Strawberry Vanilla Icebox Cake

I’ve fallen in love with this Strawberry Vanilla Icebox Cake. I saw a recipe for an icebox cake like this in The New York Times. I tried it but I didn’t like their flavour combination. So, I started to think about what flavours I would love together and this cake was born. Use the smallest, sweetest strawberries you can find and enjoy the Va-Voom of the vanilla undercurrent. This cake is as tasty as it is pretty in pink.

Strawberry Vanilla Icebox Cake

Layers of vanilla cookies spread with a strawberry mascarpone cheese mixture create a delightful summer no-bake cake.

• Author: Karen Anderson
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: plus overnight refrigeration
• Total Time: 53 minute
• Yield: 10 slices 1x
• Category: desserts
• Method: chilling
• Cuisine: Canadian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

⅔ cup best strawberry jam you can find

(Note: I used Gourmet Sauvage’s Wild Strawberry Jam and it was incredible. Not sponsored, I just love this company.)

500 grams mascarpone cheese

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

60 Nilla – Vanilla Flavoured Wafers

1 cup small pretty strawberries

1 Tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Place the strawberry jam, mascarpone, seeds from the vanilla bean and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high speed until smooth and creamy. 
2. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap.
3. Spread the tops and bottoms of 15 of the cookies with the strawberry spread and line the base of the loaf tin with them in 3 rows of 5. Spread only the bottoms of the next 3 layers. Smooth the bottom of the last (4th) layer. You will use about a third of the strawberry spread for this. Place the rest in an airtight container and refrigerate.
4. Wrap the plastic wrap around the cookies and strawberry cream mixture and place it in the fridge overnight or for at least 8 hours.
5. Remove the bottom plastic wrap and invert the loaf pan onto a platter when ready to serve. 
6. Use the remaining strawberry cream mixture to coat the outside of the cake.
7. Halve the strawberries and place them in a bowl with 1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla.
8. Decorate the top of the cake with the strawberries and drizzle with any juices just before serving. Slice and serve as quickly as possible. NOTE: I didn’t actually do this. I just chose a few pretty strawberries for the top of the cake and I kept the juicy berries in a bowl on the side and only added them to one slice at a time. This way, the cake lasted in the “icebox” for a few days and I think it got a little tastier each day!

 

Keywords: icebox cake