Easy desserts can be really helpful when you cannot think of anything to make and are having a dinner or just want a special treat for you and your family one night without having to put a lot of effort into it. One of the classic desserts that many people may remember from their youth is just like this – the classic icebox cake. It only has a few ingredients to it and most of the time you need to put into making the cake is the cake chilling in the refrigerator. What you come out with is a great tasting classic without much effort. I got this recipe from the Cooking Channel, though you can also find the recipe on the back of the chocolate wafer cooking package you use in the recipe (unless of course you are making your own chocolate wafer cookies).

Classic Icebox Cake

40 chocolate wafer cookies (store-bought or homemade)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon corn syrup

3 cups heavy whipping cream

To make the caramel whipped cream, in a medium saucepan put the sugar in a mound in the center of the pan. Try to be sure that the sugar does not hit the sides of the pan. Gently add the water and the corn syrup, making sure that the sugar does not splash up on the sides of the pan. If any of the sugar is not dissolved, very gently stir, but make sure none of the sugar hits the sides of the pan. All of this care to keep the sugar off the sides of the pan will prevent the sugar from crystallizing while it cooks.

Cook the sugar mixture over high heat, without stirring. When the sugar starts to color on the edges, gently stir the sugar until it is quite dark. The sugar will smoke a bit until it has turned dark.

Once the caramel is dark in color, reduce the heat and add half of the heavy whipping cream. The caramel will sputter and seize up, which is normal. Gently whisk the caramel until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining heavy cream and stir. Strain the caramel cream into a shallow container and cover and refrigerate it until it is well chilled, about 2 to 4 hours minimum.

Using a whisk or a stand mixer, whip 2/3 of the chilled caramel cream until soft peaks have formed. Reserve the remaining 1/3 of the cream for topping the cake.

To make the icebox cake, Line a 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap.

Coat the bottom of the prepared loaf pan with about 1/4-inch thick layer of the caramel cream. Line the outer edge of the loaf pan with chocolate wafer cookies. Spread a layer of cream on each cookie and layer them together in the pan. You should end up with about 3 rows of cookies and cream. Cover the top with more of the cream so that the cookies are completely covered. Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Invert the cake onto a serving platter. Whip the remaining 1/3 of the caramel cream and decorate the cake with it as you wish.

Of course, if you didn’t want to go through the effort of making the caramel cream, you could simply make some regular whipped cream and use that as the base and topping for your cake and it would come out just as nicely I believe, but the caramel adds a nice touch and flavor to the cake. The cake is light and airy and the chocolate wafers just go so nicely with the cream that you can find yourself eating a lot of this cake without much effort at all. It’s pretty tasty and one that we use often, either with regular whipped cream or caramel cream.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!