Strawberries and Cream Icebox Cake

And You Can Make It Days Ahead!

Strawberries and cream. There really isn’t a whole lot more to say on that subject, is there? It’s a perfect combination. Swoon worthy. So, as I got to thinking about a strawberry and cream dessert that I could make, but would still be as good days later as it was on the first day, I thought about an icebox cake.

There are tons of recipes for strawberry icebox cakes out there. And the vast majority involve graham crackers or vanilla wafers, whipped cream or Cool Whip, and cream cheese. Not at all what I wanted. I’ve got nothing against graham crackers or even vanilla wafers, but neither of those were what I had in mind. Graham crackers overwhelm the clean strawberry flavor and vanilla wafers do the same. Too much vanilla. Again, I think the whole point of strawberries and cream are for those 2 ingredients to be the stars of the show. I don’t want anything else muddying up those beautiful elements.

So, I went with shortbreads, Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, to be exact. I thought about using Walker shortbreads or even making my own, but the Walkers are way too thick, and I wanted to keep this as simple as possible and not have to turn on my oven in the hot months ahead. I chose to just buy the cookies.

Now, while I do love cream cheese, I do not want it here. Cream cheese would give it a mouth feel that is almost greasy. It’s too heavy for what I was going for. I stuck with heavy cream. But I did want some tanginess, so I stirred in a little sour cream. 

My first go around with this did not work well. I simply used sliced fresh strawberries and neither the texture nor the flavor were good. Plus, my cookies never fully softened, I needed more juice. 

Next time around I very gently cooked the strawberries with some sugar, orange zest, lemon juice, black pepper, and a pinch of salt. I simmered them until they had just softened, but not until they fell apart. Then I added a half teaspoon of rose water and vanilla. You’d never know either one of those flavors were there, but they serve to make strawberries taste more like strawberries. Know what I mean? Now we were talking. The flavor was profound and the softened strawberries worked much better, texture-wise. 

By the way, I’m not one for too many single-use kitchen gadgets. But I bought this little tool * years ago and love it. I use it for coring strawberries, tomatoes, etc. It bothers me to cut off the tops of strawberries. I think it’s so wasteful – you lose way too much fruit. With this simple little gadget, it’s so easy to only remove the core. It takes no more time than it does to slice off the top.

Okay, now on to the whipped cream. Besides adding sour cream, I flavored it with my favorite Fiori di Sicilia from King Arthur . The unique citrus and vanilla flavors were a perfect match for the strawberries. I also minced one slice of candied orange, but this isn’t necessary. It’s only an option. Because I have it on hand I used it and it was delicious, but it’s not at all essential.

After the strawberries had chilled it was time to put this together. I carefully lined a 9 x 5 loaf pan with 2 layers of plastic wrap, leaving plenty of it hanging off the sides, in order to be able to fold it over the top. A layer of whipped cream went in the bottom, followed by 8 Lorna Doones.

I then spooned on some of the strawberries, along with their juices. I learned from my first attempt that you need more juice than you think you do, so I made sure to use all of it.

By the time I was done I had 4 layers, using 8 cookies on the first 2 layers, 10 cookies on the remaining 2 layers, and finishing it with a final thin whipped cream layer.  After folding over the plastic wrap to make sure it was well sealed it went into the fridge overnight. 

The next morning I moved it to the freezer. It helps to give it at least a couple of hours in the freezer if you want neat slices. I unmolded it onto a flat parchment lined platter and sliced it into 8 slices. At this point, you can either put the slices on plates and move them into the fridge in order to let them thaw, or you can let them sit out at room temperature for awhile until they’ve softened up a bit, but you don’t want to let them come to room temperature. This begs to be eaten chilled. 

One of the things I love about this dessert is that I can slice it up and then wrap the slices I won’t be serving in plastic wrap and put them back in the freezer for quite awhile, pulling out a slice when I get the urge. I’ve only tested the longevity of this for 2 weeks, but I think they would be fine left in the freezer for much longer. 

A slice or two of fresh strawberries and a sprig of mint gussied up each slice prettily, but the fresh berry and mint are deliciously welcome flavor additions.  

Strawberries and cream – pure joy. And you can pull it out of your freezer on short notice when the need arises. Yes, there are times when you need strawberries and cream. At least I do. Is it just me? Somehow I doubt it.