November is birthday season in the Hungry House. Yesterday, Miss 8 became Miss 9 and in less than a fortnight, Miss 10 will morph into Miss 11. Between these two birthdays we will be hosting a double birthday party. What is the collective noun for a large group of little girls? A squawk? A shriek? A giggle? Whatever it is, I feel the need to warn the neighbours before 25 under 11s descend upon my house.
Birthday parties mean birthday food and here that generally means the favs: sushi, fairy bread, chips, popcorn and cake. The gals always have a double party and I always make two cakes. I also make a cake for their actual birthdays for the birthday dinner, and cupcakes to take to school. In short, I spend November baking.
I have made the gals ice cream cakes before and they have loved them. In the lead-up to birthday season I thought I would experiment with ice cream cake that involves no cake, per say.
Chocolate crackles are one of my fav childhood party foods. Whenever I spy a chocolate crackle at a kid’s party I am always excited. For my international friends who don’t know what a crackle is, let me explain. Rice bubbles, or rice cereal puffs, are stirred with chocolate until they are covered and then placed in little cupcake wrappers.
The one drawback to choc crackles is they usually contain copha. I abhor the moth-feel of copha, which is 100 hydrogenated coconut oil – pure fat, and not the good kind.
This crackle bypasses the need for copha and instead uses melted to butter to help bind the chocolate to the rice puffs. And instead of traditional milk chocolate I upped the ante to rich, dark chocolate.
The crunch of the crackle and the softness of the icecream is a wonderful contrast and one that both girls loved. This might just make the final birthday cake cut…
GATHER:
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100g unsalted butter, diced
3 cups rice bubbles
2 litres vanilla ice cream
chocolate-covered cereal balls for decoration
LET’S GET TO IT:
Spray an 18cm round non-stick tart pan with removable base with non-stick cooking spray.
Over a low heat place butter and chocolate in a large saucepan and stir together until melted together and glossy.
Remove from heat and cool for five minutes, then stir in rice bubbles, ensuring they are thoroughly coated.
Press the chocolate crackle into base and sides of prepared pan – you will have lots left over. #sorryNotSorry
Place in fridge for an hour.
Meanwhile, remove ice cream from freezer and allow to soften to room temperature.
Pour ice cream into crackle pan, smoothing over with a spatula, then sprinkle the top with chocolate-covered cereal balls. Return to freezer for two hours or until ice cream is frozen.
Slice into wedges to serve.
the hungry mum 
Happy Birthday to your girls! Lovely cake! I love texture in my cakes and wish I could have a piece now 😀
looks yummy!!
This tart was sooo good 🙂
Yum! Happy Birthday to your girls! Two of my sons have birthdays six days apart so I know the whole “birthday week” things well. Myself and two of my brothers all had birthdays within a seven day span. Weird how that happens. Lots of cake all at once!
Wow, birthday week sure is popular! I do like getting it out of the way in one go. I have baked so many cupcakes and frozen them that my freezer is full – I sent 40 over to mum in law’s last night to put in her freezer!
Looks good! And happy birthday to your little ones!
Oh, thank you 🙂
I remember as a kid putting copha on my skin and then going for a surf. Such a bad thing to do. All young Australians need to know that skin protection is so important.
Oh wow! How times have changed. I am so paranoid about sun safety, esp for miss now-9 who is Casper-the-ghost-pale.
A colleague at the hospital died last week of metastatic melanoma. Skin care is so important.
Happy birthday to your girls too 😃
Thank you for teaching me something new. I never knew about this type of cake
That’s coz I created it 😉
The ice cream part really adds to the appeal of the cake.
Ice cream makes everything better 🙂
If it’s true that we choose our parents before our births, your daughters hit the jackpot! Birthday ice cream cakes, cupcakes, and birthday party with more cakes? You’re incredible!
Wishing both of your girls wonderful birthdays and fantastic times in the year ahead.
Oh, you`re too kind! I think I did quite well in the baby lottery 😉 I actually made two more cakes today ahead of the party in a few days, and will be making another tomorrow.