These Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches are a fun and festive dessert to celebrate a summertime birthday! Soft and light vanilla sponge cake filled with confetti-studded vanilla ice cream is sure to make any kid or kid-at-heart happy!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
What is birthday cake flavor?
Birthday cake "flavor" is commonly understood to be a rich vanilla (either white or yellow cake) with rainbow sprinkles.
According to this article, its history is rooted in the post World War II era when boxed cake mixes and artificial flavoring and coloring were produced en masse.
It has a distinct sweet vanilla smell and imitative custardy flavor due to the artificial flavoring, which can get a bad rap.
Why you'll love this recipe
This easy dessert recipe is adapted from my Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches recipe.
The Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches are easy to make and I've streamlined the process to make assembly a breeze.
The cake is soft, spongy and light even after being frozen.
Using jimmies (rainbow sprinkles) ensures that the colours don't bleed as much as other sprinkles.
The ice cream sandwiches are not too sweet and have that aromatic, classic vanilla flavor.
Skip all the boxed cake, artificial flavors and make it from scratch!
What are sprinkles made of?
Sprinkles are typically contain corn syrup, sugar, cornstarch, artificial colouring and wax.
Choosing sprinkles
There are many different types of sprinkles:
- jimmies: colorful, thin, cylindrical rods that hold up well in baking
- quins: thin round flat sprinkles; great for decorating but not so good in baked recipes
- nonpareils: tiny round spheres that are great for decorating on baked goods but not good in baked recipes as they tend to bleed a lot
Jimmies are the perfect sprinkles for these Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches as they will hold their color in the ice cream and in the cake.
Ingredients you'll need
- 1 batch of Perfect Swiss Roll Cake: baked in an 13" by 18" tray; and only use 50g granulated sugar total
- confetti sprinkles: jimmies, which are colorful thin cylindrical rods
- vanilla ice cream (from Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches post): with the addition of confetti sprinkles
How to make the birthday cake ice cream sandwiches
Prepare the confetti birthday cake
Make the Perfect Swiss Roll Cake according to the recipe instructions (note: only use 50g granulated sugar total) and fold in 2 tablespoon of rainbow confetti sprinkles into the cake batter prior to baking. (Steps 1-3 below).
Transfer the cake batter to a 13" by 18" prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper and smooth the surface with an offset spatula.
Tap the pan a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.
Bake the cake for 8-10 minutes at 375F, or until the top of the cake is dry and springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack (Step 4 below).
Make the confetti/birthday cake ice cream
Make the vanilla ice cream according to the Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches recipe.
Add/stir in 2 tablespoon of confetti sprinkles into the ice cream in the last few minutes of churning.
Transfer the churned ice cream to a 9" by 13" baking tray lined with parchment paper and use an offset spatula to smooth out the surface.
Freeze the ice cream for at least 6-8 hours, or until frozen solid.
Assemble
Flip the cake upside down so that the parchment layer is on top.
Gently peel off the parchment paper from the cake.
Cut the cake in half width-wise, so you end up with 2 x 9" by 13" cakes.
Place one half of the cake with the browned side facing up onto a piece of parchment paper in a 9" by 13" baking tray or pan (Step 5 below).
Add the slab of frozen confetti birthday cake ice cream onto the cake (Step 6 below).
Layer the second half of the cake with the browned side facing down on top of the ice cream (Step 7 below).
Cover with a lid/plastic wrap and freeze until firm (Step 8 below).
When ready to serve, trim off the edges using a clean, sharp serrated knife and slice into bars or squares to your liking (Step 9 below).
How to store
Keep the Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches individually wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Expert tips
Chill the baking tray/dish and spatula in the freezer for 10-15 minutes prior to transferring the ice cream to prevent the ice cream from melting too quickly.
You can increase the amount of confetti sprinkles in the vanilla cake batter as well as the ice cream, to your liking.
Transform it into an ice cream sandwich cake/ice cream cake by alternating layers of the cake and ice cream.
For circular shapes, use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds.
Enjoy the trimmings as a chef's snack. 😉
Substitutions
You can use any homemade or store-bought ice cream that you like for the filling.
Try Creamy Vanilla Ice Milk, whipped cream, or whipped topping (eg. Cool Whip) as an alternative to ice cream.
For a cookie alternative, add colorful confetti sprinkles to your favourite cookie dough recipe, bake them up and sandwich the cookies with the ice cream.
Other ice cream/cake dessert recipes you may like
Be sure to check out these recipes:
Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream (No-Churn)
Let me know if you try this recipe -- tag me on Instagram @siftandsimmer or leave me a comment/rating below!
Birthday Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches
For accuracy and precision in baking recipes, use weight (metric) measurements when available.
Ingredients
- 1 batch Perfect Swiss Roll Cake baked in an 13" by 18" tray; only use 50g granulated sugar total
- 2-4 tablespoon confetti sprinkles (jimmies) for the cake as well as ice cream
- 2 L vanilla ice cream (from Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches recipe) with the addition of confetti sprinkles or birthday cake ice cream
Instructions
For key visual steps, refer to the body of the post.
Prepare the confetti birthday cake:
- Make the Perfect Swiss Roll Cake according to the recipe instructions (note: only use 50g granulated sugar total) and fold in 2 tablespoon of rainbow confetti sprinkles into the cake batter prior to baking.
- Transfer the cake batter to a 13" by 18" prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper and smooth the surface with an offset spatula.
- Tap the pan a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.
- Bake the cake for 8-10 minutes at 375°F/191°C, or until the top of the cake is dry and springy to the touch.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the confetti/birthday cake ice cream:
- Make the vanilla ice cream according to the Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches recipe.
- Add/stir in 2 tablespoon of confetti sprinkles into the ice cream in the last few minutes of churning.
- Transfer the churned ice cream to a 9" by 13" baking tray lined with parchment paper and use an offset spatula to smooth out the surface.
- Freeze the ice cream for at least 6-8 hours, or until frozen solid.
Assemble:
- Flip the cake upside down so that the parchment layer is on top.
- Gently peel off the parchment paper from the cake.
- Cut the cake in half width-wise, so you end up with 2 x 9" by 13" cakes.
- Place one half of the cake with the browned side facing up onto a piece of parchment paper in a 9" by 13" baking tray or pan.
- Add the slab of frozen confetti birthday cake ice cream onto the cake.
- Layer the second half of the cake with the browned side facing down on top of the ice cream.
- Cover with a lid/plastic wrap and freeze until firm.
- When ready to serve, trim off the edges using a clean, sharp serrated knife and slice into bars or squares to your liking.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided should be considered as approximate and is not guaranteed. Please use your best judgment to ensure food is safely prepared and/or a good fit for your diet.
Ben | Havocinthekitchen
I'm not too much into a Birthday cake flavour, but I would definitely have a couple of these ice cream sandwiches. They look wonderful!
2pots2cook
Very, very attractive and very neat. Love it !
David @ Spiced
What a fun idea! I do enjoy birthday cake flavored things...including actual birthday cake! My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I'm thinking I should celebrate with a batch of these ice cream sammiches! Great idea!
Heidi | The Frugal Girls
What a delicious idea! These turned out SO pretty with the sprinkles, and are the perfect Summertime treat to cool down on these warm evenings! 🙂
Tasia ~ two sugar bugs
I love how you paired these ice cream sandwiches with Swiss roll cake and sprinkles! Very festive and fun and with my birthday on the horizon, they might make their way to my freezer!
Raymund | angsarap.net
Lovin this one, three ingredient and all store brought, this can be a savour when youre in a lazy mode but want something special