The Best Frosting For An Ice Cream Cake Isn't Whipped Cream

If you're a seasoned ice cream cake maker, you may already have heavy whipping cream waiting in your fridge for your next project. A straightforward whipped cream frosting is a classic choice, and might do a beautiful job replicating your favorite store-bought ice cream cake. However, if you're preparing your dessert for a long stint in the freezer, we urge you to step away from the carton.

Take it from Sasha Zabar, founder and chef at Glace by Noglu, who prepares viral ice cream sundaes and cakes at his New York City shop. He recommends whipping up a more durable option to coat your next mint chocolate or cookies 'n cream masterpiece. "I like to use fresh whipped cream to frost cakes, but if you're making the cake in advance, then the whipped cream can crack over time," Zabar told Food Republic.

Zabar has two more stable frosting ideas up his chef's coat. "I recommend making a meringue, frosting the cake with a piping bag, and then toasting it with a pastry torch [...] It holds up really well and provides a nice silky texture when eating," he says. At his own shop, he offers a caramelized s'mores cake as an example of the technique. Alternatively, he suggests a chocolate glaze to enrobe the celebratory dessert. Either way, we suggest finishing with a few decorative drips of whiskey-infused chocolate magic shell for a boozy flourish.

Before you get intimidated, give meringue a chance. Preparing it is slightly more involved than beating heavy whipping cream, but the end result is tender and slightly chewy, plus it holds up better. Though the order of the steps differs, classic Swiss and Italian meringues are made of egg whites heated with sugar and whipped into a marshmallow-like cloud. You might see recipes refer to the mixture as s'more frosting or a seven-minute frosting, which are made similarly.

The benefit of this type of frosting is that it's quite stable, since the egg proteins bond with the air around them as they bubble and grow in volume. In contrast, applying a coating of plain whipped cream to any cake is a certifiable mistake that ruins make-ahead desserts. That's because the dairy will slowly break and collapse into liquid over time, unless it has a stabilizing ingredient added, like gelatin or cornstarch.

For extra support in the freezer, you can use a jar of marshmallow fluff or creme. Mix it into your finished meringue for an extra firm texture and lasting strength. Stiff meringue can stand up to the freezer for at least 10 months, with or without the marshmallow addition. You can blowtorch it before serving, to copy Sasha Zabar, or spread it on the cake and eat as-is.

If fluff is not your style, Sasha Zabar has another delicious (and stable!) frosting approach. For a sleek and flavorful cake, you can opt to use a glaze. "A fudge or chocolate mirror glaze can be used to frost simple cakes and provides a really nice shiny finish," Chef Zabar says.

A mirror glaze is a thin, sweet coating that is meant to be so smooth and glossy that it's reflective, like a mirror. It's made using gelatin, which binds sugar, heavy cream or condensed milk, and chocolate or cocoa powder into a more stretchy and stable mixture. The glaze is poured over cakes while still warm and liquid, which means you'll need to move fast to coat your fully-frozen cake and return it to the freezer before the ice cream melts. Once you get the hang of it, however, you'll turn out picture-perfect desserts. Start by using the gelatin sparingly, as some find that a mirror glaze gets slightly rubbery when frozen.

For a firmer chocolate topping, you can keep things simple with a ganache. Making it is as easy as melting chocolate morsels and heavy cream together. Once the mixture cools slightly, you'll follow the same technique as with a mirror glaze: Pour the warm liquid over the cake, then quickly place it in the freezer to set. A durable ganache layer will last for months in the freezer — a boon for celebrants planning ahead.