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Impress your guests with this showstopping Panettone Bombe. It’s a Christmas Ice Cream Cake made with an outer chocolate shell, layers of panettone on the outside and a light and creamy semifreddo middle. You won’t believe that it’s low prep, fuss-free and super easy to make!
When it comes to showstopping desserts I’m all about all of the WOW factor and none of the effort.
Take our Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake for example, it’s festive and super impressive but takes no more than 15 minutes to make!
I mean, everyone loves dessert at the end of a meal, especially during the festive season but cooking for a whole group of friends or family is hard, right?
That’s why I want to make dessert as low prep as possible without compromising on flavour or elegance.
This Panettone Bombe is not only easy it ticks all of the boxes for pleasing everyone. I mean, chocolate, ice cream and candied fruit studded Panettone. How could anyone say no?
Top Tip: You can substitute traditional panettone for a chocolate chip one if you don’t like candied fruit.
Ingredients You Need
- Panettone – I use a regular sized traditional panettone cake with candied fruit. You can use whatever kind of panettone you like although make sure not to buy one with a cream filling as you need to cut it into slices.
- Heavy cream (double cream) – used to make a creamy smooth semifreddo
- Condensed milk – I use this ingredient instead of eggs, it makes the process much quicker and easier.
- Sugar
- Cointreau liqueur – you can use this or whatever liqueur you like. If you prefer you can omit the liqueur altogether if you’re concerned about the alcohol.
- Vanilla – Use extract and not essence
Visual walk-through of the recipe
Remove the paper wrapper from the panettone including the very bottom then cut it into 1/2 inch thick slices (photo 1 & 2).
Line a bowl with plastic wrap (cling film) making sure to leave enough overlap for wrapping the cake. Place one piece of panettone on the very bottom of the bowl and press it lightly (photo 3).
Continue placing slices of panettone around the sides of the bowl making sure to overlap them so there are no spaces, press the cake down slightly then set aside (photo 4).
Pin this now to find it later
Pin ItNext, add all of the semifreddo ingredients to a stand mixer and beat to soft peaks. Make sure not to overbeat the mixture (photos 5 & 6).
Pour the ice cream or semifreddo mixture to the panettone lined bowl and carefully tuck in any overhanging panettone (it doesn’t have to be perfect) (photo 7).
Finally, add another slice (or more if needed) to cover the top of the ice cream mixture (photo 8).
Fold over the overlapping plastic wrap to cover the top of the cake completely and freeze (photo 9).
When you’re ready to serve the Christmas ice cream cake, melt dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (photos 10 & 11).
Place the panettone bombe (plastic wrap removed) on a wire rack over a baking tray and pour the melted chocolate all over the top followed by a sprinkling of festive sprinkles (photos 12 & 13).
The chocolate will set within a minute or two and it’s ready to serve.
How Long Should I Freeze it For?
Ideally, the panettone bombe should be frozen overnight. It’s a great make-ahead dessert with only 15 minutes of prep work involved.
If you’re short on time and making it the same day then freezing for 6 hours will be enough time.
Recipe tips
- The panettone bombe should be soft enough to cut after 5-10 minutes sitting out of the freezer.
- I love dark chocolate because the panettone and ice cream are quite sweet but feel free to use milk or even white chocolate instead.
- Feel free to switch the Cointreau for your favourite liqueur or omit it altogether.
- Make sure the bowl you use and the plastic wrap (cling film) are freezer proof.
- You can use any kind of sprinkles you like for this, edible glitter is always fun too!
More Italian Christmas desserts you might like
- Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake (Italian Christmas Cake)
- Panettone Bread Pudding
- White Chocolate Panna Cotta
- The Ultimate Chocolate Martini
- Quick & Easy Tiramisu – Best Ever Recipe
If you try this Panettone Bombe Christmas Ice Cream Cake or any other recipe on the site be sure to let me know how you got on in the comments below. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to see more delicious food and learn what we’re getting up to behind the scenes.
Step By Step Photos Above
Most of our recipes come with step by step photos, helpful tips and tricks to make it perfectly first time and even video!
Panettone Bombe – Christmas Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 1 Panettone, (26 oz/750g)
Semifreddo ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream, double cream (250ml)
- 1 cup condensed milk, (394g)
- ¼ cup sugar, (50g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 fl oz Cointreau, (30ml/1 part)
Topping
- 1 cup dark chocolate, (200g)
- sprinkles, , for decoration
Instructions
- Remove the paper wrapper from the panettone including the very bottom then cut it into 1/2 inch thick slices.
- Line a bowl with plastic wrap (cling film) making sure to leave enough overlap for wrapping the cake. Place one piece of panettone on the very bottom of the bowl and press it lightly.
- Continue placing slices of panettone around the sides of the bowl making sure to overlap them so there are no spaces, press the cake down slightly then set aside.
- Next, add all of the semifreddo ingredients to a stand mixer and beat to soft peaks. Make sure not to overbeat the mixture.
- Pour the ice cream or semifreddo mixture to the panettone lined bowl and carefully tuck in any overhanging panettone (it doesn't have to be perfect).
- Finally, add another slice (or more if needed) to cover the top of the ice cream mixture.
- Fold over the overlapping plastic wrap to cover the top of the cake completely and freeze.
- When you're ready to serve the Christmas ice cream cake, melt dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.
- Place the panettone bombe on a wire rack over a baking tray and pour the melted chocolate all over the top followed by a sprinkling of festive sprinkles.
- The chocolate will set within a minute or two and it’s ready to serve.
Notes
- The panettone bombe should be soft enough to cut after 5-10 minutes sitting out of the freezer.
- I love dark chocolate because the panettone and ice cream are quite sweet but feel free to use milk or even white chocolate instead.
- Feel free to switch the Cointreau for your favourite liqueur or omit it altogether.
- Make sure the bowl you use and the plastic wrap (cling film) are freezer proof.
- You can use any kind of sprinkles you like for this, edible glitter is always fun too!
Helpful Info for All Recipes
- I always use extra virgin olive oil in all of my recipes unless stated otherwise
- When I use canned or jarred tomatoes of any kind I always use Cirio or Mutti brands for the best results and flavour.
- All vegetables are medium sized unless stated otherwise
- All recipes are tested and developed using a fan (convection) oven
- Find out more about how nutrition is calculated.
- Check out our must have Italian Pantry Staples.
- You can also find all our Essential Kitchen Tools for Italian Cooking.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do I use a plain panetone?
Hi Carolyn, I use regular Panettone with candied fruit but you can also use a choc chip version if you prefer 🙂
Can I freeze this 2 days ahead of time?
Yes, you can freeze it weeks in advance 🙂
Thanks for a great holiday recipe idea!
This Panettone cake looks so pretty and festive. And Panettone cake for Christmas is just super perfect.
OMG this looks mouth watering delicious!! I am definitely making this for Christmas this year!
Aw thank you so much, hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
I just made this and serving for Xmas.eve dessert. Looks so good.
This is a real showstopper, a perfect dessert for this time of year! Seems almost a shame to eat it.
Thank you! It’s such a fun way to use panettone.
Oh wow! Bookmarking this so I can make it for my family! It looks amazing.
Thanks so much Romina, hope you love it!