Author Notes
These mini ice cream cakes are a classic treat made from cake and ice cream and topped with burnished meringue. Here I have used brown sugar pound cake, caramelized honeycomb ice cream, and swiss meringue. They take a bit of effort and are best made over the course of a couple of days. They are also the perfect excuse to buy one of those little culinary torches. If you'd like to serve these for a dinner party, they can be assembled and frozen (meringue and all) up to 24 hours in advance. If you have made the cakes a day in advance, let the cakes sit at a moderate room temperature (too hot and the ice cream will melt) for 5 to 7 minutes to soften the cake a bit, then torch the meringue just before serving. —Yossy Arefi
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Directions
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Prepare and cool/chill the pound cake and ice cream in advance.
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Slice the poundcake into 1/2-inch slices. Use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut each slice into a circle. Save the scraps for snacks.
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Arrange the circles on a pan or plate that will fit in your freezer. Top each slice with a scoop of honeycomb ice cream. Freeze, uncovered, until the ice cream is very firm, at least 4 hours or overnight.
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Prepare the swiss meringue. When the meringue is cool, you can start coating the cakes.
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Working with a couple of cakes at a time, remove the cakes from the freezer and use a spoon or offset spatula to top each cake with about 1/4 cup of the meringue. Coat the ice cream with meringue, making sure to seal the outside of the cake with meringue. Refreeze the meringue-coated cakes for at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Repeat with the other 5 cakes.
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Use a culinary torch to brown the meringues, and serve immediately.
Yossy Arefi is a photographer and stylist with a passion for food. During her stint working in restaurant kitchens, Yossy started the blog Apt. 2B Baking Co. where, with her trusty Pentax film camera, she photographs and writes about seasonal desserts and preserves. She currently lives in Brooklyn but will always love her native city of Seattle. Follow her work at apt2bbakingco.blogspot.com & yossyarefi.com.
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