This dessert is as delicious as it is stunning! Who doesn't love simple refrigerator cakes? Strawberries, cream, graham crackers and dulce de leche come together in this unforgettable recipe. It's so incredibly easy to put together and such a crowd-pleaser, you might as well stand up for the applause.
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Unique flavors
You're only 5 ingredients away from a memorable dessert. Similar to the lemon icebox dessert that's so popular in this blog.
If it's strawberry season where you are, and turning on the oven is not what you had in mind for dessert, we put together this stunning no-bake cake for you.
You're probably familiar with strawberries and cream paired with pound cake or shortcake.
We added dulce de leche to the mix.
If you haven't tried this combination of flavors, you're in for a fantastic surprise!
Ingredient list
- Strawberries: fresh is the way to go here. Frozen berries will add too much water and turn mushy.
- Dulce de leche: use the thicker type for this dessert. Or make dulce de leche from a can of condensed milk.
- Heavy cream: or whipping cream. Cream varies according to your country, but using the regular, full-fat type rarely fails. I use one that has between 42-44% fat content.
- Powdered sugar: also called confectioners or icing sugar.
- Graham crackers: our first choice. If unavailable, use vanilla cookies or chocolate wafers.
Quantities are listed in the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
What is dulce de leche?
Dulce de leche is a sweet jam made with milk, sugar, and baking soda, the latter being accountable for its dark color.
The flavor is very sweet, similar to caramel, but not quite. It does have a milk undertone, something that caramel lacks, and some might say it's not as sophisticated, and they might be right.
I'm a raving fan, so my opinion is biased. You can make homemade dulce de leche.
Assembling the cake
All you have to do here is layer ingredients. That's it. How's that for convenience and simplicity, huh?
The order in which the layers are laid out is key for this dessert work. Why? Because you want some structure and a balance of flavors.
So, I recommend using the graham crackers as a way to separate the cream layers while moistening them at the same time.
And adding only one thick layer of strawberries and one thick layer of dulce de leche.
Top tips
- Make-ahead: you can have the whipped cream made 2 hours in advance. Keep well covered in the refrigerator.
- Strawberries: for the top layer, cut them at the last minute for best results.
- Serving: you can make it as a no-bake cake like you see in the images here, or you can make it as a large or individual trifles in cups as we suggest with the very popular Lemon Icebox Dessert.
Variations
There are so many! Below you have my favorites.
- Peaches: sub fresh peaches for the strawberries. Nectarines work well too.
- Bananas: in addition to, or instead of, strawberries. It's a magic combination together with the dulce de leche.
- Cookies: use coconut cookies or chocolate wafers.
- Cream: you can make chocolate whipped cream. It goes really well with strawberries.
- Zest: add some lime zest to the sugar before whipping the cream. It will add some acid that works very well with the rest of the ingredients.
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Strawberry Icebox Cake (no bake)
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh strawberries
- 1 cup cream, whipping or heavy
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 6 ounces graham crackers
- 1 ½ cups dulce de leche, I always use dulce de leche repostero Vacalin which is available online.
Instructions
- Have ready an 8 or 9-inch glass or ceramic dish.
- In a bowl beat 1 cup cream with ¼ cup powdered sugar until medium peaks form. If making ahead reserve, covered, in the refrigerator.
- Wash, dry, stem, and dice ⅔ of the total amount of strawberries. Reserve.
- Put a thin layer of cream in the bottom of the pan.
- Add a layer of graham crackers, covering the bottom completely.
- Top with half the amount of remaining cream, spreading evenly.
- Now add the diced strawberries covering completely.
- Top them with the rest of the cookies.
- Add a layer of dulce de leche. You might need to be careful when spreading depending on the consistency as some are thicker than others.
- Top the dulce de leche with the rest of the cream.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- Before serving, top with fresh strawberries.
- Serve cold.
- Keep covered in the refrigerator.
Elsa says
Óptima
Paula Montenegro says
Gracias Elsa!
Juliana says
Hurray for strawberry season! Perfect and easy dessert, thanks for sharing so many wonderful ideas and alternatives