For us, one of the most iconic treats is the strawberry shortcake ice cream bar—you know the one with a strawberry ice cream center layered with vanilla ice cream and cake crumbles? It’s the perfect combination of strawberries, cream and crunch. But why wait for the ice cream truck? You can make a similar treat big enough to share right at home. And the best part: strawberry ice cream cake is super simple to make.
Strawberry Ice Cream Cake Ingredients
- Golden Oreos
- Butter
- Vanilla ice cream
- Strawberry ice cream
- Whipped topping
Topping
- Freeze-dried strawberries
- Golden Oreos
- Fresh strawberries to garnish, optional
Directions
Step 1: Make the cookie crust
The foundation of this dessert is a lovely cookie crust. To make the crust, crumble about 24 Golden Oreos. You can use a food processor to get fine crumbs or break out the rolling pin and zip-top bag.
Editor’s Tip: You can also use graham crackers, shortbread cookies or vanilla wafers here if you prefer.
When you’ve got crumbs—somewhere between a powder and coarse crumbles—stir them together with the melted butter. Press into an 8×8-inch pan lined with parchment. Pop this into a 350ºF oven for about 20 minutes. Once baked, let it come to room temperature.
Step 2: Make the strawberry-cookie crunch
While you have the food processor (or rolling pin) out, make the crumble that coats the outside of the cake. Start by crumbling the Oreos. You can leave them fairly coarse for a nice crunchy outside. Remove them from the food processor and set them aside.
Then process the freeze-dried strawberries. We recommend crumbling them up separately from the cookies because they will turn the whole batch dark pink. The taste will be the same, but by separating them at this stage you’ll get a more impactful two-tone effect later. When you’re ready to use the cookie-berry crunch, toss them together lightly.
Step 3: Layer the ice cream
To make the first layer of the strawberry ice cream cake, grab your favorite vanilla ice cream—this is our Test Kitchen’s favorite brand. Allow it to sit out for a bit on the counter so it’s easy to spread. When it’s soft, but not runny, spread an even layer across the graham crackers. Be careful so you don’t mess up your crust. Then pop it in the freezer to get it nice and firm, about an hour.
Repeat with the strawberry ice cream. If you’d like, stir in a few extra freeze-dried berries (a handful will do). This will give you a bit more color and flavor. When you’re satisfied with this layer, freeze it. An hour should do the trick.
Step 4: Top it off
With the ice cream layers nice and firm, you can remove the 8×8 pan from the freezer. Layer on some whipped topping. Use as much or as little as you like. Pop this in the freezer one more time. It’s a lot of back and forth with the freezer, but this helps the layers really set up ensuring you get beautiful layers when it’s time to slice.
When it’s all chilled, sprinkle on a healthy dose of the cookie-strawberry crumble.
Strawberry Ice Cream Cake Tips
How do you serve strawberry ice cream cake?
You can serve this simple strawberry ice cream cake right in the pan if you’d like. To show off all your hard work, use the parchment paper lining the pan to pull it out. You might need to let the pan sit for a minute, but it should pull out easily (a thin spatula always helps, too). The end result is crunchy yet creamy and pretty.
What are freeze-dried strawberries?
They sound kind of space age but are fairly easy to find these days on Amazon, or at Target, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, some dollar stores and grocers. A freeze-dried berry has all the water removed leaving behind a super crunchy and super flavorful treat.
