Strawberry Sprinkle Squares!

So as part of a summer celebration my office held an ice cream party– Ben & Jerry’s dropped off several quarts of ice cream, with a bunch of different toppings in more quart containers… more toppings than anyone could reasonably expect to use. The question is, what to do with the leftover ice cream and sprinkles, especially when the ice cream has melted during the course of the party and re-frozen into an icy, un-scoopable block?

That’s where I come in. After a fruitless few minutes trying to chisel off a chunk of strawberry ice cream for my own consumption (sadly, the plastic spoons provided were not up to the task), I got permission to take things home and transform them into something the office could enjoy. What did I get? Over a pint of strawberry ice cream, plus almost another full quart of rainbow sprinkles… What to do?

Cake, of course.

A little online searching turned up a remarkable invention– cake made with melted ice cream. Apparently you just take a box of cake mix, add 3 eggs and 2 cups of melted ice cream, and you end up with something delicious. I decided to give it a shot, reserving some more of my ice cream to make a frosting to adhere more sprinkles. Did it work? Indeed it did, and I give you…

Strawberry Sprinkle Bars!

2 cups melted strawberry ice cream (make sure it’s the good stuff, no low-fat or cheap air-filled ice cream allowed)

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

2/3 cup rainbow sprinkles

Pink food coloring (optional)

Frosting:

1/2 cup melted strawberry ice cream

3-4 cups powdered sugar

More sprinkles

1. Beat eggs and melted ice cream together until smooth.

2. Add cake mix and beat on medium speed 2 minutes, until thick and creamy. Add food coloring to your preferred shade.

3. Gently stir in sprinkles. (don’t add them sooner or beat them with your mixer, they’ll bleed into your batter)

4. Spread into a parchment-lined 11×17″ pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes at 350 degrees F, until the center springs back when pressed gently. Cool completely.

5. Once cake has cooled, stir powdered sugar into melted ice cream until the frosting is of a spreadable consistency.

6. Spread frosting in a thin layer over the top of the cake and top with more sprinkles. Lots and lots of sprinkles!

Okay, so these didn’t taste all that much like strawberry in the end. I could’ve added some chopped strawberries (and I’m sure they would’ve been tasty) but that would’ve interfered with the awesome funfetti-like interior effect. I’ll bet that if I just keep calling them strawberry-flavored the pink food coloring will fool people…

Would I make these again? Probably not, since I prefer to eat my ice cream in ice cream form, rather than melted into cake batter. Plus, it’s cheaper to use oil and water than premium ice cream. But if I ever have leftover ice cream that’s not edible in its current state, I know what to do with it!