Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc

It’s summertime, and the living is easy. Or it should be, even when you have a backyardful of people coming over and you’re in charge of feeding them. With summer barbecues and Fourth of July festivities coming up, it’s time for cool sweets and icy desserts – frozen cakes are perfect for parties, not only because they cool you down (and don’t heat up the kitchen), but because they can be made in advance. Entertaining should be easy, too. This brilliant icebox cake is actually a stack of chocolate chip cookies, sandwiched with mascarpone cream. The whole thing is stashed in the freezer until you need it, softening the cookies as it sits so that you can slice it into wedges, like a cake.

Martha Stewart’s creation, natch.

This creation is from the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine – one of my favorites, I admit, to take on long car trips or to curl up with in the back yard, with a mojito, as the boys run through the sprinkler.

With no need for frosting or decorating, I’m thinking this cookie-stack-cake would make a perfect summertime birthday cake too. I’d love to experiment with other flavor combinations – ginger crackle cookies? Chewy chocolate cookies? Its potential is limited only by the varieties of cookies out there! Thanks Martha.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE ICEBOX CAKE

Active Time: 50 Min.
Total Time: Overnight
Makes: One 9-inch cake
Serves: 10

The cake starts out sturdy but then softens overnight in the fridge. At that point, it can be sliced into pieces like a traditional cake.

Ingredients:
4 cups cold heavy cream
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon whiskey (optional)
8 dozen chocolate chip cookies (2 ¼ inches, baked until crisp)

Garnish: chocolate shavings

Whisk 3 cups cream and the mascarpone in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar and whiskey. Whisk until medium-stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use (or up to 3 hours).

Arrange 9 cookies in a circle (with cookies touching) on a cake stand or plate. Place 2 cookies in center. Carefully spread 1 cup cream mixture evenly over cookies, leaving a slight border. Repeat to form 7 more layers, ending with cookies (you’ll have a few cookies left over). Refrigerate, lightly draped with plastic wrap, overnight.

Whisk remaining cup cream until soft peaks form. Spread over top of cake just before serving. Garnish with shavings.

Copyright © 2011, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Originally published in the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

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