bottom and then a layer of ice cream. Be sure to line the cavities with plastic wrap to help remove the cake from the tin.
"I" is for Italian, Ice Cream, Iru Puli, Idli, and More!
As part of the 2026 Alphabet Challenge, we are sharing recipes that begin with "I" or include ingredients or methods that that begin with "I”:
- Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Homemade Italian Dressing
- Food Lust People Love: Italian Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers
- A Messy Kitchen: Smaller Chocolate Eclair Cake (from scratch)
- Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Mini Ice Cream Cakes
- Mayuri’s Jikoni: Iru Puli Kuzhambu
- A Day in the Life on the Farm: Nutella Ice Cream
- Sneha’s Recipe: Indo Chinese Idli Fry - Leftover Idlis
- Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sun Dried Tomato Italian Dipping Oil for Bread
Last year (2025) for the letter "I," I made Iced Gems. They are cute little packaged cookies with a meringue topping. For 2024 I made Italian Pane de Genzano. It's a wonderful bread!
Mini Ice Cream Cakes
You can make these mini ice cream cakes with any flavor ice cream and cake you like. They are great for a birthday party, dinner party, or just to have individual-sized desserts in your freezer as a fun treat.
Ingredients
- Spray oil.
- 8 one inch by 3 inch cake rounds, preferably in two flavors. Cut the rounds from two ready made cakes of different flavors.
- 4 scoops ice cream, softened for 10 to 15 minutes in the carton.
- 6 tablespoons Magic Shell topping
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sprinkles
Instructions
- Spray 4 three inch cake rings with spray oil and place them on a quarter sheet or smaller sheet pan.
- Cut two different flavors of loaf cakes or small layer cakes into 1 inch slices and then, using a 3-inch round or biscuit cutter, cut four rounds from each flavor.
- Place one of the rounds in the cake ring. Top the cake with softened ice cream and press it into a disk over the cake slice. Top with another cake slice and press the cake slice into the ice cream. When all four cake rings are assembled, Cover with plastic wrap and place it into the freezer until hardened.
- Remove the rings from the freezer and gently press the assembled cakes out of the rings and onto a plastic lined small baking sheet. Drizzle with the Magic shell and top with sprinkles.
- When the Magic Shell has hardened, cover the cakes with plastic wrap and keep in the freezer until ready to serve.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
322Fat (grams)
20 gSat. Fat (grams)
13 gCarbs (grams)
33 gFiber (grams)
1 gNet carbs
32 gSugar (grams)
27 gProtein (grams)
3 gCholesterol (grams)
29 mg
