Caramel Popcorn Ice-Cream Cake | Top 7 Comfort desserts

Caramel Popcorn

Ice-cream Cake

Caramel popcorn and vanilla ice-cream taste great separately, but when merged with decadent chocolate fudge sauce on the top, they become totally irresistible! This is a stupendous comfort dessert that you are undoubtedly going to place on your Top 7 Comfort dessert list!

It is crucial to let the ice-cream cake freeze completely before you slice into it, so that it retains its shape for about 10-15 minutes before melting. The chocolate fudge sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge till needed.

Time: 5 hours

Yield: a 7-inch circular ice cream cake

Dessert

Ingredients

• 2 litres vanilla ice cream

For the caramel popcorn:

• 4 cups popped popcorn

• ¾ cup brown/dark brown sugar

• 1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

• ¼ tsp baking soda

• ½ cup butter

• ¼ cup golden syrup

For the chocolate fudge sauce

• ⅛ cup butter or margarine

• ½ cup milk

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

• ¾ cup sugar

• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• ¼ cup chocolate chips (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. To make the caramel popcorn, melt the butter over medium heat in a small-medium sized saucepan.

2. Add the sugar, salt and golden syrup to the saucepan and stir until it starts boiling.

3. Let the mixture boil for 4-5 minutes without stirring.

4. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add in the vanilla extract and baking soda whilst stirring. 

5. Carefully add the hot caramel to the popcorn, ensuring that the popcorn is as evenly coated as possible.

6. Soften half of the vanilla ice cream. Spoon it out into a 7-inch circular springform pan. Spread it out until it is even and the top is fairly smooth.
7. Add two cups of the caramel popcorn on top of the ice-cream layer, ensuring that it evenly distributed throughout the pan.
8. Freeze for 2 hours 30 minutes.
9. Remove the pan from the freezer and layer the remaining ice-cream on top of the caramel popcorn layer.
10. Add the remaining two cups of caramel popcorn on top of the ice cream layer and freeze for another 2 hours 30 minutes.
11. In the meantime, to prepare the chocolate fudge sauce, place the: sugar, water, milk and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and whisk until well combined.
12. Turn on the stove to medium-high heat and bring to a boil ,whisking after every 15 seconds or even continuously.
13. Add the butter and vanilla to the saucepan and continue boiling for about 3-5 minutes until the sauce thickens.
14. Turn off the heat and remove the saucepan from the stove.
15. Add the chocolate chips immediately if you want the sauce really sweet,though it already is sweet enough as it is. Stir until all the chocolate chips melt completely.Leave the sauce to cool.
16. When the freezing time for the ice-cream cake is up, remove the pan from the freezer and run a table knife around the sides of the pan before gently lifting off the rim of the springform pan.
17. After lifting off the rim, using a sharp knife, carefully slice the ice-cream cake and drizzle some of the fudge sauce over each slice. 
18. If the sauce is too thick to drizzle, just add about 1-2 tablespoons of milk and whisk in the pot and then it will become pourable.
19. The remaining ice-cream cake (if there is any) can be kept in the freezer for up to 48 hours.

Recipe notes: Dip the sharp knife into hot water before slicing
the cake. If it is very hard to slice, just let it sit for about 5-8
minutes after removing it from the fridge, then slice into it.