Summer party stunner: raspberry ripple ice cream cake

This is an anytime summer special, easy to make and wows a crowd with its thick, marbled slabs. It will feel like ice cream, but it’s technically a semifreddo (an easier homemade ice cream substitute that slices beautifully) – but no one needs to know that. Slice, serve, and sit back and watch the heads bent over dishes, as your guests silently spoon it in before it melts.

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Cake

Prep time: 30 minutes
Total time: 6 hours (includes chill time)

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
10 chocolate wafer cookies, finely crushed (about 52g)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
360g fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
seeds of 1 vanilla bean, scraped
200g sugar
fine sea salt
360ml heavy cream

Method
Line the bottom of a 21.5x11cm loaf pan with waxed paper.

Stir together the cookies and melted butter and set aside.

Combine the raspberries, lemon juice, and zest in a high-powered blender and purée until completely smooth. Set aside.

Combine the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla bean seeds, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water so that the bowl doesn’t touch the water, and cook over medium heat, whisking the eggs constantly, until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until thick and completely cool, 2 to 3 minutes more. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the speed of your mixer. Gently fold the egg mixture into the whipped cream, taking care to keep it light and airy. (Take a tiny taste at this point; it’s so delicious!)

Pull out 480ml of the mixture, put it in a bowl, and fold in the raspberry purée until it is a uniform pink colour. Dollop the two mixtures in heaping ladle­fuls, alternating vanilla and raspberry cream, into the prepared pan. You can leave it like this, for a more modern look, or use a skewer or a thin knife to streak and marble the two creams together in places.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze, level, until it starts to firm up, about 1 hour. When the semifreddo has set a bit (is not jiggly), sprinkle the buttered chocolate cookie crumbs evenly over the top to make a crust, and press them in just slightly. Freeze until completely solid, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

To serve the cake, dip an offset spatula into warm water and turn the cake out onto a chilled platter. Slice and serve within 5 minutes; return to the freezer until ready to serve a second round.

Extracted from Every Day is Saturday: Recipes + Strategies for Easy Cooking, Every Day of the Week by Sarah Copeland (Chronicle Books, approx €25). Photographs by Gentl and Hyers.