Burnt Sugar Ice Cream Cake

One slice of burnt sugar marble ice cream cake on a plate.

4.50 from 2 votes

Two layers of vanilla chocolate marble cake, filled with a no churn burnt sugar ice cream, and coated with a dark chocolate magic shell, this Burnt sugar Ice Cream Cake is what dreams are made of.

Prep Time1

Cook Time30

freezing8

Total Time4 30

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate shell, ice cream cake, loaf cake, magic shell, Marble Cake

Servings:

Calories: 546kcal

Equipment

8.5" x 4.5" metal loaf pan
electric mixer or whisk

Ingredients

Marble Loaf Cake

2 eggs standard, large, room temperature
175 grams granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 grams full fat greek yogurt
80 grams whole milk divided, 50 & 30
90 grams neutral oil vegetable, canola, avocado
150 grams all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
25 grams cocoa powder natural or dutch processed

Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

100 grams granulated sugar
400 grams sweetened condensed milk
350 grams heavy whipping cream cold
7 grams fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate magic shell

200 grams dark chocolate
20 grams coconut oil

Instructions

Marble Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, yogurt, 50 grams of milk, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
Pour in the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
Whisk once more until combined and smooth.
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Pour a little less than half of the batter into a separate bowl. Sift in 25 grams of cocoa powder followed by 30 grams of additional milk. Whisk to combine.
If you aren't using this USA loaf pan, spray the cake pan with your baking spray or line it with parchment paper. Alternate adding in 2 tablespoons of chocolate cake batter and then vanilla cake batter into the pan until all of the batter has been used up.
Use a toothpick or knife to lightly marble the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes until fully baked and a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove the pan from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 15-20 minutes. Use a knife to loosen the cake from the edges of the pan if needed.
Flip the cake (or lift it out if you used parchment) out of the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely.

Burnt Sugar Ice Cream Filling

Line a sheet pan with edges or a heat safe baking dish with sheet of foil.
Pour the sugar into a small sauce pan.
Place over medium heat and allow the sugar to melt, it will start to caramelize on the edges first. Once about half of it has melted you can use a rubber spatula to stir it together and encourage all of the sugar to melt and brown.
It will start smoking pretty early on, just turn down the temperature if you feel like you're losing control of it. Cook until the sugar becomes a dark amber color, aka darker than mine in the photo below.
Pour the burnt sugar onto the aluminum foil pan and leave it to harden and cool. Be aware, the pan that you pour the sugar into will also get very hot so please be careful.
Once cooled, peel the sugar off the foil and break it up. Add it into a blender along with the sweetened condensed milk. Blend until smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, add in the 7 grams of fine sea salt, heavy cream, and vanilla. Whip on high with an electric whisk until medium stiff peaks form.
Pour in the sweetened condensed milk and sugar mixture and mix again to combine.
Place in the fridge until ready to assemble.

Assembling Ice Cream cake

Clean the loaf pan you used to bake the cake in and then line it with one piece of plastic wrap.
Using a serrated knife, slice off the domed top of the cake. Then, with the same knife cut the cake into two layers.
Place the bottom layer of the cake into the lined pan with the same orientation as it was baked. Pour the ice cream mixture into the pan. Tap the pan on the counter a couple times to level out the ice cream.
Then lay the top layer of cake over the ice cream.
Lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of the cake and place it in the freezer overnight until frozen solid.

Finishing touches

At least one hour before serving, make the magic chocolate shell for the top of the cake.
Chop up the chocolate and add it into a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup with a spout along with the coconut oil. Melt in the microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between until the chocolate has melted.
Take the frozen cake out of the freezer. Tip it out of the pan so that it is upside downand peel away the plastic wrap.
Place it on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
Pour the chocolate shell over the cake starting at one end and working your way down. It's ok if the shell doesn't cover every square inch. But if you really want it to, you can use an offset spatula to spread it out over the whole cake.
Place the cake back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes for the ice cream to firm up again.
To serve, use a sharp knife to cut the cake, cleaning the blade under hot water in between each slice.
Wrap any leftovers with plastic to prevent freezer burn and place back in the freezer.

Notes

Tips for making a Burnt Sugar Ice Cream Cake

If not using this USA loaf pan, be sure to line the pan with a baking spray that contains flour or line the pan with parchment paper before baking the actual cake.
To get a very busy marble pattern in the cake, simply alternate pouring 2 tablespoons of each batter right on top of each other into the pan.
Heating and melting sugar can be very dangerous because it's incredibly hot so just be careful and very aware when working with the burnt sugar.
Don't walk away from the sugar especially once it has started to melt in the pan. It can go from just melted to setting off your smoke detector in minutes.
This is going to sound wild but don't be afraid of really getting the sugar to a deep amber color. I honestly could have taken the sugar quite a bit further when I made this cake and wish I had cooked it for a few extra moments. It will start to smoke quite early on but if you (and your smoke detector) are ok with it, it's ok to keep cooking past the smoking point.
Be sure to line the loaf pan completely with plastic to make sure it comes out cleanly and easily once frozen.
The cream needs to be COLD when you whip it to ensure it whips up and enough air is incorporated.
You can use a larger loaf pan the cake just won't be as tall but it will still work!
To slice an ice cream cake cleanly, be sure to run your knife under hot water and dry it off in between each slice.

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