Well, it’s starting to get warm again (finally!). But I still want cake.
The oven can get the kitchen and house a little too hot, but there’s a solution – icebox cakes! They don’t require any heat, and are absolutely delicious. There are tons of variations, but here’s mine, using strawberries.
Ingredients
- 1 pound, sliced strawberries*
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cups crushed chocolate wafers (CHECK)
- 1 T butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup mascarpone
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 T cream of tartar
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 large banana, sliced
* There’s two ways to do this – one, buy a pound of strawberries and cut them up or two, buy a package of frozen pre-sliced strawberries (which is great when strawberries aren’t in season or you don’t want to do all that cutting). I chose option 2 for a couple reasons, which you can read below.
Directions
If you buy fresh strawberries, chop off the tops then cut them in half (or thirds if they’re really large). Put them in a freezer bag, add the ½ cup sugar and shake until the sugar is well distributed. Freeze the strawberries.
If you buy frozen strawberries like I did, open the bag and add the ½ cup sugar to the still frozen strawberries and again shake until the sugar is well distributed. Put it back in the freezer until you’re ready to make your cake.
So, regardless of which route you chose you now have frozen strawberries covered in sugar.
When you’re ready to make the cake, take the strawberries out of the freezer and let them defrost in the fridge. The sugar will macerate the strawberries, meaning it draws out the fruits natural juices, and you get sweeter strawberries AND a red strawberry-flavored syrup (which you can bet we’re gonna use!)
Once the strawberries are defrosted we can build the cake.
Get a springform pan and lightly spray it.
Next, crush your chocolate cookies in a food processor.
Melt your butter in a small bowl and add about ¾ cup of the crushed cookies. This’ll be your crust.
Spread this layer of the cookies onto the bottom of the springform pan. Don’t use too much – we’re going to want about 3 layers of cookies, plus a little to dust on top.
Next, in a large bowl add the powdered sugar and mascarpone and mix together. Then add the cream, cream of tartar, vanilla AND the syrup/juice from the defrosted strawberries. Whip until stiff peaks form – it’ll be lightly pink, with a nice light taste of strawberry.
Next, slice the bananas then cut each slice in half – like so:
Get the defrosted strawberries themselves and gently fold them and the bananas into the whipped cream.
Spread a layer of the strawberry banana whipped cream over the initial cookie layer in the springform pan.
Follow that with another layer of cookie, another of strawberry whipped cream, etc., ending with the whipped cream on top. If you have any extra cookie crumbs left you can sprinkle them on the top of the last layer.
FYI, when I did it I got 3 layers of cookies (plus a sprinkling on top) and 3 layers of whipped cream – how many you get will of course depend on how thick you make the layers.
Loosely cover the springform pan and move it into the fridge for at least 6 hours, but you’re probably best off doing it overnight.
When you’re ready to serve, take it out of the fridge, remove the springform and slice and serve!
As you can see there are a few steps and it does take a little time, but it’s really easy. Enjoy!!
Ugly Desserts 