Turtle Ice Cream Cake

This homemade Turtle Ice Cream Cake is layered with an Oreo crust, chocolate and vanilla ice cream, including delicious toppings of turtle candies and pecans.

This is my mom’s all-time favorite dessert, or at least her favorite to enjoy on her birthday. For years she has requested an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen which we’d gladly oblige. However, about four years ago, I thought it shouldn’t be too hard to make my own.

And I’m so glad I tried! They have been a hit ever since, and my frugal side is also very happy.

And every since then, besides this Turtle Ice Cream Cake, I’ve made several different kinds. Check out some of the pictures of them later in this post.

Steps to Making this Turtle Ice Cream Cake

Cover the bottom of the springform with parchment paper with extra paper hanging outside of the pan.

Start by crushing about two rows of Oreos into finely chopped crumbs. You can either place them in a plastic sealed bag and use a rolling pin to crush them, or finely chop them in a food processor.

Next, combine the crushed Oreos (all except about 3/4 cup) with the melted butter.

Then press down the Oreo mix onto the bottom of the springform pan.

Optional: place the Oreo crust in a preheated oven at 350F for 5 minutes. I’ve made this cake with and without baking the crust first and both were well-liked. Baking the crust creates a much crispier texture.

Now, take your 1.5-quart ice cream container (can’t say a half gallon any longer due to shrinkflation!), and either wait patiently for an hour or two for it to soften, or use the ice cream soften feature in your microwave.

I’m very aware you may not have this feature (which is amazing BTW). If not, slowly defrost it until it’s very soft, so soft that it’s easily spreadable with a spatula.

Spread the ice cream on top of the Oreo crust.

Sprinkle the remaining Oreo crumbs on top of the softened ice cream. Cover the springform pan with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for at least 1 hour, or until it’s completely frozen again.

Remove the second ice cream container and soften it. Then place it on top of the Oreo crumbs and place it back in the freezer for at least another hour.

Now is the fun part. Feel free to decorate as you’d like. I typically top my Turtle Ice Cream Cake with Turtle chocolates, hot fudge and caramel topping, and whipped topping.

The best part about these ice cream cakes is they are so versatile you can use any combo of ice cream and toppings and they turn out amazing.

Helpful Hints

Before serving, remove the cake from your freezer for about 10 minutes. This will make it easier to remove the outer part of the springform pan.

Then, carefully remove the cake from the bottom of the pan. This only works if you place parchment paper down first. If you didn’t, no big deal, just serve it on the bottom part of the springfoam pan.

When re-freezing the ice cream layers, I place the entire pan on a 7 x 11-inch rimmed baking pan. This helps you easily carry it to and from the freezer, and also keeps ice cream from dripping all over your freezer!

Other Fun Ice Cream Cakes I’ve Made

Oreo Ice Cream Cake

This one is probably the first variation I made, requested by my oldest (10 years old at the time). It included chocolate ice cream, a layer of crushed Oreos and Cookies and Cream ice cream.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Cake

This request was definitely my favorite since my all-time favorite candy is Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cake

This one was quite a tricky request. However, mission accepted 🙂 For my oldest son’s 14th birthday, he wanted this challenging layered cake including a huge chocolate chip cookie plus an ice cream layer.

I layered it with the ice cream on the bottom since I didn’t want to put the cookie in the freezer — it would have been hard as a rock! It turned out well, but still a bit tricky to cut.

If you’re thinking this looks too complicated, I promise once you do it one time, it’s a breeze after that!