The simple possibilities of the no-bake icebox cake

Standing in the biscuit aisle of my local supermarket, I’m overwhelmed by possibilities. This isn’t unusual for me, but normally it’s fueled by greed, and resolved by buying them all. Today I have to make a choice. I am making an icebox cake, which requires a lot of one type of biscuits, and the structure and flavor of the whole cake depends on them.

As befits a no-bake dessert, the process of making it is a cinch

The problem is that the three most popular biscuits for the pudding are not easily available here: graham crackers, Oreo thins and Nabisco chocolate wafers. I almost feel relief when I discover that the classic icebox biscuit, the Nabisco chocolate wafer, was discontinued last year. There has been much panic on the internet about this, and many attempts to recreate them at home. But while authenticity is a noble aim, it doesn’t feel terribly in the spirit of a no-bake cake if you’re baking the biscuits yourself, does it?

Eventually, I plump for ginger snaps, thinking of their firmness, their almost granular crunch in the virgin state, but also how they yield when dunked in a hot drink. (It is this thought, incidentally, that leads me to flavor the cream for the cake with coffee.) I’m nervous about their thickness compared with the usual American suspects but have discovered that most single-layer biscuits still work well and a slightly longer time in the fridge softening compensates for the thicker biscuit.

Icebox cake is named after the non-mechanical refrigerators that became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. The cake grew popular among housewives for its simplicity and its use of pre-made components, with no need for baking. But its cult status was cemented by Nabisco who printed a recipe for it on the box for their chocolate wafer cookies. It’s a source of real nostalgia for several generations.

The idea is simple: the biscuits, sandwiched with the cream, and sitting in the fridge, draw the moisture from the cream and soften. The biscuits and the cream give each other stability and structure; a symbiotic relationship, if you like. In doing so, the texture changes to something cohesive and sliceable. It is a true transformation that takes place in the fridge overnight: eating a slice, you’d be hard pressed to identify it as anything other than an elegant, layered cake.

As befits a no-bake dessert, the process of making it is a cinch. Cream is sweetened, whisked to soft peaks and smeared on to one biscuit, which is sandwiched with the next, and then the next, and so on. It’s a bit messy, but it’s the work of moments. Most of the rest of the cream is spooned into or around the rows of biscuits, and the whole thing is refrigerated overnight.

You can make this cake either in a log, as per the original recipe, or tessellated into a (slightly more precarious) round shape, or you can use a loaf pan as a mould. I prefer the third option and line the tin with Saran Wrap before building my cake. If you’re using a pan, once demolded, the cake will need an extra sweep of cream on top, to give it a beautiful swooping finish where the biscuits would otherwise show through. A thirty-minute blast in the freezer will firm up that final cream layer without freezing the rest of the cake.

An icebox cake is also the most tempting blank palate. I found myself thinking about what hobnobs, malted milks or coconut rings could bring to the table. And of course, you can add whole fruit, thick compote or curd swirled through the whipped cream — or flavor the cream before you whisk it with peanut butter, malt syrup or Biscoff spread. I love the thought of cutting through to find the cardinal red of a morello cherry compote, or pops of blueberries alongside a lemon or mango curd. I sprinkle caramelized, buttered pecans on the finished cake for texture, but anything nubbly, crunchy, flaky or crumby would be a delightful addition.

Serves 6
Chills 24 hours + 30 mins freezing

For the filling

• 2½ cups heavy cream
• ⅓ cup icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• ½ lb ginger snap biscuits
• ½ tsp fine salt

For the topping (optional)

• 1.8 oz pecans
• 0.7 oz light brown sugar
• 0.4 butter
• ¼ tsp salt

1. Make the instant coffee up with two tablespoons of boiling water and stir to dissolve. Place the cream, icing sugar, coffee, vanilla and salt in a large bowl, and either mechanically or by hand whisk the cream until it reaches medium peaks
2. Line a loaf pan with Saran Wrap. Spread a layer of the cream across the base of the pan and on the sides. Smear some of the whipped cream on to your first biscuit, and sandwich a second biscuit on top. Repeat the smearing and sandwiching until you have a pile of ten sandwiched biscuits. Then repeat the whole process twice more so that you have three piles of ten cream-sandwiched biscuits
3. Place each of the piles of sandwiched biscuits so that they sit horizontally in the loaf pan. Cover the whole thing with the whipped cream. You will end up with some leftover cream, which should be reserved and refrigerated. Cover the loaf pan loosely with Saran Wrap and refrigerate overnight
4. Meanwhile, if using the topping, caramelize the nuts. Place the butter, sugar, salt and pecans into a pan, and stir until the mixture melts and coats the nuts. Turn out on to baking parchment, and leave to completely cool, before roughly chopping
5. The following day, turn the cake out of the loaf pan, peel away the wrapping, and smooth the reserved cream on the top. Freeze for thirty minutes, just to set the exterior cream
6. Sprinkle with the caramelized nut topping if using, and slice

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s UK magazine. Subscribe to the World edition here.