How to Make an Ice Cream Cake 10x Better

Have you ever found yourself craving an ice cream cake but wished you could have a personal-sized serving instead of buying or making an entire cake? There are, of course, plenty of tasty ice cream sandwiches available on the market, but they don't have the same combination of layers and flavor as a true ice cream cake.

One person who knows her way around a mini dessert is Melissa Ben-Ishay , the founder of the famous NYC-based Baked by Melissa mini cupcake bakery. Ben-Ishay has lots of great recipes on her TikTok feed, including her viral green goddess salad , but this time of year we're interested in one of her sweeter recipes: her mini ice cream cakes (aka ice cream cupcakes). They're cute and super easy and are exactly what we want to eat right now.

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How to Make Ice Cream Cupcakes

There are two main ingredients to success in any ice cream cake: the cake and the ice cream. Everything else is just, well, the cherry on top.

To make her ice cream cupcakes, Ben-Ishay lines a cupcake pan with paper liners, then drops one Oreo in each one. Next up, a scoop of your favorite ice cream. For the cake, she uses pound cake (Philly Fluff pound cake to be exact), which she cuts into 1/2-inch thick slices, then cuts out rounds with a cookie cutter.

Put the pound cake rounds on top of the ice cream, press them down, then top with another scoop of ice cream. Spread out the top layer of ice cream so it evenly fills the cupcake liner.

Place the cupcakes in the freezer until the ice cream is firm. Once hardened, remove the cupcakes from the freezer and drizzle a layer of hot fudge or melted chocolate, then add some sprinkles. Place the cupcakes back in the freezer to allow everything to harden again, then serve when ready and enjoy.

We absolutely love the simplicity of this recipe as well as the fact that you can control just how much you make. There’s no need to bake an entire cake and go through the trouble of layering large amounts of ice cream at one time. Using a cupcake pan, Oreos and storebought pound cake means you can have a super summery treat and still have a summer break too.

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