pic from Food52, Posie (Harwood) Brien
The icebox cake is easy to make and always a crowd pleasure. If you hate baking and can exhibit a little bit of patience, than the icebox cake is the recipe for you!
Afraid of fucking up a cake recipe? Do you feel like a chemist everytime you open a recipe book and you kind of hate that (I love it personally, but I understand – baking is intimidating). Well, if that’s the case, then I have the perfect recipe for you. Don’t bake – make an icebox cake.
Icebox cakes are dumb easy because you never need to turn on your oven. The magic happens while they’re chilling in the fridge. And presentation doesn’t really matter because it’s a pile of cream and cookies anyway – who cares. You could probably dump cream and cookies into a pan and still come out on top with this recipe.
I was introduced to this gem of a dessert at Magnolia’s Bakery when I was living in the West Village during college. The family in front of me ordered this and I just lit up. I’d never seen one before but I instantly recognized it as something I would like. A lot. It was love at first sight.
The first time I made this recipe it was an instant hit and to this day it remains one of my all time favorite cakes. It’s super simple, you can make it a day ahead, and it does not fail to impress. If you’re hosting a dinner party, this is perfect dessert. Plus, there’s also a half-dozen and possible variations below.
There are essentially two ingredients – Chocolate Wafers and Whipped Cream. How can this go wrong? Greatest part — it can’t! On top of that – there are so many fun variations to explore.
6 Variations on the Classic Ice Box Cake
- Stack alternating layers of chocolate wafers, hazelnut whipped cream, and raspberries
- Stack alternating layers of chocolate wafers, peanut butter whipped cream, bananas, and top with peanuts
- Stack alternating layers of chocolate chip cookies (slightly stale is probably better) and whipped cream
- Stack alternating layers of snickerdoodle cookies, whipped cream, and apple pie filling
- Stack alternating layers of graham crackers, lemon cream, and lemon curd
- Stack alternating layers of graham crackers, whipped cream, and macerated strawberries. Include a surprise layer of Nutella some where in the top 🤗🤗🤗
Classic Ice Box Cake
Prep
Inactive
Total
Yield 1 cake
This recipe was inspired by Magnolia's Bakery fantastic recipe. There are only 4 ingredients but there are tons of variations you can try. The cake comes together quickly and easily - the hardest part is letting the cake rest in the fridge long enough for the cookies to soften under the cream layers. But the wait is totally worth it! Be patient with this one.
Ingredients
- 4 cups heavy cream, well chilled
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1.5 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 (9-ounce) packages Nabisco’s chocolate wafer cookies
Instructions
- In a large bowl beat cream, sugar, and vanilla until thick. When you see medium peaks, stop.
- Grab a plate and get ready to start stacking. Babysitters, moms, big sisters and brothers — get psyched. This is a really simple way to entertain a little one.
- With a rubber spatula spread about a quarter sized amount of whipped cream on the bottom of the wafer and place in the center of the plate. Surround the center cookie with wafers in the same manner until you create a single layer of cookies on the bottom of the plate. Now you're ready to start stacking.
- Spread an even layer of cream across the cookie layer, followed by another layer of chocolate wafers, being sure to stack them like bricks as you build up. Try to get 6-8 layers going!
- When you’re done, cover the cake and chill for overnight or at least 8 hours.
- To serve, cut into slices and plate, being sure to run your knife under warm water between each slice for nice clean cuts.
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