When my three year old daughter said she wanted an under the sea themed party, my first question was what kind of cake should I make. My daughter likes cake, but she LOVES ice cream. So even though I wanted to make the same cake I made for her brother’s birthday, I knew she would like an ice cream cake more. Deciding what it would look like was harder. I have a really fun letter and number cake mold, so I wanted something that wouldn’t look weird when shaped like a three. Eventually, I decided a seashell covered beach cake would be the best option.
I am going to break down how I did each part of this cake. So, don’t worry if you are only interested in the seashells on top, or the shape, or whatever. You can skim to where I talk about that part and do the rest your way. You can totally make a round seashell beach cake made from a box cake mix. Or you make a square shaped ice cream cake with black frosting and stars on top.
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Making a Seashell Beach Cake
Supplies:
- Cake pan (I used this fun letter and number pan)
- Cake mix or cake ingredients (for me a LOT of ice cream)
- Icing spatula
- Frosting or frosting ingredients
- Blue sprinkles
- Seashell mold
- White chocolate
- Ice cream
- Nilla wafers
Creating the Cake:
Before doing anything, you need to make sure your cake and whatever you plan on placing it on fits in your freezer. Once I verified that, I put together my cake pan to be the shape of a three.
Then, I used my great grandma’s recipe for the bottom crust of the cake. Once it had hardened in the fridge, I filled the rest of the cake pan with two and a half tubs of softened ice cream. My daughter got to choose the flavors. She really wanted Dragon’s Dream ice cream (it was purple), but I convinced her to also get chocolate. I kept each flavor as separate as possible, so each person could choose which one they wanted. Then, I put it in the freezer to harden up.
Once it was hard, it was time for the scary part of getting it out. I went around all the edges with an icing spatula to get it as loose as possible. Then I bravely flipped it over onto a cookie sheet. While it was upside down, I cut off a couple of edges to make it look more like a three. Then, I flipped it again onto its final resting place.
Creating the Decorations:
Now it was time for frosting. Even though it isn’t my favorite, I read that whipped cream frosting freezes the best. I made the frosting from this ice cream cake recipe and dyed it blue. Then, my daughter and I spread it all over the cake. Ever since she saw me buy blue sprinkles from the store, my daughter had been asking about them nonstop. So, I let her do them. Then, it was back in the freezer for it to harden again. I am sorry for the lack of pictures, I thought for sure I took more, but I can’t find them.
Meanwhile, back in the freezer, I had been making the seashells to go on top. First, I melted white chocolate in the microwave and spread it all around my seashell mold. I used these molds for so many different things for my daughter’s party. Once the white chocolate hardened, I filled the shells up with thawed ice cream from the fridge. Then, I stuck the mold in the freezer to refreeze the ice cream. Once they froze, I popped them out of the mold and into a plastic container I kept in the freezer. After a quick rinse to the mold, I started all over again.
Once I finished the cake base and seashells, it was time to put it all together. First, I used a rolling pin to crush a bunch of nilla wafers to look like sand. Then I sprinkled the top of the cake with the crumbs. Lastly, I put the white chocolate seashells on top of the “sand” and sprinkled a few more crumbs on top.
To keep it fresh, I wrapped it up in a bunch of aluminum foil and stored it in the freezer until my daughter’s party. I took it out a few minutes before we wanted to eat it and used a knife to carve holes in it to put in the candles.
Outcome of Beach Cake:
My daughter was very happy with her cake, which is what mattered. It ended up being a massive amount of ice cream, so it easily fed everyone at her party. I like how it turned out visually, even though I don’t think it was the tastiest cake I have ever eaten. I did love being able to make it a few days ahead of time instead of rushing the last minute to make it fresh. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
