There aren’t many flavour combinations out there in the world as nice as strawberries with cream, wouldn’t you agree? This time of year, the berries are sweet, juicy and – most importantly – locally sourced, with Irish berry farmers working hard to get their crops out to strawberry lovers like you and me.
As for the cream, who in the world has better tasting cream than Ireland? Our green, green grass makes the fat content in our dairy naturally high and full of delicious flavour.
As a chef, these are the kind of ingredients that bring great joy to me and my family each year as we figure out new and exciting ways to eat them.
As the nights get longer and the days get warmer, this isn’t the time for a warm tart or a baked pudding. If it’s really warm, do you even want to have to turn on the oven?
There are great no-bake desserts out there which just need assembling and will keep in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
My favourite no-bake dessert is something called an icebox cake. Before we had refrigerators, we had ice boxes – your grandparents or great-grandparents might remember them.
It's strawberry season and there are so many desserts you can make with these sweet, delicious berries.
These cakes are usually layered with different components: a crunchy layer, a creamy layer and a flavourful layer. A basic icebox cake could be as simple as layers of Oreo biscuits with whipped cream. But the really good ones combine a few different ingredients to make a luscious, delicious dessert.
These cakes are easy to make, but look so impressive your family might not believe you made one from scratch. If you’re very careful when you slice and serve the cake, you will be able to see each layer (like the cake in the photos).
However, you don’t need to be careful when serving – you can use a big spoon and add big dollops of these creamy cakes to a bowl.
I made this icebox cake with spiced speculoos biscuits, which I think go so nicely with strawberries.
However, chocolate biscuits, chocolate chip cookies or even just plain digestives would work really well.
The creamy filling and milk will soften the biscuit layers, making them more of a cake or pudding consistency. If there are any leftover biscuits, I blitz them in a food processor (into a fine crumb) and top the cake with those.
This cake can be frozen for up to two weeks or kept in the fridge for five days. I think it tastes best on day two or three in the fridge, as all the flavours come together.
Finally, if you don’t like cheesecake-type fillings, simply omit the mascarpone or soft cheese in this recipe and add the same amount of fresh custard or whipped cream. Easy and delicious!
Speculoos, strawberry
and mascarpone icebox cake
Serves 10-12
500ml double cream
60g icing sugar
450g fresh custard (shop-bought)
200g mascarpone cheese or soft cheese
200g strawberry compote (sauce) or fresh, diced strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
600g speculoos biscuits (three 200g packs)
200ml whole milk
Speculoos, strawberry and mascarpone icebox cake. \ Janine Kennedy
Directions
1 In a large bowl, with a hand-held mixer, whip the double cream with the icing sugar until soft peaks start to form.
2 Add the custard and mascarpone or soft cheese and continue to mix with the hand mixer until you have a thick, creamy filling – around one to two minutes.
3 Fold in the strawberry compote or the chopped strawberries at this stage. You can chill the filling until you’re ready to assemble the cake, or use it right away.
4 Assemble the icebox cake: using a rectangular casserole dish, dip speculoos biscuits into the milk and place on the base of the dish. Make an even layer of milk-dipped biscuits to completely cover the bottom of the dish.
5 Add one-third of the filling and carefully spread it over the top of the biscuits.
6 Add another layer of milk-dipped biscuits to the creamy layer, followed by another third of the filling. Spread carefully over the top.
7 Add a final layer of milk-dipped biscuits to this and cover with the final third of the creamy filling.
8 If you have leftover biscuits, crush them in a food processor or in a bowl with a rolling pin until they are fine crumbs. Sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the cake.
9 Wrap the casserole dish in cling film and place the cake in the fridge. Let the cake chill for at least four hours, or overnight.
10 Serve on plates or in bowls with more fresh strawberries, if you like.
Read more
This holiday season, give the gift of biscuits
Neven Maguire: a berry enjoyable summer meal
There aren’t many flavour combinations out there in the world as nice as strawberries with cream, wouldn’t you agree? This time of year, the berries are sweet, juicy and – most importantly – locally sourced, with Irish berry farmers working hard to get their crops out to strawberry lovers like you and me.
As for the cream, who in the world has better tasting cream than Ireland? Our green, green grass makes the fat content in our dairy naturally high and full of delicious flavour.
As a chef, these are the kind of ingredients that bring great joy to me and my family each year as we figure out new and exciting ways to eat them.
As the nights get longer and the days get warmer, this isn’t the time for a warm tart or a baked pudding. If it’s really warm, do you even want to have to turn on the oven?
There are great no-bake desserts out there which just need assembling and will keep in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
My favourite no-bake dessert is something called an icebox cake. Before we had refrigerators, we had ice boxes – your grandparents or great-grandparents might remember them.
It's strawberry season and there are so many desserts you can make with these sweet, delicious berries.
These cakes are usually layered with different components: a crunchy layer, a creamy layer and a flavourful layer. A basic icebox cake could be as simple as layers of Oreo biscuits with whipped cream. But the really good ones combine a few different ingredients to make a luscious, delicious dessert.
These cakes are easy to make, but look so impressive your family might not believe you made one from scratch. If you’re very careful when you slice and serve the cake, you will be able to see each layer (like the cake in the photos).
However, you don’t need to be careful when serving – you can use a big spoon and add big dollops of these creamy cakes to a bowl.
I made this icebox cake with spiced speculoos biscuits, which I think go so nicely with strawberries.
However, chocolate biscuits, chocolate chip cookies or even just plain digestives would work really well.
The creamy filling and milk will soften the biscuit layers, making them more of a cake or pudding consistency. If there are any leftover biscuits, I blitz them in a food processor (into a fine crumb) and top the cake with those.
This cake can be frozen for up to two weeks or kept in the fridge for five days. I think it tastes best on day two or three in the fridge, as all the flavours come together.
Finally, if you don’t like cheesecake-type fillings, simply omit the mascarpone or soft cheese in this recipe and add the same amount of fresh custard or whipped cream. Easy and delicious!
Speculoos, strawberry
and mascarpone icebox cake
Serves 10-12
500ml double cream
60g icing sugar
450g fresh custard (shop-bought)
200g mascarpone cheese or soft cheese
200g strawberry compote (sauce) or fresh, diced strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
600g speculoos biscuits (three 200g packs)
200ml whole milk
Speculoos, strawberry and mascarpone icebox cake. \ Janine Kennedy
Directions
1 In a large bowl, with a hand-held mixer, whip the double cream with the icing sugar until soft peaks start to form.
2 Add the custard and mascarpone or soft cheese and continue to mix with the hand mixer until you have a thick, creamy filling – around one to two minutes.
3 Fold in the strawberry compote or the chopped strawberries at this stage. You can chill the filling until you’re ready to assemble the cake, or use it right away.
4 Assemble the icebox cake: using a rectangular casserole dish, dip speculoos biscuits into the milk and place on the base of the dish. Make an even layer of milk-dipped biscuits to completely cover the bottom of the dish.
5 Add one-third of the filling and carefully spread it over the top of the biscuits.
6 Add another layer of milk-dipped biscuits to the creamy layer, followed by another third of the filling. Spread carefully over the top.
7 Add a final layer of milk-dipped biscuits to this and cover with the final third of the creamy filling.
8 If you have leftover biscuits, crush them in a food processor or in a bowl with a rolling pin until they are fine crumbs. Sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the cake.
9 Wrap the casserole dish in cling film and place the cake in the fridge. Let the cake chill for at least four hours, or overnight.
10 Serve on plates or in bowls with more fresh strawberries, if you like.
Read more
This holiday season, give the gift of biscuits
Neven Maguire: a berry enjoyable summer meal
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