Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! Ice Box Cake

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Last weekend it was hot.  We spent every daylight hour weeding, planting, training the puppy, chasing the toddler, all outside, soaking up the sun.

My in-laws had been visiting my brother-in-law in Ecuador, and were returning on Sunday.  I volunteered to make dinner, so they didn't need to come home at 8 pm and think about food.  (Nobody wants to do that.)

The A. family dessert is ice cream Snickers bars.  I'm pretty sure you can't take the last name without accepting that these are singlehandedly the most perfect hot-day dessert available in the U.S. of A., so I thought I would go ahead and make Snickers bon-bons.  Note that the above picture does not feature anything resembling a Snickers bar, frozen or otherwise.

(They would have been delicious if my drawer freezer could actually freeze something.  The mess of caramel, peanuts, and semi-formed Brigham's ice cream balls was very tasty.)


Plan B was strawberry shortcake, but it was just. too. hot.

That is when I decided to make an "ice box" cake by today's standards.  An "ice box" by Mr. Popper's standards was a metal box you placed a cube of ice into to create a refrigerator.  I wanted something colder.

I decided to take the components of strawberry shortcake and layer them in a loaf pan, freeze it (best my freezer can) and call it dessert.

There are the ingredients and most of the materials:

one well-lined loaf pan

lady fingers (that is one package, or 24 fingers)

1 pint of blueberries

1 container of strawberries, sliced

vanilla

heavy whipping cream

cinnamon sugar

Really, you could use any berries you like.  This is just what I had, and it made a beautifully patriotic cake.

Whip the cream with some vanilla and cinnamon sugar.  (Taste it to get it right.)

The idea is simple.  You layer the ingredients.  The first layer will be the top of your cake, so make it count.  The rest, do what you will.  I used only strawberries on my first layer.  (Done on a bigger scale and for a summer patriotic holiday, I might be Martha enough to attempt a flag.)

Then just keep layering.  My order was strawberries, whipped cream, lady fingers and blue berries, whipped cream, some more strawberries, cream, lady fingers, cream, blueberries, cream, fingers... it all got jumbled.  It was still delicious.

Freeze for at least 2 hours, but would be fine for a day or two, and invert and remove when ready to serve.

I pulled this out of the freezer and my mother-in-law said "Glory, glory, hallelujah!"
Now, she's from the south.  Having known her for over five years and having lived in the south for two, exclamations like this no longer phase me.  (Before the Tar Heels chased the Yankee out of me, it would have made scenes from Deliverance flash in my mind.)  But no, she wasn't just as excited about this dessert as I was (I mean, come on, it is frozen whipped cream!) but that is what her mother, Grandma Mary, used to call it.  I had unintentionally resurrected an old family treat, lovingly named Glory, Glory, Hallelujah.

Phone picture.  Sorry.

Enjoy!  I will say that this one loaf pan made about 10 servings.  It is delicious, but one of those things where a little bit goes a long way.