This Elsa Cake is a really easy birthday cake to make, It’s an ice cream cake so it can easily be made in advance and you don’t even have to bake! Your little Frozen fan will adore it!
Why this recipe works
- You can make it in advance which takes the pressure off on the day. The ice cream cake can be made up to 1 month in advance, the cake can be frosted/decorated 2-3 days in advance
- No baking needed this is an ice cream cake, so you don’t need to bake anything at all, it’s more a case of putting everything together
- It looks impressive and will make any Frozen Fan’s day, but it actually is not tricky at all!
Watch how to make this cake
The ingredients you will need
This is a very simple cake you just need: vanilla ice cream, mini marshmallows, an Elsa doll, and quite a bit of buttercream.
- The Elsa doll you should be able to pick up at any toy store.
- I include a buttercream recipe in the recipe card below
- I only required 1 x blue food colouring to make up the three colours of buttercream I used to frost the Elsa dress. I used the blue colouring to create 2 tones of blue and left some of the buttercream uncoloured
Step by step instructions
The ice cream cake
You can make the ice cream cake well in advance of your little ones frozen birthday party, this will take off quite a bit of pressure on the day
- Soften the vanilla ice cream then stir through the mini marshmallows (photos 1 & 2)
- Line a medium-large mixing bowl with cling film, press your ice cream into the bowl, and use the cling film to ensure all the ice cream is covered to prevent freezer burn (photos 3 & 4)
- Freeze until hard (overnight or longer is perfect)
- While your cake is freezing you can prepare your coloured buttercream. I used 3 colours to frost the Elsa Cake dress: light and dark turquoise and white.
- When frozen, and you are ready to ice the cake. Remove the cake from the freezer.
- Unwrap the top of the cling wrap, tip the cake out from the bowl onto the plate or platter you plan to serve the cake from, and then remove the remaining cling film
Frozen Cake Topper
Making this Elsa Cake topper is super easy, although you do need to dismantle an Elsa Doll to do it.
- Remove the legs from an Elsa Doll (photos 7 & 8)
- Use a spoon to dig a well into the top of your ice cream cake and press the torso of the Elsa Doll into the centre of the well (photos 9 & 10)
Decorate the cake
Frosting the cake is not difficult but does take quite some time. You can pop the cake in and out of the freezer as you need to. Buttercream freezes quite well so you can also ice the cake in advance. I would only do this a few days in advance of the party as the butter cream may pick up the smells in your freezer if left longer.
- Use piping bags with an 8 point star tip to decorate the cake. I used 3 piping bags for my 3 colours of buttercream (photos 5 & 11)
- Work your way around and down the cake starting at the base of the doll so that the entire dress is covered in frosting (photos 12 & 13)
- Alternate the colours you use
- Ice the bodice of the doll last
Frequently asked questions
Absolutely, you can make the ice cream cake up to 1 month in advance, and you can decorate and frost the cake up to 3 days in advance
You can use any piping icing/frosting to decorate the dress. In fact even coloured whipped cream works well
No, you can skip the marshmallows entirely or swap for any candy your child enjoys.
I used an 8 point star tip, but a 6 point or 10 point star tip will work just as well
You could use the instructions for making the Elsa Cake topper and the decorating techniques I describe to turn any type of cake into a frozen themed Elsa Cake.
Handy Tips
- Take the decorated cake out of the freezer around 1 hr before you plan on serving it, if it has been freezing for a few days it can be rock solid and hard to cut
- If you need to stop frosting the cake partway through, no problems, just pop the part done cake in the freezer and store the buttercream in the fridge until you are ready to continue
- A lazy Susan is your friend when it comes to decorating a cake like this. Place the cake and serving plate on top of the lazy Susan and then it’s easy to turn the cake around to reach all the parts that need frosting.
Other easy birthday cakes for kids
- PJ Masks Fans – PJ Masks Birthday Cake
- First Birthday – Baby’s first birthday cake
- Paw Patrol Fans – Rubble construction cake
- Mermaid Fans – Mermaid Cake
If you made my Elsa Cake or any other recipes on the blog please be sure to leave me a comment and a star rating below to let me know how you got on, I love hearing from you. You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.
Elsa Cake
An easy Elsa Cake just perfect for a frozen themed birthday party
Ingredients
Ice cream cake
- 4 litres vanilla ice cream
- 150 g mini marshmallows
Buttercream
- 375g butter
- 4.5 cups icing sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 6 Tablespoons milk
- Blue food colouring
Other
- Elsa Doll
Instructions
Ice cream cake
- Leave the ice cream on the bench to soften
- Line a medium mixing bowl with plastic cling wrap
- In a second larger mixing bowl combine the softened ice cream with the marshmallows
- Scoop the Ice cream and marshmallow mixture into the lined mixing bowl, freeze. This stage can be done well in advance of the party
Make the topper
- Remove the ice cream and unwrap it.
- Tip it out on to a large serving plate and remove all the cling wrap
- Take the Elsa doll, undress it, and remove the legs (these can be clicked back together after the party)
- Take a hot spoon and scoop out a small well in the centre top of the ice cream, press the torso of Elsa into the hole. Place the cake back into the freezer
Prepare the buttercream icing
- Start with softened butter (not melted, but soft). Use an electric beater or cake mixer to beat the butter until it is as white as possible.
- Then add ⅓ of the icing sugar and beat, add ⅓ of the milk, alternate adding the icing sugar and milk until it has all been added, flavour the icing with the vanilla
- Separate the buttercream into 3 bowls, add blue food colouring to 2 of the bowls so that you end up with three colours of buttercream, 1 white, 1 light blue and 1 darker blue
- Fill 3 piping bags with the buttercream icing, use a star tip
Decorate the cake
- Take the ice cream out of the freezer, Pipe stars of icing on to the ice cream to create Elsa’s Dress, I did mine very haphazardly and I think it looks fine. If the ice cream begins to melt, place the cake back into the freezer for half an hour or so to re-harden and then continue piping.
- Decorate the torso of the Elsa Doll to create an icing bodice for her dress
- Freeze the Ice Cream Cake until you are ready to serve it, remembering to remove the cake from the freezer around 1 hr before you serve it
Notes
- The mixing bowl I used as a mold for the ice cream cake was 22cm diameter and 12 cm deep
- I used an 8 point star tip to frost the cake
- You do not have to use buttercream, you could use any frosting that you are able to pipe
- A hot knife can help when it comes time to serve the cake
- You could substitute the mini marshmallows for another candy or leave them out entirely
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 20 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 489Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 17gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 90mgSodium: 219mgCarbohydrates: 57gFiber: 1gSugar: 52gProtein: 4g
Please know this nutrition analysis is based on the ingredients only, this recipe has not been sent to a laboratory for independent testing
Love your site! Can you tell me where you got the Elsa doll (I live in NZ)? I’ve been looking for ages, but most of the ones I can find don’t really look like Elsa! Many thanks
From the warehouse, but they were at kmart too