Birthday cake...

... it's a little silly, but I'm making myself a birthday cake.  I saw a tantalizing picture of this cake

 in the catalog for this company and couldn't resist trying to make the blend of chocolate cake and mint ice cream.  I was going to make homemade fudge, but I purchased a jar ... just in case I got LAZY!  I'm going to use the jar of fudge. 

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil & water)
Fudge - one jar
Peppermint Stick ice cream (from Schwans) or substitue Chocolate Chip Mint or your favorite minty flavor

Putting 'it' together:
The cake was baked last night, I let it cool on the counter overnight (you wouldn't need to wait that long!).

This morning, I leveled the cake by cutting off the rounded top with a serrated knife... I didn't want a leaning torte! .  I also cut the cake into thirds (lenthwise), so each section is a little over 4 inches wide and 9 inches long.  While preparing the cake and fudge, set the ice cream on the counter to thaw a bit.

Warm the fudge in the microwave until it is spreadable.  Spread 1/3 on the top of each cake section.  ** I didn't refrigerate at this point, but it would be a good step to add.  Then, your ice cream will not melt slightly like mine!

Spread ice cream over two sections - about 1/2 inch thick.  Stack the layers; the cake with only fudge goes on top.  Wrap the torte in plastic wrap and freeze for at least one hour.  If you want to make it 'pretty', sprinkle crushed peppermint cany over the top.  Slice as thick as needed and ENJOY!!

This is before freezing ... but doesn't it look yummy anyway??  I may or may not add crushed peppemints.  Maybe I'll just add another scoop of ice cream to the top of each slice.

** UPDATE:  Make sure to cool the layers of fudge topped cake in the frig before topping with ice cream.  My ice cream melted - pretty much all of it - even though I thought my fudge was cooled and the completed cake was taken to the freezer immediately.  It still tasted wonderful because the peppermint ice cream soaked into the cake layers, but it didn't look as pretty.