Food Storage Made Easy » Comfort Food Ideas

How to Make an Ice Cream Cake

Jodi — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:01:23 +0000

WARNING: This post is not really related to food storage, but it is what I have been busy with all week so I am posting about it here (plus it might be helpful to some of you!)

My husband turned 30 this year, sometimes you have to make a big deal over a birthday I was especially happy over the fact that I am still a young wife in my 20′s so I had to rub in the fact that he is 30 a little bit.

Ever since he was a little boy, my husband’s mom always bought him a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake for his birthday. Well his birthday was exactly 10 days after our wedding and I faithfully went to try to buy him a cake and being the poor newlyweds that we were I left the store empty-handed and shocked at what they wanted to charge me. I decided I would try to make an ice cream cake for him to save us a ton of money. Here is how that first year’s adventure turned out.

The next year I was so mortified by my previous cake that his sister offered to buy a cake as part of her present to him. A year later I decide to try again but this time I tried only icing the top so that I wouldn’t have the huge frosting melting down the side of the cake problem. It looked pretty funny but it wasn’t AS embarrassing.

After that someone told me that I just need to use a butter cream frosting for ice cream cakes. This also happened to be a year that we had tons of family coming for the party so I tried a rectangle cake after hearing that they were easier … FAIL.

Well, FINALLY after eating a store-bought cake for someone else’s party one time, my husband and I analyzed the icing and realized the secret which I will share below. And by that time I had actually mastered the art of getting the cakes to turn out evenly so it all came together and I finally had success! It’s now been a few years and I can consistently get the cakes to turn out great every time. The only problem now is that as our family is growing the cakes are almost too small to feed everybody

I hope you enjoy this picture tutorial I put together one year after I was actually able to get the cake to turn out properly!

How to Make an Ice Cream Cake

What you need:
- 2 9 inch round cake pans
- Devils food cake mix
- Cookies and cream ice cream (1.5 quart container)
- Vanilla ice cream (1 pint is enough)
- 1 tub of chocolate frosting (for decorations)
- Whatever candles you desire (optional, but recommended)
- At least 2 cans of diet coke (or other beverage of choice) to keep you sane while you work

PHASE ONE – START THE NIGHT BEFORE

Bake your devils food cake mix according to the box directions in your two round pans. Try to ignore the fact that my stove is filthy. My cleaning fairy was on vacation.

For some reason unknown to me, my cakes always have a huge hump on the top. Learning from past experience (see pictures above), layer cakes made out of humped layers do NOT work. So I take a bread knife and slice the humped part off trying to make both cakes as flat as possible. Take a minute here to wash one of the cake pans, you will need it later.

Place one layer of cake onto a cake plate. Take your tub of chocolate frosting and ice the entire top of this layer. Then take the second layer of cake and set it on top of the icing.

Take the combined cake layers and put them into the freezer for at least 4 hours, but overnight is better. You want the cake to be frozen solid, it’s yummier that way.

Let your cookies and cream ice cream sit out and melt for quite a while. You want it to be extremely pliable. Dump the entire carton into that cleaned cake pan and smooth it out until it is perfectly flat. Place the ice cream layer in the freezer for at least 4 hours but overnight is better. Now you can relax for a bit until we start phase two.

PHASE TWO – START EARLY THE NEXT MORNING

Remove the ice cream layer from the freezer. Fill up your sink about one inch full of hot water. Dip the ice cream pan into the water being careful not to let the water come over the top edge. This will loosen the ice cream enough that you can shimmy it out using a spatula. Don’t worry if it loses a little bit of its shape.

Carefully place the ice cream layer on top of the cake layers. It will be a little bit soft due to the hot water. At this point you should go around the edges with a spatula and make sure the ice cream layer doesn’t stick out too far over the cake layer. I even shaved some pieces off with a knife to get it just right. I think the cake contracts in the pan so it ends up being a bit smaller than the ice cream layer. Once you get it nice and even, put the entire thing back in the freezer to let it solidify.

Here is the biggest secret. Once the layers are re-frozen and solidly in place, ice the entire cake with vanilla ice cream. Yes I’m serious. Let it get a little bit soft, and then mix in some milk until it is a smooth creamy consistency. It will be spreadable just like icing but it will actually stick to the frozen cake and ice cream. It feels like a miracle if you have ever tried to ice an ice cream cake with normal icing … You may have to pop the cake back in the freezer throughout this process if it gets too melty. And sometimes it needs more than one layer of vanilla to get the pure white without any of the brown cake shining through.

Add decorative icing to write and design whatever you want. Again, I am just using a standard tub of store-bought chocolate frosting. I’m also using my fun cake icing kit that I accidentally bought my husband for our anniversary the week before this. You can also buy the tubes of icing that come with the little decorative tips. Make sure not to put the decorations too close to the edge, sometimes they like to slip off the side.

Here I am with the cake, fully decorated including the delightful number candles. I am awfully proud of myself as you can imagine based on the first 5 years of our marriage being cake failures. (See the picture at the top of this post for this year’s #30 cake complete with black decorative icing)

The final product! (Inside view)

How to Save Even More Money

So even though my cakes are significantly cheaper than Baskin Robbins’ cakes, you can make them EVEN CHEAPER if you do a little couponing. Cake mixes and frosting tubs are things that quite often go on sale and/or have coupons associated with them. You can get them for cheap cheap cheap. I have about 10 of each in my food storage so I never have to scramble when I’m asked to bring a dessert to an event. One of the best ways we have found to do sale shopping for these types of items is using Deals to Meals (available in the Western United States). With the case lot sales going on these next few weeks you better believe we have been using this service like crazy to stock up on a lot of three month supply foods and “comfort items”.

Oh and I also just have to say I used eggs from my own chickens to make the cake, that was a first this year!

Happy Birthday to my handsome, handy, 30-year old husband who is very supportive of my obsession with food storage and the need to spend WAY too much time blogging about it

Food Storage Recipes: Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Jodi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:00:29 +0000

Using fresh ground bean flour is one of my FAVORITE ways to eat healthy and save on fat and calories. I’ve always loved my mom’s homemade macaroni and cheese and now I have learned how to tweak this recipe to use different food storage items in two different versions:

Homemade Mac ‘N’ Cheese (w/ grains and powdered milk)

Ingredients:
1 lb macaroni noodles (BabyStep 5 : Grains)
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour (BabyStep 5 : Grains)
1 c. milk (or 1 c. water, 3 T. powdered milk)
1 tsp. seasoned salt
cheese cubes (optional)
ham cubes (optional)

Directions:
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Melt butter in large saucepan. Whisk in the flour until smooth. Slowly stir in milk until well mixed in. Add seasoned salt. Let cook for a little while until it starts to thicken. Add in the macaroni noodles. Add in a little more milk if it seems too thick. Can add more seasoned salt according to your family’s tastes. Add ham and cheese cubes right before serving.

Homemade Mac ‘N’ Cheese (w/ legumes and powdered milk)

Ingredients:
3 c. of macaroni noodles
5 T. of lima or other white bean flour (BabyStep 6 : Legumes)
1 c. of water
3/4 c. milk (or 3/4 c. water 2 T. powdered milk)
2 tsp. seasoned salt
cheese cubes (optional)
ham cubes (optional)

Directions:
Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Grind 1/4 c. of white beans in your wheat grinder to make about 5 T. of bean flour. Put 1 c. of water in large saucepan. Slowly whisk in ground bean flour. Continue to whisk frequently until starts to thicken and bubble. Slowly stir in milk until it’s a nice thickish liquid consistency. Add seasoned salt (the bean version tends to need more than the flour/butter version). Add in the macaroni noodles. Add in a little more milk if it seems too thick. Add ham and cheese cubes right before serving.

Confession time … While the bean flour version is still good (and my kids snarfed it up just like usual), I could actually tell a difference in this recipe. I prefer the fattening version, surprise surprise. hehe. But the bean flour version is a very good substitute and can save a TON of calories and fat!

Beyond the BabySteps: Comfort Foods: Yummy Recipes!

Jodi and Julie — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:10:12 +0000

For our Summer Crash Course we have been revamping all of the BabyStep pages and last week we updated the Step 9: Comfort Foods page. On that page we give a great list of ideas for comfort foods but we wanted to give you this bonus handout of fun recipes you can make all with shelf-stable foods and with minimal cooking required (could use a fire pit or barbecue grill in a pinch). Here are the recipes included in the handout.

Recipe 1: Best Rice Krispie Squaries (courtesy of Grandma Lori)

Recipe 2: Homemade Popcorn
Put a few tablespoons of oil (any kind will do) in the bottom of a 4-quart pan. Pour in 1/2 c. of popcorn kernels (we buy ours in bulk #10 cans to use to make corn meal as well) and put the lid on the pan. Heat stove to medium/medium high heat. Allow the kernels to cook, shaking the pan occasionally to avoid burning. When there are a few seconds in between pops, remove from heat and pour into a bowl (be careful as lid may be hot). Coat with your favorite toppings!

Recipe 3: No Bake Oatmeal Cookies (As found on AllRecipes.com)
INGREDIENTS
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the oats, sugar and cocoa. With clean hands, mix in the water, vanilla and butter to form a dough. Wash hands, then roll the dough into balls 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Roll balls in confectioners’ sugar until thickly coated (or they will become crusty). Chill 20 minutes before serving.

Click here to download the pdf version of this handout. If you have already purchased one of our Food Storage Made Easy Binders this is a perfect addition to the Step 9 section or recipes appendix. Enjoy!

If you have any good comfort food recipe ideas share them in the comments below and we will compile another handout with your suggestions!

Food Storage Recipes: "Lemon Bars with a Twist"

Julie — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:56:28 +0000

Ever since I was a little girl my mom would make me these bars on or around my birthday. I LOVE them. They don’t even really have a name other then my “Birthday Bars”. They are kind of like a lemon bar but the filling is made with brown sugar instead of lemon, like a sugar pie type filling! YUM!

Since it’s not my birthday, I don’t have a batch to take a picture of but I’ll update the blog with one soon! Just imagine this lemon bar picture with a brown sugar filling instead!

Julie’s Birthday Bars Recipe

Crust-
1 c butter
½ c powdered sugar
½ tsp salt
2 c flour

Filling Sugar-
2 eggs (can use 2 T. dry egg powder + 1/4 C. water)
2 c brown sugar (can make your own brown sugar)
2 T vinegar
½ c melted butter

Directions:
Spread crust in two 9 x 13 pans.
Mix filling and place on top of crust.
Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.

Enjoy a delicious treat for your birthday or any other time!

Food Storage Recipes: Rice Pudding

Jodi — Sat, 23 May 2009 07:22:43 +0000

Rice pudding is a comfort food I remember from my childhood. Now that I have tried other rice pudding recipes I have come to realize that no rice pudding is the same (or as good) as my mom’s rice pudding. The recipe isn’t hugely complex, but it’s the one I like. If you don’t have your own favorite yet, give this one a try, it’s definitely a great food storage recipe!

Rice Pudding Recipe

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten (can use powdered eggs)
½ c. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
2 c. milk (can use powdered milk)
1 ¼ c. cooked white rice, cooled (leftovers work great)
½ c. raisins (optional but oh so delicious!)
Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325o F. Mix all the ingredients together and pour into a greased 1 qt. bowl. Set the bowl in a shallow pan. Pour hot water into the pan about 1 inch deep. Put pan into the oven and bake for 1 ½ hours.

I was sneaky tonight!

Julie — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:51:49 +0000

One of the things people always recommend when getting your family to start eating food storage is adding new foods to meals and not telling your family since they may not give it a fair chance. Well my husband works from home and knows how and what I’m cooking so I haven’t been able to use that trick.

Tonight I hosted a little dinner party at my house and decided I would sneakily use tons of food storage in my dinner and dessert. I definitely recommend it, it was fun having a little secret… hehe.

Anyways, I made a great tortilla casserole recipe, (added black beans) and even made the tortillas from scratch using all fresh ground whole wheat! I even replaced the cream of chicken soup with BEAN FLOUR cream of chicken, my favorite!

For dessert I made my EMERGENCY, I don’t feel like baking, icing or dirtying a pan dessert with POWDERED MILK! Everytime I have to bring a dessert to a dinner and don’t have the time or energy to pick up fresh ingredients, I make a quick and easy pudding pie. I always have at least one tub of cool whip in my freezer for this special dessert.

Ingredients

Powdered Milk
Water
Box of Chocolate Pudding
Graham cracker crust
Cool Whip

Prepare pudding according to package directions for pie. Pour into graham cracker crust, chill for an hour or so. Top with Cool Whip. Optional, add strawberries, crushed skor bar or any crushed cookie.

I love this dessert because it is SO easy to bring places. The graham cracker crust container has a lid with it (you don’t have to remember to get your pan when you are going home). You don’t have to dirty dishes except the pudding bowl, but you can lick that. It’s a dessert that uses POWDERED milk and no one knows it. You don’t have to turn your oven on in the hot summer, its great!

Food Storage Recipes: Best Rice Krispie Squares

Jodi — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:16:09 +0000

What do you do on a Sunday night when you don’t want to go to the store but you want a delicious treat? This happened to me last Sunday and guess what I did? I made a food storage dessert! YAY!!! This one has been a staple in my family for years and it is one of my favorite treats. But it only just dawned on me that it was a perfect food storage recipe. It qualifies as a comfort food in my opinion because if I was eating purely food storage and I could eat this treat every now and then I’d be in heaven. So here it is:

Best Rice Krispie Squaries (courtesy of Grandma Lori)

Ingredients:

1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. corn syrup (karo light)
3/4 c. peanut butter
2 c. Rice Krispies
4 c. Corn Flakes

Directions:
Use a large pot and stir together first three ingredients until melted & smooth. Then stir in the cereal. Spread in a 9×13 pan. EAT! (yes my mom included the EAT direction on the recipe card she gave me, it is the most important item)

Food Storage Recipes: Cookie Clay Dough

Jodi and Julie — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:13:18 +0000

Cookie Clay Dough

Serving Size: About 40 small cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

Recipe from Crystal at Everyday Food Storage

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter (1 cube)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg (can use powdered eggs)

2 cup whole wheat flour
2 T dry egg powder (do not add water at this time) or 1 extra large egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Cream together first 5 ingredients with a mixer. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients. Slowly add to the creamy mixture until it reaches the consistency of Play-Doh.

Give the Cookie Clay Dough to your kids and let them make shapes, letters, etc. out of it. They can use it like they would use regular Play-Doh. Once they are finished, put all of the shapes on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Jodi’s Comments:

I am the chorister for the children in my church. They did a huge program during our meeting today, so I made these cookies as a treat to reward them. One of the kids asked me what was in them so I gave the list of ingredients and was proud to include “fresh ground whole wheat from my food storage”. Well the kid pulled a nasty face and said “Are you trying to POISON us or something?”. I got all sad thinking that the kids would reject them. I didn’t teach music today so I just left the cookies for them to have during their lesson. After church I had at least 5 children come up and try to convince me to give them one of the leftover cookies, 3 kids thanked me for making such good cookies, and one little girl drew a picture of me celebrating with her after our program (with cookies!). I guess they were a hit. Another food storage recipe success!

Leave a comment if you try this recipe and let us know what you think!