Why hello there! It’s so nice to see you again!
First, I want to say that I hope you all had a perfectly wonderful (and delicious) Thanksgiving day. I know I did!
Second, I want to let you know that the pressure and the stress of making and testing and photographing and posting eight Thanksgiving recipes and making two actual Thanksgiving dinners (not to mention working at a kitchenware store leading up to the biggest food holiday in the US of A) was just too much for me. I promise that it was all worth it, but it actually killed me. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve passed away.
Despite my untimely demise, there’s no rest for the weary, and here I am again posting from the great unknown.
The holidays are fast approaching so I know that I need to get my blogging butt in gear and get baking! Being that I’m recently deceased though, I wanted to try to do something sort of easy(ish). Easy doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t also be really fun and impressive and totally delicious though!
Thing is,
I don’t really do “easy”.
A while back I saw Martha (yes, THE Martha) on TV promoting her new entertaining cookbook and she made an icebox cake with thin, crisp homemade chocolate chip cookies. I’d never had an icebox cake, but her version sounded amazing and actually pretty simple (especially for Martha).
A traditional icebox cake is make with thin, store bought crisp wafer cookies sandwiched and stacked together with whipped cream. You do a layer of cookies, a layer of cream, a layer of cookies, a layer of cream, and so on and so forth until you suddenly have a round, cake shaped stack.
It doesn’t seem like this should work, but it does. You’d think that the cream would separate and wilt and the cookies would turn to mush and the whole thing would just fall apart and be weird and gross. But that’s not what happens. Magic happens.
The crisp cookies soften as they absorb some of the liquid from the cream and so, rather than separating and wilting, the whipped cream actually thickens even more as the cookies soften up. When left for several hours (or overnight) the whole thing sort of takes on one perfect smooth, sliceable texture, just like a rich silky cake.
Like I said.
Magic.
I decided that if it was good enough for Martha, it was good enough for me.
Rather than Martha’s chocolate chips, or the traditional chocolate wafer cookies, I wanted to do something a little more “holiday-y”. To me, growing up with German grandparents, the holidays were always filled with molasses and spice. Gingerbread and gingersnaps and the like. You know.
So I thought that a gingersnap icebox cake was just the ticket to kick off the holiday baking season. Like I said before though, I don’t really do “easy”. I know I set out to do an easy dessert, but once I got inspired and excited I decided that it would be more fun to make my own gingersnaps rather than using store bought. This is totally unnecessary, but I’m a weirdo so I totally enjoyed the process. If you do want to make your own though, I’d suggest using a little extra ginger in the cookies. The spice is mellowed out a bit by the cream so a little extra will kick it back up to where you’d expect a gingersnap to be.
To add a little extra depth and richness to the standard whipped cream I added mascarpone and a touch of maple syrup. A splash of bourbon was a nice touch too but could easily be left out if you’re serving this to the under 21 crowd.
The ginger and molasses in the gingersnaps pairs perfectly with the sweet mascarpone maple whipped cream. The combination is like a rich velvety gingerbread flavored mousse. A sprinkle of chopped crystalized ginger adds a nice touch of extra spice and lets your guests know that rather than simple chocolate, this cake is made with sugar and spice and everything nice.
This cake is seriously amazing. Like, totally unbelievable. Russell has been raving about it ever since the last bite disappeared and keeps saying how he wasn’t expecting something so simple to taste so delicious. But, again, this cake is made of magic. You might even say that it’s special powers were strong enough to bring me back to life!
Gingersnap Icebox Cake with Maple Mascarpone Cream
2 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon or rum (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 oz mascarpone at room temperature
pinch of salt
At least 63 gingersnaps, for nine layers of seven cookies each
(I made my own using a double batch of smitten kitchen‘s recipe)
A tablespoon or two of finely chopped crystalized ginger, optional
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it begins to thicken and form soft peaks. In a separate bowl, stir together the mascarpone, sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, vanilla, & salt until smooth and well combined. Transfer mascarpone mixture to bowl with thickened cream and beat on low speed until almost smooth, 30 to 60 seconds. Scrape down the sides and fold to incorporate. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until the mixture is thick and holds firm peaks, another 30 to 60 seconds. Do NOT overbeat or the icing will become grainy.
On an 8″ cake board, cake stand, or serving plate, arrange a layer of cookies into tight a circle. You’ll want one cookie in the center with a ring of cookies surrounding it with as little space between them as possible. With the size of the cookies I used I could fit 7 cookies per layer. Place about 3/4 to a cup of icing over the first layer of cookies and smooth it out with a small offset icing spatula. Spread the icing almost to the outer edge of the cookies, leaving just a small edge of cookies showing. Arrange another layer of cookies, alternating the layers so they appear staggered above one another. Repeat another layer of icing and then another layer of cookies, again and again until you have as many layers as you desire or until you run out of icing or cookies. Finish the top of the cake with a final layer of icing. My cake was 9 layers tall.
If you have a cookie or two left over, crumble it over the top and sprinkle with crystalized ginger if desired.
Transfer cake to refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours (or overnight) before serving.
Brooklyn Homemaker 
Love this! Can’t wait to try!
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Thanks!!
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It really is beautiful and looks delicious. So glad you returned to life!
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;) thank you!!
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Love Icebox cakes and make them all the time-now this is funny Tux just yesterday I posted a Gingersnap and Cream Parfait on https://thewisercook.wordpress.com – nothing elaborate just tasty-yumified stuff you know! Get over to my main site to enter a giveaway https://clwiser.wordpress.com. Best wishes to you and Russell and the Girls. Cheryl
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I had a feeling that this recipe would be up your alley! Your version sounds delicious too!
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Thanks, easy-peasy check out and enter giveaway Tux!!!
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Hi Tux! This looks amazing and actually do-able for me (I am no chef, trust me). Do you have any recommendations for store bought ginger snaps to use? Brand or just general guidelines?
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Thanks Jodi! As for store bought gingersnaps, I don’t have any specific brand that I prefer or can recommend, but I think most brands should work just fine. You just want to make sure they’re crisp rather than chewy- and I’d say the wider they are the better because you’ll end up with a bigger cake that way. I think the ideal cookies would be about 2.5 to 3 inches across. If they’re much smaller than that you might want to use more of them per layer.
I hope that helps and I hope you love this cake if you give it a try!
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Seriously, magic looking. I can’t wait to try this over the holiday season. I can relate to your Thanksgiving demise. The holidays are a bit of a juggle. I’m glad you made it through the hurdle and truly didn’t really leave us. Love your food photography btw. I pinned this for later. Happy Holiday season.
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Thank you so much! I always overdo it at Thanksgiving. It’s my absolute favorite holiday but I always end up taking on too many projects and totally exhausting myself. Maybe I’ll learn next year (but I doubt it haha!)
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Whooooaaaa mama! This looks amazeballs!!! You know, I’ve always wondered what icebox cakes were, but lacked the ambition to actually find out. But per the usual, here you are schooling me on all the things I didn’t know I was missing! I definitely need to try this one out – naturally mine won’t be as lovely as yours, but hopefully my family won’t care as long as it tastes good haha
Kudos to you for all the posts lately, even after all your Thanksgiving extravaganzas!
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I’m sure you could make one stunner of an icebox cake if you tried. The hardest part was getting the cookies evenly spaced and lined up in the staggered pattern (both for stability and looks). It was kind of time consuming to make sure it looked good, but it’s not difficult at all I promise. I make a lot of promises around here! Haha!
Thank you so much! I promise things will slow back down around here again. (another promise!) That way both of us will be able to keep up! haha!
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That does look magical! I’ll have to try making an icebox cake with homemade cookies sometime, it sounds fun. And delicious. Love this gingerbread variation!
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Thanks June!
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love this. it sounds delish and looks gorgeous. definitely a showstopper christmas dessert. pinned!
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Thank you so much!
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What a beauty! You really out did yourself and you’ve even passed on. Not only are you an incredible baker, but a magician, too!
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Hahaha! Thanks!
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First of all I love the very idea of an old fashioned ice box cake and really like how you have updated the concept! So pretty and delicious looking. Thanks for sharing this recipe and how-to. Happy Holidays.
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Thanks Teresa! I’d never had one before this and now I’m bummed that I didn’t know about them sooner!
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“Let us bow our heads in prayer as we remember Tux, the most wonderful baker on Earth.” Thank you for sharing this! I’m going to make it for my dreaded work Christmas potluck and be a freaking hero.
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Hahaha!!! I hope everyone loves it! I’m sure it’ll be a hit!
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I know the Martha recipe too but Yours looks quite fabulous!!!! Fantastic wonderful inviting photos! Drool worthy material too! xxxx
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Thank you!!
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