So, I love baking cakes and I love making (Dairy Free) ice cream. However, I never mixed the two, until now!
Growing up, my sister and I would get ice cream cakes for our birthdays. They’re so good! Making one myself, though, has always daunted me. And now that I’m gluten, dairy, egg, (and so forth) free, the project has seemed insurmountable.
Finally, I rounded up the courage to bring back the birthday tradition, and this year my sister and I got to enjoy this delightful pumpkin ice cream cake. Hurrah!
Here’s the deal. I’d recommend baking and freezing the cake part two days ahead of your special occasion, and making and freezing the ice cream a day ahead of serving so it can have time to be assembled and frozen to perfection.
I baked my two cake layers in two 9×9 cake pans. Fortunately, I also have a 9×9 vintage Tupperware container, so when the cake layers were good and frozen, I lined it with parchment paper, laid out the first cake layer, poured on most of the ice cream (I found that the whole batch was too much…plus I wanted some for a later treat) straight from the ice cream maker, and topped it with the other cake square. After spending some quality time in the freezer, it was good to go!
Alternately, you could freeze the ice cream overnight in a lined square pan (or container that isn’t glass) so that when you’re ready to assemble, all you need to do is plop it out!
Before serving, let sit out about 10 min depending on your room temp.
The kitchen must haves (affiliated link alert! I may get financial kickbacks from clicks and purchases):
Ice Cream Maker! Mr. C and I got this one soon after we were married. We have no complaints and love how easy it is to use. Perfect.
Square cake pans! Fabulous wedding gifts, or at least I think so. The more pans, the more layers! Did you know that the world record for most cake layers is 255 for a cake made in honor of Canada’s 144th birthday? So inspiring.
Homemade Pumpkin Puree! Once you’ve started making your own, you won’t want to go back to the expensive canned stuff.

Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 45 minutes |
Servings |
loaf
|
- 4 TBSP flax meal
- 10 TBSP water
- 1.5 cups coconut flour
- 1 TBSP arrowroot powder or another flax egg
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 TBSP cinnamon or allspice if you are intolerant
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or mix and match nutmeg, ginger, cloves and allspice
- 3 cups pumpkin puree or 2 cans
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted (or melted butter)
Ingredients
Flax Eggs
Dry Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
|
![]() |
- Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC
- Mix flax meal and water together and store for a few minutes in the fridge
- Mix the dry ingredients together
- add wet ingredients plus flax eggs to dry ingredients
- Pour into lined loaf pan for pumpkin bread or alternately into 2 lined 8x8 or 2 9x9 cake pans for layered cake.
- Bake 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
- Let cool 10 minutes in the pan(s) before transferring to cooling rack(s)
- Though you can enjoy the bread while it is still fresh, I'd recommend firming it up in the refrigerator first.
- If you are making an ice cream cake, freeze the cakes on a flat surface separated by parchment paper overnight
Hey groovy foodies! Lots of us are sensitive to traditional pumpkin spices, but that just means we get to let our creativity shine. I'm currently eliminating cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves (my doctor gave me the sensitivity report like right before Thanksgiving...I mean, couldn't I have been told AFTER pumpkin pie season?), so I just did 1/2 TBSP of allspice and 1 tsp of ginger and called it a day #totallynotpicky. Gotta do whatcha gotta do!

Prep Time | 1 minute |
Cook Time | 25 minutes |
Passive Time | 2 hours in fridge |
Servings |
1/2 C servings
|
- 2 cans coconut milk full fat
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 TBSP vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp allspice (or cinnamon if you prefer)
Ingredients
|
![]() |
- Mix everything together in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for up to 2 hours. Careful that the coconut cream doesn't separate!
- Then add the mixture to your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.
- Serve and enjoy!
- If it needs to firm up or if by some slim chance you have leftovers, pour into a plastic, freezer-safe container (these freeze better than glass which takes longer to chill) before freezing.
If your coconut milk separates, you can warm your mixture up on the stove, then cool to room temp before chilling it again in the refrigerator.
Also, here's an affiliated link to the exact ice cream maker I use!