Happy Father’s Day to the best dad a girl could ask for! Today, I spent an absolutely wonderful day with my dad, reading at the beach, kayaking/paddle boarding, and generally enjoying South Shore life. And, because it’s his day, I made a recipe this week that is one of his favorites: Icebox Cake. Icebox Cake is good for a number of reasons. It only has three ingredients. You don’t have to turn on the oven. And the finished product kind of tastes like Oreos but better.

The three ingredients? Heavy cream, vanilla extract, and Famous Chocolate Wafers. The only tricky one is the wafers. These cookies exist entirely for this cake, and no other reason. You would never buy a box of them just to eat. They’re hard, and mostly just taste like the cookie part of an Oreo (everyone knows the best part of an Oreo is the cream). And, to make the cake best, you want to avoid breaking the wafers before use. Not easy, given the way Nabisco decided to package them.

But before all that matters, make the whipped cream. Beat the heavy cream on high speed in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until still peaks form. Then, stir in the vanilla extract. Next, put about a tablespoon of whipped cream on a cookie, and start smushing them together into a long log. Once you get about 6 going, it will stand up by itself. Keep going until you’ve used all the cookies, glueing together any broken cookies as necessary.With the remaining whipped cream, spread the sides and top to coat. Put it in the fridge for about 5 hours, which will let the whipped cream soak into the cookies and soften them. When you slice it, and stand it up on edge, it almost looks like a fancy cake!Fancy or not, though, it’s delicious, and made for a very happy Daddy-o.

Enjoy!

Icebox Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 package (9 ounces) Famous Chocolate Wafer Cookies

Directions:

1. Whip the heavy cream in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on high speed until stiff peaks form.
2. Stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Spread about 1 tablespoon of whipped cream on a cookie, and stack another cookie, continuing to put whipped cream between cookies to form a long log.
4. Spread remaining whipped cream over tops and sides. Refrigerate for 5 hours.