Birthday Ice Cream Brownie Cake

My sweet husband had a birthday recently, and his one request was brownies. No cake. Just brownies. I asked him if I could fancy up the brownies a bit. He said I could put stuff on top of it, but as for the brownies, he just wanted the normal Betty Crocker brownies--nothing extra in it.

I held true to his request and began by baking 2 6" square brownies from the Betty Crocker mix. Then the fun began...

My inspiration was brownie sundaes and banana splits, so I began by layering sliced bananas on top of one of the brownies, then drizzling fudge and caramel over that. If you want a super easy way to drizzle those 2 things evenly, then all you need to do is put some in a ziplock baggie, snip the tip off, and squeeze. It even works with room temp fudge sauce.

I had also frozen a 6" square block of vanilla ice cream. Make sure you freeze it really well. My first attempt was kind of a disaster and I layered the ice cream on the brownie when it was still slightly soft. Even putting it directly back into the freezer for awhile, it was a soupy mess when I came back, so I had to start all over.

The ice cream needs caramel and fudge too! Time for more drizzling.

Then I just stuck the 2nd brownie layer on top. Now for some decorating, I decided to line the whole thing with kit kats--one of my husband's favorite candy bars. It made it look kind of like a basket. Simple but fun. You can use some fudge sauce as the glue to hold them on.

Then I just filled in the top with some reddi-whip and more fudge and caramel. Here you can fancy it up even more with nuts, sprinkles, cherries, etc. I just know my husband doesn't like any of that, so we kept it more simple (but can't you imagine how cute it would be if you used maraschino cherries as candle holders? Way cute).

Well, it was a success. As you can tell, my husband, as well as my daughter, liked it a lot. They dug right in before I could stop them.

In retrospect, I would change one thing, and leave out the bananas. I just wasn't too fond of them in there. I guess that brownies sundaes and banana splits don't totally go together for my palate, but maybe you would like it. Hmmm...maybe I would also use mint chocolate chip ice cream instead of vanilla...or cookies n' cream...okay I'd better stop--I'm starting to crave ice cream, and this pregnant woman probably doesn't need anymore ice cream.