Holy cannoli. When Fatima was explaining that she wanted to make an icebox cake, the look on my face was utter confusion. An icebox cake, what is that? Cookies and cool whip. Did I ever mention I don’t like cool whip? She said she wanted to make a ginger spiced icebox cake for the holidays. I said I didn’t like cool whip, right?
There’s this amazing Gingerbread Cookie recipe we use every year that I thought would work (you have to check it out, seriously, so delicious). However, the more Fatima explained the concept to me, the more I thought we needed a lighter cookie. While so delicious and chewy, those were going to be too dense for this experiment. So we lightened the load on some of the ingredients and substituted shortening for butter. Shortening is 100% fat, therefore it will make your cookies fluffier.
This Ginger Spiced Icebox Cake experiment was a success!
The cake was so delicious. We didn’t get to eat a piece of this cake until after we took the photos. However, I wasn’t planning to eat the cake right away. I thought Fatima would want the piece I used for the shoot. I would have a bite. However, right after I took the photos, I took the first bite. Oh my gosh. It exceeded all of my expectations. I was almost done with that slice and it hit me. This was supposed to be Fatima’s slice. I brought her the almost-eaten slice and she just looked at me with an “are-you-kidding-me” face. I went and cut her another piece.
She loved it too. Fatima does not have a sweet tooth and very picky with her sweets. However, she took a slice to work every day. That’s when you know you made something delicious. We are going to make this ginger spiced icebox cake for Christmas. Unfortunately, we’ll have to make two of these cakes because we have parties on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day…bummer :). Please note the sarcasm.
Ginger Spiced Icebox Cake
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
For the cool whip:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- Cinnamon for dusting
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Using a mixer, combine shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients until just combined.
- With a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out cookie dough onto a baking sheet. Leave room in between the balls of dough.
- Take a mason jar and lightly press down the balls of dough until flattened.
- Put in the oven for about 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are firmed up.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat with your remaining cookie dough. You should be able to get about 45 cookies, we got 46. Enough to get you 9 layers.
- For the cool whip, add heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl and whip on high-speed.
- Do this for a few minutes or until you get soft peaks. To get soft peaks, lift your whisk out of the mixture. Did a soft, little mountain form? Yes? Then you’re all set! A stiff peak is when your mountains are tall and pointy.
- Add a little of the cool whip to the bottom of the plate you are going to serve your cake on. This is going to act like glue to keep the cookies from sliding.
- Make a tight circle of 5 cookies over the cool whip. They should be touching.
- Cover the cookies with a thin layer of cool whip.
- Then, layer 5 cookies over the places where the bottom layer of cookies are touching. Press these cookies down gently so they are secured in the cool whip.
- Add a layer of cool whip over these cookies.
- Repeat layering cookies and cool whip until you are out of cookies. We ended up with 46 cookies, so we added the last cookie to the top in the middle of the cake.
- When the top layer of cool whip is added, dust with a little cinnamon.
- Cover the cake and let sit in the fridge overnight. Trust us, this will be worth it.
- Don’t take the cake out until you’re ready to serve.
- Before serving the cake, be sure to cut yourself a piece first. This will go fast…
Check out the pineapple mimosa recipe making an appearance in the photos above.
