This week I saw an ad for an ice cream cake from Cold Stone that looked yummy, but I knew it’d be expensive. So I decided to make my own version at home for about half the price.

This is what I saw:

And this is the cake I ended up with:

It’s two layers of yellow cake with Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream, topped with fluffy white frosting and chocolate ganache.

I also made a second ice cream cake when I discovered I had enough leftover chocolate cake batter in the fridge to make a single layer. I split the single layer in two and used Dreyers lite cheesecake and brownie ice cream and topped it all with chocolate ganache.

This cake was a bigger hit than the original cookie dough cake, which was a nice surprise, considering this cake was spontaneous. I think it worked better because 1) the flavors of chocolate and cheesecake taste great together, and 2) the cake and ice cream layers were thinner, the better to eat both cake and ice cream in one bite.

So here’s my recipe for it if anyone else is feeling adventurous.

(FYI, Cold Stone’s cakes are in the $30 range, I think, but this cake cost me in the neighborhood of $7. The ice cream is the most expensive part of it, and I could have saved a couple dollars if I had waited for the ice cream to go on sale or used a cheaper brand.)

Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake

Cake:
1 devils food cake mix
1 4-serving size chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
chocolate chips to taste

Ice cream:
1 half-gallon Dreyer’s lite cheesecake and brownie ice cream

Ganache topping:
2/3 cup whipping cream
6 oz. chocolate chips
1-2 Tbsp. butter

Cake layers:

Make devil’s food cake mix according to directions in two 8-inch cake pans, except include the chocolate chips and pudding mix.

Once cake layers are cooled, split each in half using dental floss (makes it easy). I used just one of the layers, but you can use both and split each in half to get four thin layers of cake.

Freeze cake layers until ready to top with ice cream.

Ice cream layers:

Soften ice cream and spread evenly on top of one cake layer. Top ice cream layer with second cake layer and top again with ice cream. If using four half-layers, repeat.

Freeze until firm.

Ganache topping:

Heat whipping cream in large microwavable bowl until hot but not boiling. Stir in chocolate chips and butter and stir until melted and smooth. Ganache will start thin, but will thicken as it cools. If you want, put it in the fridge to thicken it faster. When spreadable consistency (not runny, but not hard) pour or spread over ice cream cake.

Freeze cake until ready to serve. Pull out and let thaw 5-10 minutes before eating.

Enjoy!

Wes was fine today, until we got back from running together (by that, of course, I mean I ran and he slept in the stroller). From about four o’clock on he wouldn’t do anything I wanted him to do. If I wanted him to play quietly so I could do something that contributes to my sanity, such as eat dinner or take a shower, he wouldn’t. He wasn’t screaming or anything, just being fussy and noisy.

The most blissful moment of my night was when I finished giving him his last bottle around 8 p.m. and he lay peacefully in my lap, staring up at me with big, glassy, tired-looking eyes. This lasted for about five minutes, him just looking up at me, until his lids finally got heavy and blinked a few times, and then he was out. FINALLY!

So THEN I got to eat dinner and do the one fun thing I had told myself I’d get to do tonight–make cookies. Only here’s how it went.

While the oven preheated I rolled the cookie dough in cinnamon and sugar (for snickerdoodles) and put them on the baking sheet. When the oven was halfway to 375 degrees I started to notice the air was getting rather smoky, and it smelled like smoke, too. I turned around and saw a thick haze of smoke right above the oven. I opened its door and smoke poured out. I shut it fast, but not before noticing some nice charred remnants of last night’s frozen pizza burning bright orange on the oven’s floor. I didn’t want to set off the smoke alarm (especially since the baby had JUST gone down to sleep), so I turned the vent on high and quickly ran around opening windows and the back door. Between the vent blaring on high speed and the book on CD I was listening to (Princess Mia, by Meg Cabot) turned up at top volume so I could hear it over the vent, it’s probably lucky the smoke alarm didn’t go off, because I likely would have blown an eardrum from all the noise. The open windows and door helped, though; soon the smoke levels diminished, and my cookies were baking merrily away in the oven.

I was just shaking my head at all the hassle I’d gone through for the sake of a batch of cookies when I noticed a strange, loud buzzing sound above me. I looked up and saw the hugest moth EVER frantically banging its head against the kitchen light fixture. This guy was two or three inches long, with a very pretty wing design that I would have admired had I observed it in its natural habitat outdoors and not in my kitchen at 9:30 at night when I’m trying miserably to make a batch of cookies. Normally I solicit John for all insect-related incidents, but he was working late and I was on my own. I had the good sense to turn off the kitchen light so the moth would quit banging against it, which it did, but then it flew frenetically all over everywhere in the dark, and I had to try to track it down with my hastily rolled-up newspaper, praying I’d smack the thing before it buzzed its way into my bowl of cookie dough. The moth finally settled against a window screen. I grabbed a dustpan and slapped it over the moth, which captured it, then slid a JCPenny ad between the moth and the screen to create a little trap. I carefully but quickly carried the moth to the back door, which I had closed as soon as I had seen the moth inside. As I was about to open it again, the moth escaped its trap and took refuge in the light fixture near the back door.

And then . . . I’m not sure what happened, exactly. Maybe the moth singed itself on the hot light as it tried to hide in the fixture. Or maybe I was a little more aggressive with the dustpan than I had thought. Because the moth didn’t move anymore after that. The three-inch guy is lying peacefully in our light fixture. And I’m not sure what to do about that.

So that’s how I ended up with a dead moth in my light fixture and a plate full of cookies. But at least Wes never woke up.

UPDATE, two hours later: I was in bed, trying to drift off to sleep when I heard that familiar fanatical flapping sound again. It was the moth, back from the dead! Or, I guess, it never was dead, but was maybe good at playing dead? Or maybe I had just tired it out from chasing it all around the kitchen. In any case, it was back. John is still at work, so I was still on my own to get rid of this guy for once and for all. This time it was me, the moth, and a giant issue of Allure magazine having a showdown in the hallway outside Wesley’s bedroom. I didn’t want to wake the baby with all my whapping, and I actually didn’t want to hurt the moth, but it’s nearly midnight and I was getting desperate. Let’s just say that the Allure magazine did the trick, at least to stun the moth well enough that I could take it downstairs and dump it out our back door. Who says fashion magazines are useless?

In February I took Wes to a professional photographer. I wanted high quality photos of my first baby while he still looked like a baby. He was five months old at the time, but the photographer said he still looked newbornish enough that she would take the type of photos she takes for newborn babies–a lot of diaper-only ones!

Wes was so good during the whole hour. He was all smiles for the photographer, throwing smiles left and right–until the photographer’s face disappeared behind the camera, that is, and then he went completely straight-faced. She managed to capture a few smiles on film, but it was lucky.

The photographer commented that she didn’t think Wes looked very strongly like he has Down syndrome. I think some of the photos capture his DS better than others. But that’s how he is in real life, too; sometimes he looks like he has it and sometimes he doesn’t. Then again, I’m his mom and I see him all the time, so maybe I’m just used to how he looks. In any case, the photos seem to capture him in a variety of moments and expressions that are authentic, and I’m glad we have them to keep forever.

Here are some of the photos that were taken. They are all copyrighted by Busath Photography.

I like that Wes knows who I am. When he sees me, he smiles.

It’s surprisingly gratifying to have that kind of an effect on someone.

Also, yesterday I took him to the park, where he had his first experience in the baby swing that didn’t involve banging his forehead on the rubber. Now that his neck and torso strength is improving, he can hold himself up pretty well.

…Although he still has a bit of growing to do before he fills up the baby swing adequately.

This picture is of his first-ever slide experience. He was sitting when I started him down it, but somehow during the going-down process he ended up on his feet.

(Thanks to Tara for the park pictures!)