HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! OH AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The new year comes so fast it seems now. Time has sped up and life seems to be going by so quickly. I love seeing my children grow and become adults, and yet at the same time it means that we are getting older. I so enjoy the holidays; November and December are months filled with family, food and fantastic traditions. Whats not to love?? But, it is January that brings the most fun to our household.

 It starts every year at New Years. These days there is no giant party, no going drinking or dancing. Mostly our evening consists of a special dinner, and games with the kids, culminating in watching the ball drop and listening to the neighbor kids shoot off fireworks, likely one day to set my house on fire. It's the strike of midnight when the fun begins, you see my husband Mike's birthday is January 1. So in an instant we turn to birthday mode, singing and celebrating his life and accomplishments. Traditionally, we go to Brunch or lunch out somewhere, and he then hunkers down for the remainder of the day watching football and hockey, happily relaxing in front of our 50 inch television. Dinner on the other hand is where we can show our love for him and those things he enjoys most. This year he asked for an ice cream cake and thus the bar was set. We love ice cream cakes from Carvel as much as the next guy, but we recently watched a Kelsey Nixon show where she created a Raspberry, vanilla ice cream cake and I knew Carvel would not be getting my money this year.

The recipe for Kelsey's cake is in this link. http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/kelsey-nixon/ice-cream-birthday-cake.html While raspberry's are a favorite of mine they are not Mike's flavor of choice, so I took her recipe and changed it up a bit, using a different crust and ice cream flavors. I would say you could mix and match any flavors you like and this would be a hit. The number one key item in this recipe is the layer of pound cake. It is the perfect cake as it holds up so nicely frozen, yet melts in your mouth.

I went shopping with my youngest daughter Samantha for the flavors and here is what we came up with in the end:

Crust: Chocolate Graham Crackers
Ice Cream: Chocolate and Mint Moose Tracks (Mint Chocolate chip works great too!)
Fudge: Chocolate Fudge
Cake: Sponge Cake
Icing: Whipped Cream

The chocolate crust was just enough crunch to add some nice texture to each bite and the way the cake layered each person had chocolate and mint in every bite. The sponge cake has a way of dividing the cake and keeping it from being too much ice cream and not enough....cake. :)

Come up with your own flavors, try this for your next birthday cake, I assure you you will not be disappointed. Let me know what you have made post it here and take a picture.

I neglected to take pictures along the way this time but will do so next time and add them.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Mike!!!