Lemon Icebox Cake Recipe

Just a few years in the past, a buddy launched me to Invoice Smith’s Atlantic Seaside pie. The dessert, impressed by the numerous childhood summers the chef spent in North Carolina, has a buttery saltine crust, a tangy filling of condensed milk and lemon juice, and a lofty pouf of whipped cream on high. Salty, candy, and creamy, the pie tastes precisely like a summer season day on the seashore, if it had been dessert. And the reminiscence of that first chunk has stayed with me via the years—a lot in order that I make Smith’s pie every summer season and have now give you an icebox cake recipe impressed by it.

There are a number of key variations, although. Actually, my recipe is a mash-up of Smith’s dessert and one other basic confection: the lemon meringue pie. Smith makes his crust by tossing crushed Saltines with butter and sugar; right here, I attain for Ritz crackers, which have a wealthy, savory taste with out the necessity for added butter. And as a substitute of a filling of lemon juice, condensed milk, and egg yolks, I go for layers of lemon curd—which you’ll be able to put together from scratch or buy from the shop—and whipped cream. Lastly, there’s the lemon meringue pie’s signature topping of a torched meringue that coats all the cake. 

One of the best half? There is no such thing as a baking required. All you must do is layer the parts in a loaf pan, plop it within the fridge, and wait. Make it the evening earlier than you may have a celebration, and your dessert will virtually be executed by the point you get up. All that’s left to do is unmold the cake and brown the meringue with a kitchen torch. Like my favourite lemon desserts, this icebox cake is pleasantly tangy, with simply sufficient saltiness and whipped cream to stability the curd’s sweetness. Right here’s tips on how to make it.

7 Ideas for Making a Zesty Lemon Icebox Cake

Make your individual lemon curd. Although lemon curd is available in grocery shops, it’s value taking the time to make your individual curd, which lets you regulate for sweetness. In my lemon curd recipe, I name for rubbing the lemon zest with sugar earlier than cooking to assist draw out the citrus fruit’s aromatic oils, leading to a extra flavorful curd.

Line your loaf pan with plastic wrap. Like my s’mores icebox cake recipe and strawberry icebox cake recipe, the important thing to efficiently unmolding this cake is lining your loaf pan with plastic wrap earlier than you assemble. Make certain the plastic hangs over the sting of the pan so you’ll be able to simply maintain onto it as you unmold the cake. To unmold your icebox cake, merely take away the plastic wrap from the highest of the cake, invert it onto a rimmed baking sheet, then take away the loaf pan and discard the remaining plastic.

Use a savory cracker. For a salty-sweet dessert, I like to recommend utilizing a savory cracker. Although I exploit Ritz right here, saltines would even be scrumptious. Keep away from sugar cookies, shortbread, or vanilla wafers, as they gained’t present the savory distinction wanted.

Let your fridge and freezer do the onerous give you the results you want. Refrigerating the cake for at the least six hours helps the crackers soften to a cake-like texture, and permits them to take in the flavors of the tangy curd. After you unmold the cake, freeze it for at the least an hour to make sure it’s chilly sufficient to frost, torch, and slice with out melting right into a puddle.

Permit the cake to return to room temperature. A frozen cake is less complicated to slice, however except you wish to chip a tooth, I like to recommend letting the cake sit at room temperature for ten minutes, which can soften it barely and permit the flavors to change into extra pronounced. The cake will nonetheless be chilly, however you gained’t need to undergo a damaged tooth or mind freeze. 

Frost with Italian meringue. As I famous in my s’mores icebox cake recipe, Italian meringue for an icebox cake could also be just a little “additional”—however I choose the extra impartial taste and thickness of Italian meringue. To make an Italian meringue, you slowly pour a sizzling sugar syrup into whipping egg whites, which cooks and stabilizes the combination. But when that feels a bit too fussy for you, be happy to make use of marshmallow fluff. 

For the toastiest meringue, use a blowtorch. Utilizing a blowtorch permits you to evenly toast the meringue with out heating the cake an excessive amount of. However in case you don’t personal a blowtorch, you’ll be able to method this such as you would a baked Alaska by toasting the meringue within the oven. Simply make certain your cake is correctly frozen—in any other case you’ll find yourself with lemon meringue soup.