4 from 6 votes

An easy Neapolitan ice cream cake with creamy layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream and fudgy crushed Oreos! It'll remind you of Dairy Queen or Carvel ice cream cakes. Try my strawberry s'mores icebox cake for another no bake treat.

Side shot of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake with a slice cut out showing all the different layers

I've had “make an ice cream cake” on my recipe to-do list for, oh, I don't know… five years. Literally five years.

Every year I would mean to do it. And then by the time I got around to it, it was winter. Who's looking to make an ice cream cake in the dead of winter? Unless you live in Australia and our winter is your summer, then probably no one.

Now I'm curious, do Australians like ice cream cakes? Is that a thing there? If you're from Australia, please tell me because now I need to know. I did a little googling and it looks like it is, but I would like real life human confirmation.

Overhead shot of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries

Picking the flavors

So anyway, I finally got around to making an ice cream cake, and I opted for a Neapolitan ice cream cake with a layer of fudge and crushed Oreos. Yay, right? Yes, yay! Except for one little thing that I didn't take into account…

Keep the weather in mind!

I chose to make said ice cream cake on the hottest and most humid weekend of the entire year in Massachusetts. The kind of hot where your central air conditioning merely takes the edge off, and the humidity is still awkwardly hanging around like an unwelcome guest.

It helped with the process of softening the ice cream to make the layers, but good grief did I have to work fast. And then to take the pictures? I don't think I've ever moved so quickly during a photo shoot in my life.

Sprinkles were flying everything, melted ice cream dripping off the edge of the props, strawberries rolling onto the floor. You can clearly see the progression of time in these pictures, and I'm kind of entertained by it.

Quick question: are you an upright slice or slice-on-its-side kind of person? Generally speaking, I like my slices upright. But when it comes down to the last quarter of a slice, I always end up knocking it onto its side anyway.

Especially with ice cream cake.

A slice of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake on a white plate with a fork

A slice of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake on its side on a white plate

There's something about the possibility of being able to eat the bottom layer first that's uncomfortable to me.

Or that I could start on the thickest part and work my way to the thinnest.

That's all just… pure chaos.

A slice of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake on a white plate showing all the different layers

Don't obsess over making the layers even

As I'm sure you've noticed, my layers aren't even or symmetrical. You know why? Because who cares.

It would stress me out too much to worry about how perfect the layers are, so I just… don't. The point of baking for me is to de-stress, not to stress even more.

If you want to spend the time and energy into making each of your layers perfect, go nuts and share pictures with me so I can marvel at your patience and talent.

All I care about is:

whether or not it tastes good
whether or not I can get a decent amount of fudgy crunch in each bite
whether or not it has a sufficient amount of sprinkles

And guess what?

I can check every box because this does taste good, there is a decent amount of fudgy crunch in each bite, and there is a sufficient amount of sprinkles.

Therefore, I consider it a success.

A slice of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake showing all the layers

Which layer are you the most excited about?

Originally, I was the most excited about the fudgy crunchy layer, but once I was done and eating a slice, I found myself digging around to get as much strawberry ice cream as I could in each bite.

Never would have guessed that.

A slice of Neapolitan Crunch Ice Cream Cake on a white plate with a bite taken out

A few tips for making your ice cream cake:

Line your spring form pan with parchment paper. You could also line it with plastic wrap, but either way it's a little bit messy as you spread each ice cream layer. Just hold on to the side of the pan and edge of your liner as you spread the ice cream around to keep it from slipping as much as possible.

And before you think to yourself, “Forget that, I'll just skip the liner”, just know that you're asking for an absolute melted ice cream disaster as it spills out of every crevice in the pan onto your counter… not that it's happened to me or anything.

Let your ice cream sit out on the counter for at least 15 minutes to soften. If you try to spread still frozen ice cream, it's going to be all sorts of frustrating. Take them all out at the same time, and just know that by the time you get to the last one it'll be the softest and easiest to spread.

Put your layers in whatever order you want! There was no strategy behind how I layered mine, it's just what happened to be the next closest quart of ice cream as I was making it.

So if you want to go chocolate, fudgy crunch, strawberry, vanilla like me – great. If you want to mix it up, go for it – it'll be delicious no matter what you do.

Let the ice cream layers set before you attempt to add your Cool Whip frosting. You need to do this is because by the time you're done layering all the ice cream, things are going to be getting soft and melty, and it needs to firm back up before you can frost the outside.

Adding decorations

I added the piped border and a crapload of sprinkles as soon as I was done frosting the cake, and then added the sliced strawberries as a bonus garnish right before serving. They won't freeze well, so don't plan to store the cake with fresh sliced strawberries on top.

But with that said, adding sliced strawberries to the inside of the cake as part of the strawberry layer is delicious.

Tip for serving

Run your knife until hot water before you make each slice, wiping with a wet cloth between each slice. This will make cutting the cake much easier.

On an ice cream cake kick and want more?

Mini Ice Cream Cakes from Whitney Bond
Fruit and Cream Ice Cream Cake from Tara Teaspoon
Triple Layer Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream Cake from Half Baked Harvest
Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cake from The Recipe Rebel
Cookie and Cream Ice Cream Cake from The Little Epicurean

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