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This Strawberry Icebox Cake recipe takes just 6 ingredients and 15 minutes. Fluffy vanilla whipped cream is layered with fresh strawberries and graham crackers, chocolate or vanilla wafers, or ladyfingers.
Strawberry Icebox Cake is a perfect, easy alternative to strawberry shortcake or *actual* cake of any variety. I adore it as a cool, creamy summer dessert.
To make it, simply layer spoonfuls of vanilla whipped cream with graham crackers and strawberries in a basic loaf pan. Start with whipped cream and graham crackers and end with strawberries, don’t give too much thought to how many layers and what comes next. Go with the flow. It’s an easy, forgiving dessert recipe.
Chill it in the fridge until the crackers and berries soften. The cream gently infuses with the berry and toasty graham flavour and the crackers’ crunch gives way to a soft, tiramisu-like texture. It reminds me of the graham crackers in milk I had when we ran out of cereal when I was a kid (tell me that was not just my family?!).
This is an ultimate comfort-food dessert to eat with a spoon, not a tidy one to cut into perfect slices. It’s a simple recipe that can be adapted to lots of variations.
Vegan Strawberry Icebox Cake
Serving a vegan, someone who can’t have dairy, or simply don’t have whipping cream? Stick a couple of 14-oz cans of coconut milk in the fridge for a few hours and then scoop out and whip only the solid portion at the top for coconut whipped cream instead.
Healthy Strawberry Icebox Cake
You can totally lighten this up by replacing up to 1 cup of the cream with Greek-style plain yogurt (because it won’t gain as much volume, use a bit less on each layer).
Strawberry Icebox Cake with Vanilla Wafers, Ladyfingers, or Chocolate Wafers
Use 5 ounces of vanilla wafers, ladyfingers or chocolate wafers in place of the graham crackers if you prefer the flavour or want to use up what you have on hand.
To make a delicious cheesecake-y variation, beat the whipping cream first on its own. Scrape it into a bowl. Without bothering to wash the stand mixer bowl, beat 1/3 cup of soft, room temperature cream cheese with the sugar until well blended. Beat in half of the whipped cream, then stop the stand mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold the rest of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture (this way, you won’t collapse the whipped cream. If you do it all in one step, you may end up with bits of cream cheese instead of a smooth filling.)
More fan-favourite Foodess strawberry recipes:
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cream cheese softened
- 2 cups whipping cream
- ½ cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- 5 oz graham crackers one sleeve, or 9 long crackers
- 1 lb fresh strawberries hulled and sliced
Instructions
- Line a 9″ loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Whip the cream cheese in a standing mixer with a splash of the cream to loosen it and smooth it out. Then add remaining cream and beat (using whisk attachment) until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and whip again for 10 seconds.
- Reserve 1 cup of the whipped cream to make sure you have enough for the top layer, as well as a handful of the prettiest strawberry slices.
- Spread 1/3 cup of the whipped cream on the bottom of the loaf pan. Top with graham crackers to cover the bottom, breaking them as needed to fit them in. Top with about 2/3 cup whipped cream, a handful of strawberries, more whipped cream, then another layer of graham cracker. Repeat, ending with the reserved whipped cream and pretty berries. You should have 3 layers of graham crackers and 3 layers of strawberries (including the top).
- Refrigerate for 4 hours before slicing. Serve right out of the pan, don't try to remove the cake.
Notes
Swap the graham crackers for 5 oz of ladyfingers, chocolate wafers or vanilla wafers as desired. See vegan, cream cheese, and lightened-up variations in the blog post.Â
Last Updated on September 21, 2022 by Jennifer Pallian BSc, RD
Excellent!! Will try it for sure.
This looks incredible! I would never have considered graham crackers softening with the cream. I can’t wait to try it!