For this particular cake, my daughter chose Cookies n' Cream as the ice cream flavor. The flavors worked very well together, but that's the beauty of this recipe - there are soooo many ice cream flavors to choose from. You can even use two different types of ice cream if you want! See below for the directions, and read on for some fun "Rainbow Birthday Party" ideas!
Easy Brownie Ice Cream Cake
1 box brownie mix (For an 8x8 pan - I used Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix)
Egg, water and oil called for in the mix
1 container ice cream of choice (I used Cookies n' Cream)
1 container Whipped Topping
Sprinkles or garnish of choice
Aluminum foil to line the pan
A 9x13-inch baking dish
Directions: All I did was bake a box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownies according to the package directions in a 9x13-inch baking dish lined with aluminum foil (the Double Chocolate kind has chocolate chips in the mix that do not melt, so you get a nice "crunch" while eating the brownie portion of the cake). Make sure the aluminum foil hangs over the edges of the pan so that you can pull the entire cake out of the pan when it is finished. I used the smaller-sized brownie mix in a larger pan so that the brownie would be a bit thinner, and there would still be room to add the ice cream and whipped topping. Once the brownie is completely cooled, spread softened ice cream over it, and then spread the whipped topping over the ice cream. Garnish with sprinkles or toppings of choice. Freeze for at least 2 hours. Make sure to take the cake out at least 15 min. before eating so that it can thaw a bit. Remove the cake from the pan using the aluminum foil, remove the aluminum foil from the cake, and it is ready to eat!
Rainbow Birthday Party Ideas
Looking for ideas for my daughter's Rainbow Birthday Party on Pinterest was fun, but making the ideas a reality was a blast! UNICORN FOOD: The "Unicorn Food" pictured above is strawberry-flavored marshmallows on lollipop sticks. You simply place the marshmallows on the sticks, dip them in water and roll them in sprinkles. That's it! The kids loved them. We used a lot of rainbow crepe paper for decorating. RAINBOW CAKE: I looked at a lot of different cake pictures online, but came up with this one on my own. The rainbow is made from a piece of cardboard with M&Ms attached to both sides with cookie icing. (If I had to do it again, I would probably use hot glue instead, because it was VERY fragile. I only picked it up to place it on the cake right before we blew out the candles.) It's hard to see, but there are mini marshmallow "clouds" where the rainbow inserts into the cake. I just pushed it in and it stayed! The unicorn is actually a salt shaker that I picked up from Target for $3. I filled the holes with icing and they were not noticeable. CRAFT TABLE: One of the activities we had for the kids was a craft table - I separated beads from the Dollar Tree into "rainbow" colors in baby food jars and had twine out for the kids to make bracelets. I did the same thing with the crayons - separated them by color and put them into baby food jars decorated with ribbons of the same color. I printed out unicorn and dragon coloring pages, and also had some stickers, glue and construction paper available. My daughter is very artsy, so she loved this, but only a few of the other kids actually made anything.
PRETZEL STICKS/SNACKS: We drizzled pretzel sticks with cookie icing and sugar sprinkles to make them a little more festive. Other snacks we had included "rainbow" fruit kabobs, coconut black bean brownies for those who had food allergies, and cheese and crackers. UTENSIL HOLDERS: I love Mason jars. I use them for everything, including to hold utensils at parties. I just added some ribbon to the top to make them a little more decorative. RAINBOW SCAVENGER HUNT GAME: The kids loved running around the house during this game! I used this scavenger hunt as a general template and changed it according to my needs/house. On the back of each clue, I glued a cute rainbow/cloud. I placed the "treasure" under the Balloon Rainbow (see below), which included their treat bags, gemstone ring pops that I found at the Dollar Tree, and chocolate coins.
RAINBOW BALLOON GAME: I found the idea for this game on Pinterest, but the one I saw used darts to pop the balloons. Six-year-olds and darts just didn't seem like a good idea to me, so we modified it a bit: Instead of using normal darts, my husband super glued a tack to the end of ONE Nerf Rebelle dart. He then placed one craft pompom into two different balloons, so that the two kids who popped those two balloons won a prize. Now, please note that my husband NEVER LET GO OF THE NERF REBELLE with the tack dart in it! He held it and helped each child aim it so that no one would get hurt by the tack. The kids had a blast popping all of the balloons!
I'm not sure who had more fun with this party theme - me or my daughter!
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