sundae-d ice box cake

when i think of iconic summer cakes, a few really good ones come to mind. namely, fraisier cakes and victoria sponge cakes due to their use of seasonal fruits, and ice cream cake and icebox cake because they require little-to-no oven time, come together very quickly, and are both served chilled. today, we’ll be making an icebox cake with a sundae twist. 

icebox cake originated in the 1920s in the united states, advertised as an easier-to-make version of trifle featuring mainly store-bought ingredients. an icebox cake, at its most basic, is a thin wafer layered with custard or whipped cream. the classic version was made with thin chocolate wafers + whipped cream. you basically assemble the layers of wafers and cream, let it set up overnight in the icebox (aka refrigerator) where the wafers will soften and absorb the cream, and then you can decorate it and serve the next day. 

while the lovely part of this cake is how simple it is to make (no special equipment is needed and there is not much active time), it is a little simple on the texture and flavor side of things. when trying it recently, for the first time in a long time, it kind of reminded me of cookies and cream ice cream due to the components and the cake being served slightly chilled. so i decided to give my version of an icebox cake an ice cream treatment, meaning i decided to sundae-ify it by adding on my favorite ice cream toppings for more texture and flavor. icebox cake is a bit of a blank canvas, so the more toppings the better!

when thinking about how to assemble this the first thing that came to mind (thinking of sliced desserts + ice cream sundaes) was viennetta. i had recently been watching a commercial from the 90s for it (see below), and something about the shape, and it being placed in a coupe glass, just feels so fun and nostalgic. i want to recreate that here, which is why this icebox cake is scaled to be made in a 1lb loaf pan (though you can definitely wing it and assemble it in any dish that you want). 

just a few years ago you could purchase the aforementioned chocolate wafers, but they are no longer produced so we have to make our own (unfortunately that means we will need to turn on the oven briefly). but after that, all we have to do is whip up the cream, layer it onto the wafers, place those layers into the loaf tin, refrigerate overnight, whip up a little more cream to decorate, and serve with our sundae toppings. 

*i have outlined two different ways to assemble the dessert - each in italics. there is the way i did it, entitled neat layers, which will give you a striped icebox cake. and an easy way that may be a better method for you if my instructions on rolling out, slicing, and layering the cake sound like too much.