Freezer Cakes (no cook, no bake)

[Ellyn]

What I usually use to make these are simply fresh fruit and a pack of cream frozen together. It's only technically a cake, I guess, because I add whole Graham biscuits to make a crust.

I've only tried peach and mango with fresh cream. My extended family likes to use actual vanilla ice cream, but I usually think that overwhelms the fruits. Maybe plain yoghurt can bring out more tart fruits such as strawberry.

Recipes that I want to one day experiment with, but I haven't yet: cocoa and peanut butter freezer cakes, maybe in two different layers with graham biscuits or even Oreo cookies between them, and avocado with cream cheese, fresh cream, confectionary sugar, and vanilla extract.

 

[Sweetkymom]

These sound very interesting. Do you have a recipe to share? I'd love to try a strawberry banana frozen cake if there's a recipe.

 

[Ellyn]

These sound very interesting. Do you have a recipe to share? I'd love to try a strawberry banana frozen cake if there's a recipe.

Ooh, strawberry banana sounds like a fantastic idea!

It's really very simple though, it's more like "putting together" than cooking.

Ingredients
- Graham crackers
- A box of cream, whether whipped or not
- a main ingredient, let's say for now it's tinned peaches

You'll need a container, I just use any old tupperware.

Directions
1. Layer Graham crackers at the bottom of the tupperware.
2. Layer peaches on top, slice them if you'd like and set them out or just cut into chunks and pour.
3. Pour cream on top of all of them. I usually put about an inch and a half from the bottom Graham crackers to...
4. The next layer of Graham crackers. Even if you put a lot of cream, by my experience it doesn't sink. Because the crackers don't get cakey, the thicker the cream-fruit mix layer then the better...usually.
5. Top with fruit and cream again.
6. Leave in the freezer until it's firmed up a bit.


Based on how simple it is, I just thought up of other possible freezer cake combinations. As mentioned, my extended family uses ice cream instead of fresh cream, and a friend of the family's uses Lady Finger biscuits that soften into cake while soaking the other ingredients and it remains cake-like even during freezing.

I like the more or less natural flavor-and-cream, though. These alternative recipes are far too sugary for me, and I have a sweet tooth!




For strawberry banana, I imagine I could layer strawberry halves, layer thin "coins" of sliced banana, and then pour cream on them. If you'd prefer to mix together chunks, that can do. If you'd prefer to puree the strawberry and banana together, I think that can do too.

This is a very simple recipe that allows for a number of varieties. If you made the first layer strawberries-and-cream and the second layer bananas-and-cream, that can do to. It's just the same process as the peaches but with different fruit.

Don't be afraid to mix it up a bit. You can't really go horribly wrong with the ingredients.

Although I am also wondering now about a banoffee freezer cake.

 

[Food4thought]

Looks like a winner! I can think of several berry and fruit combinations that could be used to make a tasty summer dessert. I think there would be plenty of sweetness in the graham crackers and I agree that any type of pure cream would be better than icecream.

If I were to use a mix of fresh blue and red berries in this type of 'cake', I think they might stain the cream pink or blue, but I would not mind that as the taste would be beautiful.

 

[Tara]

I like to use yogurt to make these types of cakes, but I call them pies. I strain the plain yogurt overnight with a cheesecloth. It takes on the consistency of cream cheese. Then I sprinkle with crushed pine nuts and add homemade raspberry sauce. I let it solidify in the refrigerator for hours. It's been awhile since I have made a no bake pie. I think I will make one this week.

 

[skywatcher]

Ooh, strawberry banana sounds like a fantastic idea!

It's really very simple though, it's more like "putting together" than cooking.

Ingredients
- Graham crackers
- A box of cream, whether whipped or not
- a main ingredient, let's say for now it's tinned peaches

You'll need a container, I just use any old tupperware.

Directions
1. Layer Graham crackers at the bottom of the tupperware.
2. Layer peaches on top, slice them if you'd like and set them out or just cut into chunks and pour.
3. Pour cream on top of all of them. I usually put about an inch and a half from the bottom Graham crackers to...
4. The next layer of Graham crackers. Even if you put a lot of cream, by my experience it doesn't sink. Because the crackers don't get cakey, the thicker the cream-fruit mix layer then the better...usually.
5. Top with fruit and cream again.
6. Leave in the freezer until it's firmed up a bit.


Based on how simple it is, I just thought up of other possible freezer cake combinations. As mentioned, my extended family uses ice cream instead of fresh cream, and a friend of the family's uses Lady Finger biscuits that soften into cake while soaking the other ingredients and it remains cake-like even during freezing.

I like the more or less natural flavor-and-cream, though. These alternative recipes are far too sugary for me, and I have a sweet tooth!




For strawberry banana, I imagine I could layer strawberry halves, layer thin "coins" of sliced banana, and then pour cream on them. If you'd prefer to mix together chunks, that can do. If you'd prefer to puree the strawberry and banana together, I think that can do too.

This is a very simple recipe that allows for a number of varieties. If you made the first layer strawberries-and-cream and the second layer bananas-and-cream, that can do to. It's just the same process as the peaches but with different fruit.

Don't be afraid to mix it up a bit. You can't really go horribly wrong with the ingredients.

Although I am also wondering now about a banoffee freezer cake.

We do this all the time, especially during special occasions, haha! Although when my birthday comes up, I tend to secretly make one for myself aside from the one being served to everyone, just so I have a solo cake I'd get to eat whenever I like, haha!

Though an alternative to this that we commonly do would be replacing the graham crackers with broas, although it's been a while since we did broas freezer cakes that I couldn't remember the difference between tastes.

 

[Ellyn]

If I were to use a mix of fresh blue and red berries in this type of 'cake', I think they might stain the cream pink or blue, but I would not mind that as the taste would be beautiful.

The marbled effect or colorful stain might even make it look even more appetizing! Berries, I think, are especially well-suited to yoghurt instead of cream. Speaking of which...

I like to use yogurt to make these types of cakes, but I call them pies. I strain the plain yogurt overnight with a cheesecloth. It takes on the consistency of cream cheese. Then I sprinkle with crushed pine nuts and add homemade raspberry sauce. I let it solidify in the refrigerator for hours. It's been awhile since I have made a no bake pie. I think I will make one this week.

Yoghurt cheese is brilliant, sounds delicious with nuts and berries too. Maybe some grains could be added to a refrigerator cake.

an alternative to this that we commonly do would be replacing the graham crackers with broas

I think that broas are like the Lady Fingers I mentioned! It turns out to be more like the cake parts of a tiramisu, because those biscuits soften in the mix into a very light and fluffy sweet cake. :-9

 

[sillylucy]

Peanut butter tastes great and so does caramel! Make some homemade caramel sauce and freeze it with your fruit cakes. That would taste divine as a topping. I also just made a coconut milk, pineapple and banana ice cream dessert. It would taste great with some peanut butter.

 

[Ellyn]

Peanut butter tastes great and so does caramel! Make some homemade caramel sauce and freeze it with your fruit cakes. That would taste divine as a topping.

An easy way to make the "caramel" in banoffee is to simply pour out some tinned condensed milk into a pot and simmer it until it caramelizes. But then at this point maybe I should just start a banoffee topic.

I also just made a coconut milk, pineapple and banana ice cream dessert. It would taste great with some peanut butter.

Coconut might be thinner than cream in texture, I would want to find a way to thicken it before I use it, but I would definitely want to do a lot more with that flavor.

 

[Jade]

A popular freezer cake we make here is mango graham cake. I haven't made one in years, so my memory is a little blurry as to what the ingredients in it are, but I imagine it's just graham, mangoes, condensed milk, and brown sugar. It's very good and has a very similar consistency to regular cake.

 

[Ellyn]

A popular freezer cake we make here is mango graham cake. I haven't made one in years, so my memory is a little blurry as to what the ingredients in it are, but I imagine it's just graham, mangoes, condensed milk, and brown sugar. It's very good and has a very similar consistency to regular cake.

The consistency is interesting. I always like a little bubble in my pastries, which would be rarer in no-cook cakes that don't have baking powder or yeast or something.

Condensed milk and brown sugar together sound far too sweet to me, though! Maybe it's only used to moisten the graham, which maybe is crushed and treated like flour?

 

[Jade]

The consistency is interesting. I always like a little bubble in my pastries, which would be rarer in no-cook cakes that don't have baking powder or yeast or something.

Condensed milk and brown sugar together sound far too sweet to me, though! Maybe it's only used to moisten the graham, which maybe is crushed and treated like flour?

Now that you mention it, I think brown sugar isn't part of the recipe. Either that, or the brown sugar is only used as a supplement like bring used with the crushed graham used as bottom crust or sprinkled on top. I'd have to consult my friends and relatives who actually made it but I'm fairly sure that's how they made it.