Name: Coffee Icebox Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: (1) box of graham crackers; 2 cup heavy whipping cream (16 oz.); 4 Tbsp powdered sugar (or granulated sugar); 2 tsp instant coffee granules; 2 tsp vanilla extract

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I planned to share this coffee icebox cake with you days ago, but my family ate it before I got a chance to photograph it. They were positively gleeful when they realized this meant I’d have to make another one. Normally, I would have found their lack of remorse annoying, but truth be told, I was secretly excited to have an excuse to ~~make~~ eat another one. It’s just that good.

The idea for this cake popped in my head a few weeks ago, but I had to wait until I had more heavy cream to test it. It’s based on an old-fashioned icebox cake, so there’s no cooking, and very little hands-on time – 15 minutes tops.

This simple cake is made up of alternating layers of coffee-flavored whipped cream and graham crackers, and needs to be refrigerated overnight, before serving. This gives the graham crackers time to soften and expand, and results in a cake that is wonderfully moist and flavorful, with just the right amount of sweetness.

If you want to impress your guests, cut your icebox cake on the diagonal. This will reveal all the gorgeous layers in each slice, and make people think you worked much harder than you did.

Coffee Icebox Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

(1) box of graham crackers
2 cup heavy whipping cream (16 oz.)
4 Tbsp powdered sugar (or granulated sugar)
2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 tsp vanilla extract

I’ve made this with a couple different brands of instant coffee, Cafe Bustelo was my hands-down favorite. The flavor was perfect.

What You Do:

Combine the heavy whipping cream, sugar, instant coffee granules and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Whip, until stiff peaks form. If you don’t have much experience making whipped cream, this tutorial goes into more detail.

Spread a layer of coffee whipped cream on one side of a graham cracker.

Then, stack another graham cracker on top of the first one, and spread whipped cream on that one. Continue stacking graham crackers and spreading whipped cream, until your cake is as big as you want it.

Use the remaining whipped cream to frost the outside of the cake.

Cover, and refrigerate over night. I stick toothpicks in the top of the cake, to keep the plastic wrap from touching the whipped cream.

To serve your coffee icebox cake, start at one of the corners, and cut the cake on the diagonal. This will reveal all the delicious layers of whipped cream and graham crackers. I always try to claim one of the corners because you get more whipped cream.

Coffee Icebox Cake

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Print Recipe

This old-fashioned coffee icebox cake comes together quickly, and requires no cook time.

Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 8 slices (or more) 1x

Ingredients

Scale

(1) box of graham crackers
2 cup heavy whipping cream (16 oz.)
4 Tbsp powdered sugar (or granulated sugar)
2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 tsp vanilla extract

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Instructions

Make coffee-flavored whipped cream by combining, heavy whipping cream, sugar, instant coffee granules, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, and whisking, until stiff peaks form.

Spread whipped cream on one side of a graham cracker.

Stack another graham cracker on top of the first one, and spread it with whipped cream.

Continue stacking graham crackers and spreading whipped cream, until the cake is as long as you’d like it to be.

Then, frost the outside of the cake with the remaining coffee whipped cream.

Cover, and chill overnight, so the graham crackers have time to soften and expand.

To cut, start at one of the corners of the icebox cake, and cut slices on the diagonal. This will allow you to see all the layers in each slice.