#seriously trying to down 2L of water in one go is NOT NICE

[welcometololaland]

I know you're off line right now, so ignore this for as long as you want (or forever) - but you sent me such a lovely nice ask week ask, so I want to come into your inbox and ask one too.

I know you live in Australia, but you've traveled a lot in Europe - so my question is, what do you do on the flights? How do you keep yourself entertained and not twisted into a pretzel shape by the end of it?

hi lim! thank you for this 💜 what an interesting question! honestly, i'd love to know other people's theories on long-distance plane travel, because i feel like i'm no master.

that being said, melbourne to anywhere in europe requires a solid 12.5 hour flight and then usually another 6-8 hour one one on top of that, so i do have SOME travel tips. i think these are my best ones, but i'd be SO KEEN to hear others :)

if you're flying through any major airport (abu dhabi, dubai, singapore, doha, etc.) remember that they will make you do security again just before you go to your gate. this means it is imperative you do not fill up your water bottle in the airport unless you have time to drink it! i've been forced to down so many litres of water just to get my bottle on the plane (for some reason they never have taps near the gates?!).

sleep is your friend. personally, i don't bother with timezones, i just try and get as much of it as i can. i know this is controversial, as some people like to time their sleeping with their destination, but honestly i think sleeping on planes is patchy as it is so you may as well sleep when you're tired. there's an art to this too - i order an alcoholic drink with the first meal service (usually just after take-off), and use it to make me a little drowsy. during the post-meal coffee service, i forego any tea, coffee or sodas and have a cup of plain hot water. that usually lets me go to sleep as soon as the cabin lights go off. bring a sweater so you're warm enough, wear comfy clothes and warm socks and don't be afraid to ask for extra blankets if you need them - sometimes planes can be SUPER cold. also, use the free mask/earplugs they give you if you can (the earplugs do some weird sensory shit to me so i can't handle those, but the mask is usually great).

if you have any dietaries whatsoever, don't forget to order specific meals. this means you never miss out, even if you are asleep when the trolley comes around. you can always request it later. one time i forgot to put in meal requests on a 12.5 hour flight it was torture. i had to survive on apples.

always bring a charged laptop (preferably with a lot of fic or netflix shows pre-downloaded) and headphones. you can never guarantee what movies they're gonna have and honestly i find my own entertainment more worthwhile. books are a little dicey because if you're flying at night and they turn the cabin lights off, you don't wanna be that asshole turning the overhead light on while the person next to you is trying to sleep.

if you know your bladder sucks, PLEASE choose the aisle seat (that is me - aisle always).

if you're travelling with one other person and you're on an A380 or similar, there's usually an option to pick a seat right down the back of the plane with rows of 2 rather than 3. this changed my life when i discovered it. as long as you have the patience to wait 2223847 years to de-plane, it can be so handy because you never have a random between you and you can a) get better sleep and b) go to the bathroom whenever you want.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS carry baby wipes. You'll need them for your hands, when you spill something on yourself or (on the 12.5 hour flight) your underarms lol. Also, please for the love of god wear shoes in the bathroom.

during stopovers, try to find the most random bathroom available (good idea to go for a walk if you have the time), set up shop, and do a cleanse. brush your teeth, brush your hair, wash your face, apply some lip balm (plane environments are super drying, especially for that long). i always carry a small toiletries bag (making sure you're not carrying liquids over 100ml) in my carry on. it makes you feel SO much better. you can also do this when you get to your destination, just before you leave the airport (before/after baggage collection).

bring a phone cable. sounds stupid but the amount of times i have forgotten one...

travel as light as possible with carry on. my personal favourite is to have a backpack with my charger, laptop, a sweater/jumper and small toiletries bag, and then i also carry a fanny pack-type bag that can be shoved into the top of my backpack. the separate small bag is super handy walking around airports though because you can have your wallet, phone, boarding pass and passport on you at all times and really easily accessible. this hack will also save you SO MUCH TIME at security check. if you travel light, you'll find it so easy separating out your laptop and liquids at any check in.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 149

August 7

I've been too busy or distracted for the last few days to properly inundate you all with kitten pictures, but that ends now! You have been warned! Today I had lights and a fully charged phone and the will to use them, so you are going to feel the wrath of this fully armed and operational cat lady. I am also posting this during first dinnertime, so my background music is tiny Katara making improbably loud smacking noises while she eats babycat food mixed with warm water. 

Clockwise from top left: Zuko, Sokka, Katara, Aang

Now that the kittens are debugged and down to about 30% of their original hissiness levels, they are ready for cuddle times. Zuko won the best cuddler award today by actually purring when I picked him up, so he is my current favorite. Sokka needs his nails trimmed very badly, Katara is picking up the hissing slack for her unacceptably trusting brothers, and Aang has finally started using the litterbox but cries when he poops. (This is not uncommon for kittens who are first learning to go unstimulated, but I'm going to keep an eye on him to make sure he's not constipated.)  Four weeks is a very fun age, so this should be a good kitten week, knock on wood. They are all eating well and don't need a bottle, which makes my life way easier. 

Zuko and Aang

Katara still thinks I might be planning on eating her. She is the size of my hand but will go down hissing all the same.

It is just as well that these guys are weaned because the MPRE snuck right up on me. I started studying a couple weeks ago, but there's always so much to do. BARBRI's MPRE study program is funny because it's basically a taste test of their bar review program for the 2L students who typically sit for the MPRE. It's set up exactly like the bar review course, but where the typical bar review lecture is 2-3 hours, these lectures are about 15-20 minutes and each one covers a discrete subtopic of professional responsibility. Altogether, they are maybe just a little bit longer than the professional responsibility lecture I listened to for the bar review back in February. (Many states do not include PR on their bar exam at all because of the MPRE, but Virginia has more testable subjects than any other state and throws that one in as well, so I got a module on it.) In any case, I have been listening to these little bite sized lectures and doing the learning questions, then looking at the outline, then moving on. I plan to have all the modules done by tomorrow, then spend the weekend doing the three practice tests, sixty questions each. All three practice tests together are not as long as the bar exam practice test! I keep reminding myself that even though the subject matter is limited and I've covered the material many times before, I have to take it seriously. It would be both inconvenient and extremely embarrassing to pass the bar exam and fail the fucking MPRE at this late date. I'm also going to have to take at least one of those practice tests with a mask on, bleah. 

Ha, I have successfully tricked the kittens out of sleeping in their yucky litterbox (they are too young for nice clumping litter because they might eat it) by offering them a decoy litterbox with a towel in it. Cats do love boxes! 

(Sokka is behind the box, he is so fuzzy I cannot get him in focus for a solo picture.)

The kiddo and I went to the library today for the first time since March! It only opened on Wednesday and there were very few people there, but they'd arranged it so there's lots of open space and a counter right by the front where a friendly guy offered us hand sanitizer and reminded us about social distance. We were finally able to turn in March's library books, which had fine amnesty thank God, and snagged some new stuff. I wasn't feeling creative so I took advantage of the lack of patrons to snag a couple of newer Nora Roberts books, the kind that are usually hard to get hold of. I read a funny meme the other day of "2020 As Described by Nora Roberts Books" that showed Happily Ever After for January, Storm Warning for February, and then seven copies of Shelter In Place for March through August. The kiddo got a couple of graphic novels and also picked out two books with no pictures at all after I promised I'd get him a magnifying glass if he wanted it. Kiddo is farsighted and has glasses to read, but he may need a new prescription. I should get on that. 

Okay, knowing myself as I do, I took a brief break there to order some cheap little sheet magnifiers off Amazon because I try to keep my promises. It is hard when you are very forgetful, but I try! Not too much else to report today, oh, except I went into my primary doctor's office for the first time in many months. It was for a heat rash, of all things, but I just couldn't get it to go away! I could probably have done it online, but when it's a rash it's kind of easier to just go in there than to try and find the right light and the phone with the best camera, and this way I don't have a lot of weird pictures of my armpit for posterity. She gave me a steroid cream prescription and it is starting to feel better already. 

While I was getting the prescription filled, I got way, way too excited about the electronics clearance at Rite Aid and bought fifty dollars worth of stuff. (By Rite Aid's calculation it was 200 dollars worth of stuff because I spent 50 and saved 150, but you know how their prices are.) In any case, I got two wall chargers and a car charger, two sets of earbuds, a stereo headset with microphone  for virtual school, and the piece de resistance, a waterproof Bluetooth speaker that also has a multicolored light display. The kiddo is in love already and I hope it encourages him to more frequent showering. My 50 also bought me some melatonin gummies, some multivitamin gummies, a bag of chocolate snacky stuff, and two packs of Magic: the Gathering decks that the kiddo was distinctly underwhelmed by. He likes Pokemon cards so much despite not having the first idea how to play, I thought these might be good too. I'll set them aside in case he gets interested later. I am pretty sure that four dollars apiece is not bad for 60 card decks, even if they are planeswalker themed. Anyway it was a nice haul and now I can stop bitching at everyone and no-one every time I can't find a wall charger to plug into. A small price to pay for peace of mind! (And the cream itself cost $2.19, so at least I can feel a little good about our truly exorbitant health insurance this week.) 

Who wouldn’t believe this guy can save the world? 

[venn364]

Basic Heatwave Survival Guide

Ok kids the first heatwave of the year is almost upon us. I’d love to say this should be the worst it gets but it’s only early January and February is usually much worse...

A bit of advise for those not old enough to properly remember our last lot of utterly brutal heatwaves or who have never really needed a heatwave survival guide because until now they’ve always lived somewhere with air conditioning or with a readily available pool. 

This isn’t a comprehensive guide, the goal is just to increase the odds of everyone coming out of this unscathed. If you’ve got anything you think should be added feel free.

First of all, drink water. I cannot stress this enough, you are going to sweat so much in the next five days you should probably be aiming at around 4 litres throughout the day if you don’t want to wake up terribly dehydrated the next morning after a long and lovely *cough/horrible/cough* 32 degree high humidity evening. Better some extra trips to the bathroom than hurting yourself through dehydration. If you’ve got a collection of plastic soft drink bottles ready to the recycled I highly recommend rinsing/washing them out, filling them most of the way full with water and popping them in the freezer. Refrigerated water isn’t going to stay cool long in the daytime heat but that 2L block of ice is going to melt in it’s conveniently shaped plastic container and get sipped up by pretty much everyone as wonderfully cold water. 

Second, you’re going to be losing a lot of electrolytes in your sweat so while you may not feel like eating make sure you’re still getting your three square meals a day as much as possible. Lemonade ice blocks are also a great replenishes and they keep you cool as well!!!

Third, and a lot of you are going to hate me for this, it may be prudent to sleep in your lounge room if possible during the heat. This is often (not always, but often) the coolest room in the house, especially in old houses. Your body is going to need time to recover from the extreme heat in the day and it can’t do that if your bedroom continues to boil you alive well into the am’s. If you think you can stand the kink in your neck the next day this is definitely a good move

Fourth, keep an eye on each other! If safe to do so talk to your neighbours and arrange to check in on each other at predetermined times. This is especially important if you have any medical conditions or if yourself or a neighbour are a part of Australia’s elderly population. 

Fifth and Sixth, stay in the shade! Make sure your kids stay in the shade! And for the love of whatever god or deity you happen to believe in if you must expose yourself to the sun shove on a shirt and hat, slather yourself in sunscreen and reapply it every hour or so because be UV index is going to be brutal and whatever sunscreen you have isn’t likely to survive its advertised term thanks to the sheer amount of sweating we’re all going to be doing. Gross? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. I’ve had a sunburn that not only fried but blistered to the point that the spot scarred thanks to missing a spot when I did my legs. The damage isn’t always apparent until hours later ffs USE YOUR SUNSCREEN!

Seventh, avoid vigorous exercise. Do you seriously want to be raising your body temperature even further during a heatwave? No? Good decision.

Eighth, try and save your showers for the evening. Depending on where the pipes supplying your water are you could inadvertently end up burning yourself when you try to take a shower to cool down. These bursts of hot water can be very sudden and the last thing you want is to be enjoying the nice cool water only for the supply that’s been baking just under ground level for the last six hours to suddenly hit your household supply and scald you. It’s rare but it does on occasion happen. If you want to sit in water and cool down I recommend a bath or a little shell pool set up in the shade.

Ninth and last on my list, stay under or in front of a fan (depending on the type you have) if at all possible and keep your wooden doors (including bedroom doors) and glass windows open with your screen doors locked for security. The relief provided from the fan’s breeze and the airing out of the house isn’t going to be great in some places but it’s better than nothing and may be the difference between being heat-sick and having actual heat stroke. 

So there we have it, one heatwave survival guide written mostly for others and partly to remind myself that there isn’t too much need to panic about a heatwave since I still remember what to do.

Feel free to add to this yourself if you can think of anything I’ve forgotten :)

[boschlingtumbles]

It’s a Nice Day for a White Wedding (Chapter 3)

“Great work today, Beric,” his Evidence Professor smiled benignly at him. Beric beamed. “Gunner,” someone coughed behind him, and a number of the other students tittered. Beric tried not to let his shoulders drop. This was stupid, he was 24 years old, a law school student at the top of his class. What did he care what some douche bag students thought about him? It would have just been nice for law school to be different from college. Or college to have been different from high school. He sent a mental prayer to the universe that at some point this cliquey nonsense would end. When he got to the student lounge, he stopped to carefully post one of the flyers that Thoros had given him for his pub’s trivia night. He had finished stapling it to be perfectly offset against the neighboring help wanted poster at eye-level, and had taken a step back to admire it, when another group of students came in. “Oooh trivia night!” A bubbly 1L paused, no doubt attracted by the excellent placement of the flyer. Beric smiled. “Pfff that’s a townie bar,” one of the guys from earlier sneered. “You’ll get stabbed on the way home.” Beric frowned. He opened his mouth to firmly lecture them that the income disparity in Oldtown was one of the highest in the country and they should be more cognizant of the tremendous economic privileges they all enjoyed as students of the Citadel. And also his boyfriend was a bartender at that bar so shut the fuck up. Then he thought better of picking a fight with his classmates and shoved his hands in his pockets. 2L year was almost over. He just needed to stick this out for one more year and then he could join a district attorney’s office and crusade for the downtrodden and this would be a distant memory. Thoros was already at work when he got back to the apartment, so he cooked a quick dinner and ate it while slogging through his reading. Part of the problem with being a law student while Thoros was a bartender was that their schedules were almost completely out of sync. He went to classes at the Citadel all day, got home around six. Thoros’ shift was from 5pm to 2am. By the time Thoros stumbled home around 3, Beric was usually sound asleep. And good luck trying to wake Thoros up before 10. Basically it had taken a toll, because Beric had discovered that life without Thoros was boring, depressing, infinitely more irritating and definitely more sexually frustrating. So when he finished his outline for the Criminal Procedure reading, he tried to turn to Patent Litigation. And instead found himself wondering how trivia night was going. Maybe he should just stop by and check. If people were focused on the trivia, the actual bar might be relatively quiet. High Heart was run by a tiny woman who was impossibly old and quite crazy. Naturally she got along well with Thoros. Beric was not a huge fan, largely because she liked to address him as ‘Lord of Corpses’. A motorcycle crash in high school had left him with one eye, a fairly gruesome scar around his neck and several far more gruesome scars on his chest (which nobody ever saw but Thoros). Basically overnight he’d gone from being universally considered adorable, tall, dark blond hair, blue eyes, to being universally considered fairly alarming looking—gaunt, eye patch, etc. Lord of Corpses indeed. So thank you, shriveled little witch creature. Beric immediately felt guilty for thinking that about an elderly woman who didn’t seem to have much in the way of family aside from her granddaughter and resolved to try and be nicer to her. Fortunately his new resolution was not put to the test as he entered High Heart. Jenny (the granddaughter) was on duty and reading the trivia questions cheerfully into a microphone. Beric turned toward the bar. Pouring a pint of beer, red top knot bent over the task, was his boyfriend of six years. Even seeing him was enough to send a spike of dopamine straight through his brain and he grinned. Thoros finished filling the beer, swiped the excess foam off the top (Beric felt just the teensiest bit inappropriately aroused by that—this had been a rough year) and slid it expertly down the bar to a patron. “Hi,” Beric blurted less than suavely as he collapsed on a bar stool. Thoros smirked and slouched over. “What are you having?” He said, pretending Beric was just a regular customer. Beric narrowed his good eye. He could play this game. “I don’t know,” Beric spoke quietly so that Thoros had to lean forward over the bar to hear him. “What am I having?” He tried to lace it with innuendo. A smile twitched across Thoros’ face, so it must have worked. “You’ll have to speak up a little bit, I can barely hear you,” Thoros teased. Beric blushed. “A draft of the winter ale?” Thoros pretended like he had responded. He poured it, and Beric laid his head on the bar with a pout. “There, there,” Thoros patted his head. “If that guy down the bar gets up and leaves we can reevaluate.” Beric shot his most ferocious glare down the bar at the old man obliviously nursing his beer. “You’re adorable when you’re sulking,” Thoros pushed the cold glass against his neck, forcing Beric to lift his head with a yelp. “Now do you want to tell me about it?” “Law school sucks. Law school students are the worst. I miss you,” Beric took a sip of his beer moodily. “You have me right here,” Thoros rolled his eyes. “I wanted to have you right here,” Beric raised his eyebrow. “You gave me a winter ale instead.” “I have a good feeling about later,” Thoros winked. “Look at that geezer. He could die at any minute.” “I try not to bet on other people dying first. I usually lose,” Beric said gloomily. “So what’s happened? You left me a smiley face breakfast sandwich this morning so I thought things were going well.” “I made you a smiley face breakfast sandwich this morning because you deserve a smiley face breakfast sandwich every morning,” Beric said.  “And if I didn’t you would probably eat dry cereal and that’s not healthy. But returning to your question, it’s just my classmates being dicks.” “It can’t be worse than high school.” “I honestly think it might be,” Beric sighed as Thoros took a generous swig from the beer. “You’re exaggerating for a sympathy fuck,” Thoros drawled. “I’m not! They’re completely awful! They’re entitled and self-absorbed and all they want to do is work at white shoe corporate law firms and spend their six figure salaries on fancy cars and trophy wives. They hate the kids who actually try in class and they make fun of the kids on scholarship and they’re...” Beric suddenly trailed off. “What?” Thoros looked up from the glasses he’d been cleaning as he listened. “They’re here,” Beric hissed in a low voice. “That’s them! At that table near the back!” He nodded his head at the boisterous group of students lounging as if they owned the place. Jenny read the next trivia question, and Beric was appalled to see no fewer than two of them check their phones to look up the answer. “They’re cheating!” Beric scowled. “They’re trying to be lawyers and they’re cheating!” “S’good practice,” Thoros shrugged. When Beric frowned, he sighed. “Fine, I’ll tell Jenny to make sure that group is disqualified if they win. Don’t you think you’re taking this maybe a little too seriously?” “They are ruining the integrity of the game for everyone and they are the worst,” Beric bit. “I feel like you’re missing what’s really important here,” Thoros smirked mischievously. Beric looked at him suspiciously, not sure where he was going. This expression usually meant trouble. “What’s really important?” He said slowly. Thoros leaned forward into his space. “That geezer is paying his bill,” Thoros whispered, his breath tickling Beric’s ear. Beric turned slowly. He was. Suddenly this day was improving. And then it wasn’t. The door slammed open, revealing an all-too familiar face. “Robert!” Thoros said cheerfully. “Gentlemen!” Robert plopped down on the seat next to Beric, sounding already more than a little tipsy. “I’m going to be a dad!” Beric spat some beer back into his cup and started coughing. Robert reached over and thumped his back with a force that rattled every bone in his body. “Congratulations!” Thoros seemed serenely unphased. “Who’s the lucky lady?” “Cersei!” Robert beamed. Beric’s cough turned into more of a hack and Thoros got him a cup of water. Which allowed him to avoid speaking for a while longer. Cersei Lannister had been a year below them in high school. She was strikingly beautiful and more than a little crazy. She and Robert had always been a bit of an odd match—Robert was playing with a few cards short of a full deck and Cersei was playing with six sets of cards and some cyvasse pieces. On the other hand, Robert’s childlike disregard for others complimented Cersei’s sociopathy nicely. Or terribly. Depending on your perspective. More disturbing in the short term was how Robert’s love of alcohol complimented Thoros’ love of alcohol. “You know what this calls for?!” Thoros was already reaching under the bar. “SHOTS!” Robert whooped. “Shots!” Thoros echoed, slamming a bottle of high end vodka on the table. “Shots,” Beric forced himself to smile. Because if you can’t beat them, join them. Several shots later... “I’ve never loved anybody but Cersei,” Robert was saying, looking at Thoros through the bottom of his shot glass. “What about Lyanna?” Thoros asked, finishing the beer Beric had abandoned. And then the beer the old man from before had abandoned. “Psh that wasn’t real love. I loved like... the idea her right? And the sex. That was good too. But the sex with Cersei is better. She’s like a sexy lioness.” “Are lionesses sexy?” Thoros scrunched his nose as he tried to pry the still half full fifth shot from Beric’s hand. Beric allowed him to transfer Beric’s grip to Thoros’ free hand, so they were now holding hands across the bar as Thoros drank the remainder of the booze. Beric promptly lay his head down on their hands. His boyfriend. He loved him so much. He hoped Robert found somebody this great. Thoros was absent-mindedly stroking his hair. “Is Beric asleep?” Robert asked. “Just resting I think. Low tolerance.” “Not everyone can be us,” Robert laughed. “I’ll drink to that!” “So will you be a groomsman at our wedding? I wanted Beric to be one too but Cersei said I could only have four.” “Psh probably can’t find more than four female friends.” “That’s totally it. I was surprised she could find four honestly.” “She should just stuff Jaime Lannister in a dress. Boom, problem solved.” “Ha! Wanna switch to beer?” “Chyeah.” “Hey,” this was a third voice, another guy. Why did it sound familiar? “Can you stop talking to your friends and take my order?” “Can you stop being an asshole and fuck off?” That was Robert. “I know you,” the voice said. “You’re the quarterback for the Oldtown Maesters.” “Uh yeah, you a fan?” Robert tried to adjust the level of hostility in his voice. “You could say that. I’m top of my fantasy football league thanks to you! Three interceptions last game? Ha you’re a complete shit show! I rearrange my team every week to bet against you!” Oh no. Beric placed that voice now. It was the jackass from law school. He lifted his head. “Burton Crakehall,” he said matter of factly, having to lift his voice to be heard over Robert’s audible growl. The Westerman was as per usual flanked by a couple of sneering lackeys. “Dondarrion, didn’t see you there. What the fuck are you doing in a dump like this? I would have pictured you sipping Chardonnay in some Lysene joint,” Crakehall snorted, extending a pinky as he mimed holding a wine glass. Beric glared. “Perhaps we are getting off on the wrong foot,” he said evenly, trying to keep his temper in check and salvage some dignity from the situation. “Burton, this is my boyfriend Thoros Asshai and our good friend Robert Baratheon. Burton is in my year in law school.” Crakehall gave Thoros a distinctly unimpressed once over that had Beric grinding his teeth. Thoros stared back, arms crossed. “I guess when you’re all maimed you have to take what you can get,” Crakehall muttered to one of his lackeys as they started to retreat. Thoros’ face darkened, but Beric grabbed his shoulder. He was nowhere near fast enough to stop Robert however. Robert covered the distance between himself and Crakehall in a single bound. “You can let us know,” he snarled, picking up the man and hurling him bodily into a wall. The bar went completely silent, as the remainder of Crakehall’s table stood up. “Who the fuck do you think you are?!” Crakehall bounced to his feet, bleeding from a cut to the head. “I’ll kill you!” Then things escalated. Crakehall and three more friends charged Robert, who went down in a pile of flailing limbs. Thoros wriggled out of Beric’s grasp and hopped over the bar to assist. The brawl knocked over another table, spilling drinks everywhere, and the enraged patrons jumped in. It was really devolving into a free for all, when Beric spotted Crakehall slowly extricating himself from the scrum. Well that wouldn’t do. Beric waited until Crakehall had managed to get to his feet and brush himself off. “Excuse me,” Beric said politely. “I believe you forgot something.” Crakehall opened his mouth to say something, only to squawk as his nose crunched under Beric’s fist.

[thecreativecochrane-blog]

Good morning all! Today I’m sharing a super special, indulgent, delicious recipe. As per normal, the end result of this recipe looks complicated and difficult, however, actually making this mega ice cream cake is super simple. Don’t believe me? I made this particular variation about a month ago for my husbands birthday, with a 6 fussy, teething 6 month old in tow.

You could take this recipe an extra step further and make homemade ice cream for the ice cream layers, however, for me, this was too much work, and time that I didn’t have to spare.

As I have mentioned in my Mouth-watering Pulled Pork Pizza post, I mentioned I had attempted, and almost successfully thrown a surprise 27th birthday party for my husband. One crucial element to a birthday party, in my opinion at least, is the cake. I am already excited to make birthday cakes for my son (and he’s only 7 months old!). One snag to this plan when it comes to my husband however, is that he doesn’t like cake (what is the matter with him?). Seriously, he is not a sweets person. He rarely eats desserts or anything sweet. Which I guess sort of works out for me, since I don’t have to work about him digging into my chocolate stash. This does also mean that his birthday cakes are not the typical “cake”. One thing he does like, is ice cream cake.

For his birthday last year I made a cookies and cream ice cream cake that turned out so well. This year, I knew I’d be making another rice cream cake, but wanted to try out something a little bit different. If my husband chooses to eat chocolate or candy one of his favourites is Reeses. Therefore, this year I chose to try and make a play on a peanut butter and chocolate Reeses Ice cream cake.

In order to make this mega ice cream cake you will need:

*One disclaimer I will add, if you can, try and make this the day before you need it. it will allow the whole cake to really set. Since you will need to melt or soften your ice cream slightly in order to make the ice cream layers, you’ll also need some time to be able to re-freeze them.

1- 4L tub of plain vanilla ice cream ( or 2 – 2L tubs of vanilla ice cream )

½ cup salted peanuts

½ cup peanut butter chocolate chips

1 cup of white sugar

⅓ cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, your choice)

½ cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups of all purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup of milk

whipping cream ( for “icing” your cake)

Chocolate sauce  (optional)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and greasing two 9 inch circular cake pans with butter or another oil ( I like to use coconut oil ).

In a large bowl, beat together your butter and sugar using and electric mixer. Next, mix in eggs and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder and add to the wet ingredients. Next, add in the milk and peanut buttter and mix until combined and smooth. Pour the batter evenly into the two greased cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before going forward. Once the cake layers are almost completely cooled you can remove them from the pans and take your ice cream out of the freezer. You’ll also want to get out a 9 inch spring form pan. This type of pan will allow us to build up the ice cream layers and eventually remove the cake very easily. To make removal even easier, line the pan with plastic wrap.

Next spoon out about half of your ice cream from the container into a medium sized bowl. You could leave it in the one big container, however we want it to start thawing and softening so its easier to work with. Also I wanted to add some goodies to spruce up the plain vanilla ice cream. When your ice cream has softened slightly (we don’t want soup, or liquid, you’re looking for soft ice cream consistency), add in your flavourings of choice. For the first layer of ice cream I added in mini peanut butter chocolate chips, but you could add in anything, cut up peanut butter cups, regular chocolate chips, peanut butter even for a fully peanut cake. Mix in your “ad-ins” until they’re evenly distributed.

Place one of your cooled cake layers carefully into the bottom of the spring form pan. On top of your cake layer begin spooning on the first half of your ice cream mixture. Once its all on, gently begin to spread out the ice cream to create one even layer. Make sure to press it all the way to the sides and to press down slightly to avoid any gaps in the ice cream or between the ice cream and the cake.

When your ice cream layer is all smothered out squeeze on some of your chocolate sauce and spread out to cover the top of the ice cream layer.

Next carefully place your next cake layer on top of the ice cream and chocolate sauce. Push it down a little bit to again remove any gaps.

This next step will depend slightly on your spring form cake pan. For me, I was starting to get pretty close to the top edge of my pan and therefore, didn’t have enough room to create another equally thick ice cream layer. You could by all means stop here and still have a delicious cake, but I said we were making a mega cake. So what I needed to do was place the three layers I had already made ( cake-ice cream – cake) into the freezer to freeze solid, give it an hour or two. Then when they felt sturdy I undid the springform pan, and used the saran wrap to remove the cake from the pan. I then flipped the cake and placed it onto a cake board.

Next re-wrap your spring form pan in plastic wrap, and create a layer in the bottom of your cake pan of just ice cream. My second ice ream layer I added in salted peanuts for a bit of a salty element. Smooth this layer out just like you did the last ice cream layer.

Now this is the tricky part (in my opinion). Take your three layers of frozen cake from step 10 off the cake board and carefully place it into the spring form pan on top of your second ice cream layer. The other layers oft he cake will poke out over the edge of the cake pan but if they’re frozen  they won’t be going anywhere. Gently push down to make sure theres no gaps between your newest ice cream layer sand the rest of the cake. Also be careful not to get any of the plastic wrap sandwiched between the layers!

Place this whole contraption back in the freezer to chill.

Once your whole cake is frozen together and is one piece, you can remove it from the springform pan once again, and flip it upside down onto the cake board. I suggest flipping it to make sure that the bottom layer of the cake touching the cake board is cake rather than ice cream. This is because when you take it out to serve it, it will begin to melt or thaw slightly, and we don’t was the whole base of the cake to become unstable.

Now its time to decorate! This set is completely optional, however i feel like it adds a nice fancy finishing touch to the cake. For icing on an ice cream cake I always like to go with a whipped cream, either homemade or store bought in a container. I like it because it doesn’t freeze as solid as an actual icing would but looks like an icing. Also, if its homemade you can control how sweet it is, since the cake itself is already pretty sweet. I coated the sides and top of the cake with the whipped cream, smoothed it out and placed it back into the freezer just to set up little bit.  In a small container I warmed up some peanut butter in the microwave util it was runny and smoothed a thin layer over the top of the cake and let it drip down the edges.

Next I took a bunch of the Reeses, chocolate and peanut goodies I got from Bulk Barn and basically went to town decorating the top of the cake. I mostly just haphazardly placed stuff on top until I had something I liked.

You’re all done! Place your cake back in the freezer to set and try and keep from eating any before its cake time! Before cutting I would recommend letting the cake sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes just to make slicing a little bit easier

While theres a lot of steps involved the overall process of creating this delicious ice cream mega cake is pretty simple! Even the decorating doesn’t need to be symmetrical or pre-planned, just toss some goodies on there and you’re good to go ! Your friends and family will be astounded to hear that you’ve made it yourself !

Looking for another delicious dessert? Why not check these out:

  Maple Cheesecake Topped Carrot Cake

Lemon Cheesecake Blondie Bars

Cherry Chocolate Pavlova

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Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day !

Reese’s Ice Cream Cake | Dessert Good morning all! Today I'm sharing a super special, indulgent, delicious recipe. As per normal, the end result of this recipe looks complicated and difficult, however, actually making this mega ice cream cake is super simple.