Homemade Ice Cream Cake Recipes for a Really Cool Celebration Dessert

Transform this recipe into a birthday ice cream cake with flavors customized for the guest of honor. Simply pick up a box of cake mix and ice cream in his or her chosen flavors—the options are as limitless as the flavors stocked at your grocery store—and assemble cake layers with ice cream layers in a spingform pan. Oh, and don't forget the candles.

Come hot summer months any fan of the chocolate and peanut butter combination will swoon for this homemade ice cream cake. It stars both vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate-covered peanuts and a chocolate-peanut butter sauce, which is precisely as dreamy as it sounds.

When it comes to a refreshing ice cream cake, you'd be hard-pressed to find one that tops this sherbet-filled cake. Start by baking a simple white boxed cake mix in 8-inch round pans for a layered cake. Horizontally halve each cake round and layer them with sherbet in between for this gorgeous presentation.

Buy It: Nordic Ware 8-Inch Round Cake Pan ($17, Target)

If you don't have a springform pan yet, or don't want to take the time to layer cake and ice cream as in many of these other ice cream cake recipes, turn to your trusty 13x9 and 9-inch square baking pans. That way you can make an ice cream cake in bar form. Stir together an oat and pecan mixture that serves as both crust and crumble. Drizzle the crust with a generous amount of butterscotch-flavored syrup and spread your butter-brickle ice cream over that, add the crumb mixture, and freeze until serving time.

Related: Irresistible Ice Cream Recipes No Summer Is Complete Without

No campfire is required to make this frozen take on a s'mores treat. Pulverize a graham cracker and almond crust in your food processor, press that into a springform pan, then layer with coffee ice cream, chocolate sauce, dulce de leche ice cream, marshmallow crème, and a sprinkling of mini marshmallows that you quickly broil until golden. Or, if you're the type who prefers a charred 'mallow that gets fully engulfed in flames, broil just a touch longer, being mindful of your ice cream melting.

Buy It: KitchenAid Food Processor ($100, Bed Bath & Beyond)

Now here's an elegant ice cream cake that'll really impress. Sophisticated flavors of coffee and mascarpone combine with classic dessert flavors like vanilla and chocolate for this frozen version of a tiramisu dessert.

Reminiscent of an orange creamsicle, this is an orange and vanilla ice cream cake in one. There's a layer each of vanilla ice cream and orange sorbet on top of a simple butter and biscotti crust. While your frozen cake stands at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving, make a sauce of orange marmalade and mandarin oranges to serve atop each bar. The final result is an elevated sweet that will tempt adults and kids.

Dessert genius, Gesine Bullock-Prado, created this recipe that's clearly the best ice cream cake recipe for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, to kick off the Olympics, or for a celebration honoring an American patriot. Create red, white, and blue frozen yogurt mixtures and shape the stars with help from a silicone mold for an impressive icy dessert.

Buy It: Celebrate It Star Silicone Mold ($3, Michaels)

Mmm, mmm, this is a dessert mashup recipe that cannot be resisted! All the flavors of tiramisu—spongy cake, mascarpone, coffee, and cocoa powder meet ice cream in this layered dessert.

Buy It: Nordic Ware Springform Pan ($13, Target)

Dessert throwback alert! Everyone will be impressed when you serve this retro take on an ice cream cake. At its core is layers of ice cream and purchased frozen pound cake. But what sets this recipe apart from the rest is the meringue coating that gets broiled for just a couple of minutes until brown for a frozen dessert served from the oven. It's practically a magic trick.

Yes, it's called a semifreddo, but as it's a frozen dessert you serve by the slice, this fruity frozen sweet deserved a spot in our collection. There's no actual ice cream, but you do create a sweet fruit puree that has eggs added before cooking (much like ice cream), which then gets whipped topping and pistachios folded in before freezing. Each slice is under 150 calories making it the lightest ice cream cake in this mix.

With a sprinkling of crushed peppermint candies, this mint chocolate chip ice cream cake could be served as a winter holiday treat or a refreshing summer dessert. The mint flavor is amplified by stirring more peppermint candies and chocolate-mint candies into the ice cream. Fans of mint chocolate chip will devour this cake as fast as you can slice it—serve with a brain freeze warning.

Make your own angel food cake, or purchase one from the bakery to shortcut this dessert and make it one of the easiest ice cream cake recipes out there. Just cut the cake into thirds horizontally, with a serrated knife, and layer in strawberry ice cream as listed or orange sherbet as shown in the picture.

Buy It: Wüsthof Serrated Knife ($120, Williams Sonoma)

Bed Bath & BeyondIf you're searching for easy ice cream cake recipes, this is your best bet. A pound cake mix (plus the few pantry staples you add to that), raspberry sorbet, and a Bundt pan are all you need for this DIY ice cream cake. Simply bake the cake using the box directions, slice cake half lengthwise, reassemble the cake in the pan with a layer of the sorbet in between, and freeze it all together for a couple hours. Dessert is served!

Buy It: Nordic Ware Bundt Pan ($33, Bed Bath & Beyond)

Similar to those cakes you saw on social media of realistic looking objects that were actually cake, this ice cream cake uses simple techniques to look like a giant cheeseburger. Methods like freezing ice cream in a 9-inch pan and baking the cake in an 8-inch pan allow for that "meat" overhang of your typical burger. Coloring coconut makes it look like shredded lettuce, you get the idea. Try all the tips to make this impressive ice cream cake at home.