Ice cream cakes can be a cold slice of heaven on a hot summer day. They are a great way to cool off when the heat hits. They are outrageously delicious, decadent, and the creative possibilities are endless.

We’ve rounded up the best ice cream cakes that will cool you down and please your senses. Homemade ice cream cakes are perfect for summer birthdays, cookouts, pool days, and even the holidays. 

These aren’t just delicious desserts; they are eye-catching presentations and amazing cakes. You can skip the cone or bowl and cool off with a slice of the best ice cream cakes around.  

1. Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

This homemade ice cream cake is a chocolate lover’s dream. The secret is the leftover cake gets mixed into the chocolate ice cream. Layers of wonderfully delicious chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, and a homemade whipped chocolate topping create a pleasurable bite every time. It’s a decadent, delectable treat especially good on a hot summer day.

2. Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Cake

This is a no-bake cake that will knock your socks off. It’s fresh, fruity, and makes a show-stopping dessert. Vanilla cookies are crushed to make the crust and topped with strawberry shortcake ice cream.

The icing on the cake (pun intended) is the homemade strawberry sauce. It’s a sweet, fresh, and favorite dessert that everyone loves. 

3. Banana Pudding Ice Cream Cake

If you love bananas then you’ll go crazy over this banana pudding ice cream cake. It has layers of moist vanilla cake, smooth banana pudding ice cream, crunchy vanilla wafers, and slices of banana. It’s topped with a whipped cream frosting and garnished with vanilla wafers and banana chips. It’s a refreshing treat so good that you’ll go bananas for it. 

4. Easy Ice Cream Cake

Easy, rich, decadent, and delicious is what this ice cream cake is. This is the kind of dessert dreams are made of. Fudgy brownies are on the bottom and topped with hot fudge and crushed Oreos. Once frozen, it’s topped with ice cream and then a caramel sauce. Everyone gobbles this up and it’s the perfect dessert for a hot summer day indulgence. 

5. Copycat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake

This copycat Dairy Queen ice cream cake hits all the right notes. With layers of ice cream, hot fudge, cookies, and whipped topping, no one will know you didn’t get it from Dairy Queen. It has a tasteful balance of chocolate and vanilla and is a frozen delight fit for any celebration. Note…feel free to use your favorite ice cream flavor for this cake.

6. Mint Chip Ice Cream Brownie Cake Squares

This layered cake is a decadent dessert that is the perfect treat for a hot summer day. Fudgy, chocolate brownies are the base for this cake. It’s topped with mint chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. Mint chocolate is a refreshing alternative to regular chocolate. The mint adds a freshness and helps cut the richness of the chocolate. It’s a tasty, fun, lovable ice cream cake. 

7. Brownie Ice Cream Cake

If you love brownies, you’ll love this ice cream cake. Ooey-gooey, fudgy brownies are the base layer and are topped with vanilla ice cream. What elevates brownies and vanilla ice cream? Hot fudge sauce, that’s what. Hot fudge and whipped cream top this magnificent ice cream cake.

8. Raspberry Ice Cream Cake

This homemade ice cream cake is a wonderfully balanced sweet, fresh, and rich dessert. The bright, sweet flavors of the raspberries, the rich chocolatey fudge, and the smooth vanilla make a heavenly combination.  Perfect for a hot summer day, it’s a frozen delight.

9. Coffee Ice Cream Cake

Coffee lovers will jump for joy at this delicious ice cream cake. It has a chocolate brownie crust, layers of ice cream including coffee and vanilla flavors, and hot fudge. What’s not to love? It all comes together to create the ultimate dessert. 

10. Mud Pie Ice Cream Cake

Of all the homemade ice cream cakes you can make, this is by far the most famous. It graces many restaurant dessert menus and for good reason. It is outrageously good. It has an infamous Oreo cookie crust, layers of ice cream, hot fudge, peanut butter cups, and a decadent chocolate ganache to top it off. It’s especially good on a hot summer day but this gets eaten year-round at our house. 

11. Buster Bar Ice Cream Cake

The infamous Dairy Queen buster bar is an easy homemade ice cream cake you can make ahead of time. It only takes 5 ingredients to make this recipe and it’s always a party favorite. It has a chocolate graham cracker crust, hot fudge, vanilla ice cream, peanuts, and more chocolate sauce. It’s a tasty, lovely dessert everyone enjoys. 

12. Rainbow Sherbet Cake

This is a fun, colorful ice cream cake. It’s perfect for a treat on hot summer days, kid’s birthday parties, or any special occasion you fancy a dessert. It’s an easy recipe that includes layers of lime, orange, and raspberry sherbet that top pound cake. Tart, tangy, sweet, and delicious, it is a palate-pleasing, refreshing dessert. 

13. Oreo Ice Cream Cake

This homemade ice cream cake is an Oreo cookie lover’s dream. It’s a no-bake dessert that only takes 5 simple ingredients. It has a yummy Oreo cookie crust, tasty cookies and cream ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream. Topped with more Oreo cookies, it’s one of those desserts that gets requested time and time again. 

14. Ice Cream Poke Cake

Ice cream poke cake is a fun alternative to a layered ice cream cake. Once the cake is baked, poke holes in it and pour your favorite soft, melted ice cream over it. This adds a nice ooey-gooeyness to the cake when it’s time to devour it. The cake is topped with chocolate and caramel sauces, sprinkles, and cherries for a fabulous party cake perfect for potlucks and cookouts. 

15. Fried Ice Cream Cake

Enjoy the fun, crunchy flavors of fried ice cream without the hassle of frying! This homemade ice cream cake is a fun alternative, using cornflakes to create the crunchy “fried” ice cream. The cornflakes are mixed with butter and sugar and bookend the ice cream mixture in a cake pan. It’s a delicious, crunchy, kid-friendly and approved treat that is arguably better than your local restaurant.

16. Snickers Ice Cream Cake

Hold onto your hats, this homemade ice cream cake will blow you away. It has layers of creamy chocolate cookie crust with vanilla ice cream sandwiches, rich, salty layers of hot fudge, caramel, peanuts, and chopped-up snickers bars. This is one of those desserts you can’t stop eating. It gives you the eye-closing and sigh it’s-so-darn-good feeling. 

17. Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake

A Neapolitan ice cream cake is exactly what a hot summer day needs. With layers of cold, creamy ice cream topped with Oreo cookies, cool whip, hot fudge, strawberries, and sprinkles, what’s not to love? The tasty blend of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream adds to the fresh, flavorful blend of fruity and fudgy flavors to this frozen cake. A perfect cold treat after a pool day. 

18. Baked Alaska

A quality baked Alaska isn’t as hard to make as you may think. It is its own unique ice cream cake with palate-pleasing textures and sweet flavors. It has a wonderful layer of ice cream with 3 different flavors of your choice. Pound cake is the base and the traditional meringue goes on top. This is a show-stopping inviting dessert that is always a crowd-pleaser. 

19. Banana Split Ice Cream Cake

If you or your kids love banana splits, then you must try this banana split ice cream cake. All the traditional ingredients and then some create a glorious dessert. It has an Oreo cookie crust, bananas, layers of creamy ice cream, hot fudge, and whipped cream.

Of course, it’s topped with cherries. Skip the individual banana splits and make this cake for your next kid-friendly party, cookout, or a cold treat on a hot summer day. 

20. S’mores Ice Cream Cake

Love s’mores but can’t always get around a campfire to make them? Now you can skip the fire and make this indulgent s’mores homemade ice cream cake instead. This summertime favorite has layers of all the s’mores goodness. A crunchy crust, chocolate ice cream, chocolate chunks, and mini marshmallows mixed with a whipped topping. It’s so good, everyone will be asking for s’more! 

21. Fruity Pebble Ice Cream Cake

This unique, fun, colorful, and extremely delicious homemade ice cream cake combines breakfast and dessert into an out-of-this-world treat. Fruity pebbles are dipped in white chocolate then mixed into vanilla ice cream cake and also top the ice cream. It’s a little sweet, a little fruity, and a lot of goodness. 

22. Biscoff Crunch Ice Cream Cake

Be prepared for your next dessert obsession with this homemade ice cream cake. It only takes 3 simple ingredients to create this masterpiece. Biscoff is a creamy cookie butter that has a lovely, sweet cinnamon flavor. The biscoff is mixed with Rice Krispies and then mixed into vanilla ice cream. It also serves as the topping creating a creamy, crunchy, heavenly dessert. 

23. Ice Cream Cake Roll

An ice cream cake roll is an eye-catching dessert that looks great and tastes even better. Chocolate cake is rolled and filled with your favorite ice cream and frozen. When ready to serve, you can top with fresh fruit, drizzle caramel or chocolate sauce, or anything your culinary heart desires. To serve, slice for individual, beautiful presentations that are also mouthwatering delicious. 

24. Reese’s Ice Cream Cake

Now you can easily make your own homemade ice cream cake with this indulgent, rich, and decadent treat. This sublime dessert has ice cream sandwiches and then the top of the cake is covered in hot chocolate fudge, cool whip, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and Reese’s mini candies, all topped with chocolate syrup. It’s a Reese’s peanut butter cup lover’s dessert dream. 

25. Butter Pecan Ice Cream Cake

While we tend to think of ice cream cakes as the perfect treat on a hot summer day, they’re also great for the holidays. This butter pecan homemade ice cream cake is an impressive dessert to grace your holiday dessert table. It has a gingersnap cookie crust, layers of vanilla ice cream, toffee bits, and candied butter pecans. Serve with caramel sauce and whip cream for an amazing, delicious dessert. 

More delicious cake recipes

• 20 Mini Cupcake Recipes
• Chocolate sheet cake
• Holiday Jello cake
• Coffee cake

Did you make one of these custom cakes? Be sure to let me know.