8 vanilla ice cream cake recipes

Caramel-pecan cake made with buttermilk chocolate batter, folded egg whites for lift, and a gooey caramel-chocolate chip topping baked right on top.

Chocolate waffles with ice cream, crisp on the outside and tender inside thanks to buttermilk and folded egg whites. Cocoa-rich batter with optional pecans, finished with a scoop of melting vanilla.

Black Forest ice cream cake: two layers of moist chocolate-coffee cake sandwich a slab of vanilla ice cream, frosted with whipped cream and crowned with cherry pie filling. A frozen showstopper.

Date pudding cake with chopped dates and nuts in a light egg batter with barely any flour. Dense, sticky, and caramel-sweet, served warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Giant banana oat cookies studded with chocolate chips, served sundae-style with a scoop of ice cream on top. Soft, chewy, and big enough to use as a dessert plate.

Cowboy cookies (hundred cookies) loaded with crisp rice cereal, oats, coconut, and nuts in a chewy brown sugar dough. The classic everything-cookie that bakes 100 to a batch for cookie tin gifting.

Citrus poppy seed cake with orange and lemon zest topped with vanilla cream cheese icing. Made from a homemade cake mix that stores for months.

Soft iced pumpkin cookies with cinnamon, nutmeg, walnuts, and raisins topped with a vanilla cream icing. Cake-like fall cookies that smell like autumn in every bite.