28 Amazing Icebox Cake Recipes You Have To Try!

If you’re a lover of icebox cakes, who can blame you! Refreshingly cold and so, so creamy, with added crunch from wafers or crackers, and often additional flavors as well from fruits or nuts.

Icebox cakes have been around since the 1800s, back when what they had for a refrigerator was called an icebox, hence the name.

In the 1980s a similar product, Vienetta, was introduced to the US, which disappeared for a while but then came back in 2021.

I have found a whopping 28 amazing icebox cake recipes across the net that I can’t wait to share with you.

So you don’t have to worry about searching high and low for a store bought option, and you can have fun making your own at home.

Better yet, most icebox cake recipes don’t require any actual baking, which makes them an excellent starting point for those who are less experienced in baking, or have yet to gain their confidence in it.

I’m also going to throw in a section at the end, where I answer all of your most frequently asked questions on the subject.

And without further ado, get those taste buds ready, because here we go!

1. Chocolate Icebox Cake Recipe From Sugar Spun Run

I’m going to kick things off with one of my absolute favorites – a traditional chocolate flavored icebox cake. There’s no baking required whatsoever, and full instructions are provided.

You make a delicious homemade vanilla whipped cream, a decadent chocolate ganache, and layer them over chocolate graham crackers, which will transform to moist chocolate cake.

2. Key Lime Icebox Cake Recipe From Cookie Madness

If you love icebox cake AND you love key lime pie, why not go for the best of both worlds, with this refreshing and creamy dessert recipe?

It’s super simple to make, you simply make up the creamy lime filling with lime zest and juice and more, and layer it until you get 4 layers of filling and 5 layers of graham crackers.

3. Chocolate And Peppermint No-Bake Icebox Cake Dessert Recipe From Chicken Scratch NY

OMG, I just love this recipe! It’s super simple to make, and takes as little as 5 minutes to prepare. It only requires 5 ingredients, such as peppermint extract and instant chocolate pudding.

I love it with dark chocolate pudding and served up with a sprinkle of crushed candy canes and whipped cream.

4. Espresso Royale Icebox Cake Recipe From Onion Rings & Things

If, like me, you’re a coffee lover, trust me, you will love this recipe. It features layers of graham crackers, with a rich and silky espresso mouse, to give you that intense coffee hit in a wonderfully cool dessert.

Better yet, it only requires 5 ingredients to make it.

5. Strawberry Icebox Cake Recipe From Amanda’s Cooking

This refreshing no-bake icebox cake is not only delicious but also an absolute breeze to make. You only need 5 ingredients in total, namely heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, strawberries and graham crackers.

You create a mixture with the first 3 ingredients, and layer it between graham crackers and fresh sliced strawberries. Yum!

6. Black Forest Icebox Cake Recipe From The First Year

If you’re a fan of the famous German Black Forest gâteau, you will just adore this recipe. In my view, it’s even better than the traditional dessert.

The cake itself only requires 5 ingredients, including the likes of cream cheese and cherries, while the topping is made with heavy whipping cream, sugar, and a garnish of chocolate and cherries – delicious!

7. Death by Chocolate Icebox Cake Recipe From Life, Love And Sugar

If, perhaps, you’re in the mood for an intensely rich, chocolate dessert, then boy, have I got the recipe for you! Death by chocolate is an appropriate name for it!

It’s got layers of chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse and chocolate graham crackers, and it’s topped with chocolate sauce.

8. Lemon Icebox Cake Recipe From Amanda’s Cookin’

This refreshing dish comes highly recommended. And it’s surprisingly low in calories, coming in at a mere 165 calories per serving.

It features easy to source ingredients, such as graham crackers and cool whip. I love it served with a garnish of sliced lemons and lemon zest – just yummy!

9. No Bake Peanut Butter Icebox Cake Recipe From Crazy For Crust

If you ask me, any recipe featuring peanut butter is going to be more-ish, and I can assure you this recipe is no exception.

It only takes 20 minutes to prepare, and only 6 ingredients, including the likes of peanut butter sandwich cookies, instant pudding mix, whipped topping, and to finish you can garnish with either Reese’s Pieces or Peanut M&Ms.

10. Boozy Mudslide Icebox Cake Recipe From Sugar & Cloth

If you’re making a dessert for adults, why not try a boozy icebox cake recipe like this one?

It features such ingredients as Kahlua coffee liqueur, Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur, and chocolate covered espresso beans. You will have to refrigerate for at least 24 hours, but trust me, it’s 100% worth the wait!

11. Raspberry Icebox Cake Recipe From Cooking Classy

This recipe is really something else! It features good old graham crackers layered with a fresh, homemade raspberry cheesecake flavored mouse and billowy whipped cream.

The mouse layer features such ingredients as real fresh raspberries, cream cheese and vanilla extract. The recipe yields 15 servings and has to be refrigerated for at least 6 hours.

12. S’mores Icebox Cake Recipe From Amanda’s Cookin’

If you love that campfire classic s’mores (and who wouldn’t?!) then you should definitely check out this amazing s’mores icebox cake recipe.

You only need a handful of ingredients, such as chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, mini marshmallows, and of course graham crackers. And it’s not too high in calories to boot.

13. No-Bake Snickers Icebox Cake Recipe From Beyond Frosting

OMG, this recipe is to die for! It features such ingredients as Snickers bites, caramel cream cheese, layers of chocolate graham crackers, chocolate pudding, hot fudge sauce, salty peanuts, and more.

The recipe yields 12 to 15 servings and only takes 20 minutes to prepare before refrigerating for at least 4 hours.

14. No-Bake Peach Pie Icebox Cake Recipe From Pitchfork Foodie Farms

If you ask me, this recipe makes for the perfect Summer dessert. It’s cool, it’s refreshing, it’s light, and it’s creamy. All you need is graham crackers, whipped topping, peach pie filling, and a sprinkling of ground nutmeg to garnish.

The webpage features a link for making a homemade peach pie filling if you can’t find a store bought one.

15. No Bake Nutella And Oreo Icebox Cake Recipe From BruCrew Life

Fans of chocolate hazelnut treat Nutella and Oreos will just love this wonderful dessert. It only requires a handful of ingredients, and is perfect for a picnic or a dinner party.

You can make it in just 5 steps, and the recipe yields 16 servings. And it’s not as high in calories as you might expect, coming in at just 253 calories per serving.

16. Dulce De Leche Icebox Cake Recipe From New York Times

OMG, I just love this dish! It has an amazing cookies-and-cream meets salted caramel flavor.

For those of you who don’t already know, dulce de leche is basically just caramelized milk made by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. Or, if you prefer, you can just use store bought dulce de leche.

17. Strawberry Shortcake Icebox Cake Recipe From Delish

Now, this is hands down the easiest no-bake icebox cake recipe that I’ve come across. It only requires 4 ingredients, namely strawberry shortcake dessert bars, whipped topping, strawberry slices, and crushed vanilla wafers.

It only takes 15 minutes to prepare, refrigeration time is just 4 hours, and the recipe yields 8 servings.

18. Frozen Mocha Marbled Loaf Recipe From Taste Of Home

Now, this icebox dessert not only looks amazing with its marbled appearance, but it tastes amazing too – I just love the combination of coffee, chocolate, and cream flavors – simply divine!

What’s more, the ingredients are easy to source, and it only takes about 15 minutes to prepare before freezing.

19. Oreo Funfetti Icebox Cake Recipe From Delish

This is just such a pretty little icebox cake, and this recipe means we can give the chocolate Oreo cookies a break and use golden Oreos instead.

It’s a super simple recipe needing only 5 minutes preparation time, and requiring only 5 ingredients. The rainbow sprinkle garnish looks super colorful and fun.

20. 4-Ingredient Biscoff Icebox Cake Recipe From Most Lovely Things

If, like me, you’re an ardent fan of Biscoff cookies and Biscoff spread, I can assure you that you will love this recipe!

As you will have gathered from the recipe title, you only need 4 ingredients, and these are heavy cream, sugar, Biscoff spread and Biscoff Lotus cookies.

You will need to leave it in the freezer overnight, but it’s 100% worth the wait!

21. Lemon Ginger Icebox Cake Recipe From Taste Of Home

If you ask me, if there were ever two ingredients that pair perfectly together, they are lemon and ginger.

This lemon and ginger icebox cake not only tastes delicious, but it’s also super simple to make, too. You only need ingredients, namely cream cheese, lemon zest, lemon curd, whipping cream, ginger cookies and crystallized ginger.

22. Caramel Apple Cheesecake Icebox Cake Recipe From Delish

If you love caramel apples, you’re sure to love this caramel apple cheesecake icebox cake recipe!

It features easy to source ingredients, such as cream cheese, gingersnap cookies, chopped apples. And there’s also a drizzle of caramel to serve, with a dusting of yummy ground cinnamon.

23. Red Velvet Icebox Cake Recipe From Food Network

Now, this recipe features all the wonderful flavors of a red velvet cake, but is lighter and cooler, and if you ask me, it’s even better.

You start by making red velvet cookies, which you then layer between an amazing vanilla filling. And believe it or not, it only takes about 20 minutes to prepare.

24. Double-Chocolate Toffee Icebox Cake Recipe From Taste Of Home

If you ask me, this icebox cake is simply to die for! It requires just 5 ingredients, namely milk, instant chocolate pudding mix, whipping cream, and chocolate wafers.

And you can also add crushed chocolate and toffee bars as a topping to give the dish a flavorful crunch!

25. Strawberry Dalgona Icebox Cake Recipe From Delish

This super simple recipe combines the flavors of strawberries and cream with vanilla cookie wafers. You only need 5 ingredients, and it only takes 15 minutes to prepare before freezing.

26. Kahlua Coconut Icebox Cake Recipe From A Spicy Perspective

OMG, this dessert is simply divine! It’s made with chocolate graham crackers, heavy cream, Kahlua coffee liqueur, sugar, vanilla extract, toasted shredded coconut and dark chocolate curls. Absolutely delicious!

27. Pineapple Icebox Cake Recipe From Goodie Godmother

Now, this is hands down one of the most refreshing icebox cakes I’ve ever had. With pineapple as a central ingredient, it’s incredibly fruity and flavorful. It’s easy to make and only needs 2 hours of refrigeration time.

28. Creme De Menthe Squares Recipe From Taste Of Home

And now, we’re going out with a bang – check out this deliciously fresh, minty, chocolate-y dessert recipe. This boozy recipe features such ingredients as crème de menthe (obvs), Oreos, and instant chocolate pudding mix. Yummy!

Frequently Asked Questions

As promised, I’ve got an FAQ section here for you, answering all your most frequently asked questions. Here goes…

Why Is It Called Icebox Cake?

I did mention this in the introduction, but it bears repeating here. When icebox cakes were invented in the 1800s, instead of having the modern day refrigerator, they used an icebox instead.

And because it needed to go in there to chill and set, they named the cake after the icebox.

How Long Does An Icebox Cake Need To Be Refrigerated?

I always recommend that you follow specific recipes to the T if you can wherever a specific length of refrigeration time is stated.

However, if there is no set time stated, then I would recommend that you refrigerate it for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Do Icebox Cakes Go In The Fridge Or Freezer?

Strangely enough, despite the name icebox cake, these cakes don’t usually go into the freezer, because it’s not classed as a frozen dessert. They usually just go in the refrigerator to chill for a while.

Wrap Up

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my round up of the best 28 icebox cake recipes on the net, and I sure hope that you go ahead and try out at least one of them. Enjoy!