Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

My dear, sweet, loving husband was born on June 22nd.  That is today, in fact!  Happy Birthday Carson!!!  (He won't read this.)  Anyway.  If you are unfamiliar with June 22nd (weird thing to say), it is the day after the first day of summer.  It is often the last day of school for many.  And, AND, it happens to be VERY close to Father's Day.  One year, the two dates were actually one day apart.  Why am I writing things that are obvious?  Because I'm trying to justify my lack of enthusiasm for baking two cakes for two great occasions in such a short (busy) period of time.  

  That's why this year, I tried to combine things that I know Carson loves (mainly ice cream and the chocolate/peanut butter combo) in a dessert that was very easy to pull off.  Enter this ice cream cake: a mouth-watering crowd pleaser that anyone can throw together, and I mean ANYONE (especially if you have kids willing to unwrap all the peanut butter cups in exchange for one or two or five).   

It begins with an Oreo crust... yes, I said that.  One whole package of Oreos, crushed together, combined with melted butter and pressed into a cake pan.  Then, the ice cream.  Best part?  You can choose your favorite flavor, brand, make your own, etc.  I decided to layer my cake with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and a Vanilla Bean (this brand).  There is hot fudge and crushed peanut butter cups in between the two layers, more hot fudge on the top, and MORE crushed cups on top of that.  All that's really time consuming is letting your layers melt in between, but I think at the end of the day... we all have patience for that.  After all, ice cream cake is worth the wait.  As would my husband's birthday be if he could move it just... you know... a weeeee bit further away from Father's Day.   

Full cake recipe here.  (But again, modify it to your liking!)