Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice-Cream Cake

What I love most about this ice cream cake is that it's a celebratory marriage of seasons. Summer ends today, and fall begins tomorrow, so the timing is perfect. Here, summer's cool treat, ice cream, comes together with a couple of the spiced, warming favorites of fall: pumpkin and gingersnap.

Thin layers of cozy pumpkin bread and gingersnap cookies are enveloped by a brightly flavored lemon-gingersnap ice cream. This cake is simple, yet impressive. I do use specific brand ingredients in this recipe, but please feel free to use the technique of making this ice cream cake in order to make your own cake using brands and flavors of your choosing.

Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice-Cream Cake: makes one bread-loaf sized cake, with more pumpkin bread leftover if you desire to make a second cake. I use Trader Joe's brand pumpkin bread because it is the only boxed pumpkin bread I have found with a rich, molasses flavor and intense-enough spices to resemble homemade. To save calories and fat, swap the oil in the box recipe for apple sauce, in a 1:1 ratio.

Ingredients:

1 loaf Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread, baked according to box directions and cooled completely

1/2 gallon container of Trader Joe's Lemon Gingersnap Ice Cream

1 box Anna's Cookies Ginger Thins or other gingersnap cookies (you will have cookies leftover)

Directions:

Place the ice cream in the refrigerator to soften, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare to assemble your cake.

Using a serrated knife, gently and slowly cut the pumpkin bread in half (working from the side, not the top of the cake). Use a back and forth motion around the perimeter of the bread until you reach the middle, then carefully lift your layers apart. You will have two bread pieces: one is the bread's top half, the other is the bottom half. Use the same method of to cut each bread half into into approximately 1/2 inch thick layers. Set these layers aside.

Line your bread pan with enough plastic wrap to overhang on all sides. Place your bottom pumpkin bread layer into the bottom of the pan. Top with ice cream and gently smooth with a spatula or press with a meat mallet. Layer gingersnap cookies on top of the ice cream and press gently. Repeat method of spreading ice cream on top of the gingersnaps. Top with your next layer of pumpkin bread, and repeat the steps, ending with a layer of pumpkin bread once you reach the top of your pan. Cover completely with plastic wrap and place in the freezer.

Once it has frozen 2-6 hours, lift the cake out of the pan. You can store the cake completely wrapped in the freezer until you are ready to serve. When ready to serve, allow to sit in fridge for 30 minutes. This allows for better flavor. Remove cake from fridge, unwrap the plastic wrap, and slice 1-inch thick slices of cake. Serve with a cookie stuck in the top of each slice.