Chocolate Waffle Ice Cream Cake

With yesterday being Mother's Day and I decided that I wanted to make a different dessert to share.
I got an itch to make an ice cream cake.  You can't go too wrong with cake and ice cream in one! 
I started searching online for a good recipe.  I found several but nothing that I liked too much. 
I found one that I was going to settle with. 
It used store bought ice cream sandwiches as the cake and ice cream and then had a layer of whipped cream and toppings of your choice (things like crushed up candy bars and such). 

I started thinking about what I could do differently to make the ice cream cake more of what I wanted. 
That's when the idea came to me!

A little background first...
As a kid, my grandma would occasionally make us chocolate waffles.
She'd serve the chocolate waffles to us with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream.
Talk about wonderland! 
It's been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember.
It's really simple to do and adds a little something extra to ordinary cake and ice cream.

So, taking our family tradition as inspiration I decided to use chocolate waffles in my ice cream cake.
Here's the SIMPLE recipe if you'd like to try this too!

1 box chocolate cake mix (or brownie mix - which is what I used this time)
1.5 quart container of ice cream (I used Vividly Vanilla)
16 oz whipped cream
Toppings of your choice (I used strawberries* and chocolate sauce this time)

1.   Make the brownie or cake mix as directed on the package.

2.   Warm up waffle iron as normal and make sure to use cooking spray so your "waffles" don't stick.
3.   Cook "waffles" as normal.  When doing brownies, cook time is increased.  Use best judgement.
      I was able to get 12 waffles out of the brownie batter and it worked perfectly for my 9x13 pan.
4.   Let "waffles" cool before putting the cake together.
5.   Layer "waffles on the bottom of 9x13 baking dish.

 6.    Put down a layer of ice cream and then whipped cream.

7.    Add your toppings.

8.    Add another layer of "waffles" and sort of press them down.

9.      Next is another layer of ice cream and then whipped cream.
10.    Now complete with your final layer of toppings for your finished ice cream cake!

Super easy and it was mighty tasty. 
The only thing I'd do differently next time is use different toppings OR putt the strawberries on as I serve the ice cream cake.
*The strawberries look pretty but once you freeze them they are hard and aren't easy to eat. 
I was worried about that from the get go but thought I'd give it a whirl.  
Now I know.  :P  They taste still great though! 
Definitely going to be something I make again!