“Better Than Carvel” Homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Ice Cream Cake

July 13, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 182 Comments

You don’t need to forgo your favorite ice cream cake any longer! A “Better Than Carvel” Homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Ice Cream Cake no-bake recipe will take you back to those sweet & celebratory memories with your favorite dessert!

O my…are you ready for this one? Take a deep breath and clear some space in your freezer. We are ~~baking~~ freezing a cake today! As you know, summer calls for all things ice cream and cake just makes us all happy, so ice cream cake it is!

Ice cream cake has always had a special place in my families celebrations. Namely, the iconic Carvel ice cream cake with the lovely chocolate ice cream, layer of chocolate crunchies, vanilla ice cream, and then that frosting! Those cakes were simply glorious, I mean, the idea of an ice cream cake (a 2-in-1 dessert) was more than genius!

Carvel ice cream cake was loved by everyone in my family, but my brother the most. He HAD to have it for his birthday every year, it was his ultimate favorite. I don’t blame him; Carvel just KNOWS good ice cream…and cake! We would usually buy these cakes at the local grocery store and I remember us always forgetting to let it sit on the counter for awhile before we lite candles or tried to cut it! Those bad boys FREEZE!

Besides the ice cream cake, there was an actual Carvel shop down the street from where my grandparents live. I remember a few times when I was super young, walking down there to get a cup of lovely chocolate vanilla twist ice cream with rainbow sprinkles! This might be weird, but I LOVED the smell of those ice cream shop (I think it’s any ice cream shop), but that frozen sweet smell was just glorious! I think you can tell that I’ve missed that ice cream and those ice cream cakes! But, I always find a way to fix those problems and bring back the old favorites!

And it just so happens that the lovely Alisa of Go Dairy Free and So Delicious are throwing the “Coolest Creamiest Dairy-Free Recipe Contest” this month with 21 fabulous bloggers (including yours truly!) We were tasked to create a creamy, dreamy, dairy-free treat using either So Delicious coconut frozen dessert or cashew frozen dessert products. You can all follow along by using the hashtag #RaiseAPint on Instagram and Twitter, while also “voting” by sharing your favorite recipes! They will then test out the recipes themselves and choose the final winner in August. This is basically a virtual ice cream party!

Along with the contest, you can join in the #RaiseAPint Event, which runs from July 11th to August 5th. During this time, So Delicious will award 20 entries with an ice cream party prize pack! Simply share your “moment” on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and be sure to use #RaiseAPint! Here are the full details!

To make my ice cream cake “better than Carvel’s”, I used a simple raw oat and cocoa base, then chocolate cashew ice cream, next the vanilla cashew ice cream, frosted with cocowhip, and some sprinkles and cookie crumbles to top it off and make it look pretty! I decided to put the homemade “chocolate crunchies” as the bottom base to make things easier for slicing and serving, but other than that, this cake is the homemade twin of the classic. Well, homemade, gluten-free, vegan, soy-free…i.e. Rebecca-friendly and “better than”!

“Better Than Carvel” Homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Ice Cream Cake