Make This Kid-Friendly Ice Cream Cake for an End-of-Summer Celebration

If, despite the recent resurgance of pumpkin spice lattes, you're not quite ready for summer to end, it's time to soak up every last minute of warm-weather food you can. And that means ice cream cake. If you've only ever eaten store-bought ice cream cake, we're here to tell you that making your own is not only easy, but a fun, family-friendly activity to pass the time on a lazy Saturday.

This Sugar Wafer Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake is made with nostalgic wafer cookies, ice cream and finished off with whipped cream and sprinkles. And the best unexpected part? It's vertical. Yup, instead of emulating a classic layer cake with horizontal stripes, this one slices up with vertical layers that will have your kids asking, "Hey, how'd you do that?"

Let Ali Clarke lead you through all the steps in the class for this recipe on the Food Network Kitchen app. The key to a successful build is using softened ice cream that you can spread with an offset spatula. You'll be able to spread it around the cake pan you'll use as a mold. Ali will also show you how to properly layer the wafer cookies to ensure they stay put and hold their shape when you're finally ready to slice through the cake. This step is great for kids to help out with since it's a lot of layering and repetition.

If you're not sold on this exact flavor combination or shape for this ice cream cake, Ali's got some great suggestions for making an ice cream cake using similar ingredients in a loaf pan, cookie swaps and even other ice cream flavors. The possibilities are really endless here. Cater the recipe to your family's preferences or let your kiddos take the reigns. No matter what, an ice cream and cookie combination is always delicious!

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