Easy S’mores Icebox Cake

In today’s post: S’mores Icebox Cake is a delicious no-bake dessert that features layers of graham crackers, rich chocolate ganache, and marshmallow creme. It’s easy to put together in under 20 minutes.

There’s really no limit to the different ways you can enjoy the classic flavors of a s’more! I love s’mores desserts that don’t require a campfire and are easy to put together, and today’s S’mores Icebox Cake fits the bill.

An ice box cake is a no bake dessert that usually involves layering graham crackers or cookies with different creams or filling, then refrigerating for 8-24 hours. The graham crackers get soft enough to slice and you end up with a delicious layered “cake”. This s’mores version is a new family favorite: super easy to put together and showstopping when sliced and topped with extra graham cracker crumbs, toasted mini marshmallows, and chocolate curls.

Ingredients

You only need six ingredients to make S’mores Icebox Cake:

• Graham Crackers: You’ll use an entire 14.4 oz box of graham crackers for this cake, about 27 full cracker sheets. I prefer Honey Maid crackers for this dessert.
• Heavy Cream: You’ll use one cup of heavy cream (or whipping cream) to make a silky chocolate ganache. That sounds fancy, but it’s as easy as pouring warm cream over chocolate and letting it melt.
• Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips: Use a good quality chocolate chip, like Ghirardelli or Guittard, for the best results. You can use all semi sweet chips if you like a rich chocolate flavor, or you can use half semi sweet and half milk chocolate chips if you prefer a slightly sweeter flavor.
• Marshmallow Creme: For the marshmallow flavor! Aka marshmallow fluff.
• Cream Cheese: This gets mixed with the marshmallow cream to give it richness.
• Cool Whip: This gets mixed with the marshmallow creme and cream cheese to make them light, fluffy, and delicious. If you prefer, you can use more heavy cream here, but using Cool Whip lightens up the total calorie count and saves a few minutes of prep time.

How to make Smores Icebox Cake

I love how fast and easy it is to put this cake together, but please remember it needs to chill for at least 8 hours before serving, so you’ll want to make it early in the morning or the day before you plan to serve. It keeps well in the fridge for about four days. This cake is made in a 9×9 inch pan, and you’ll want to line it with a piece of parchment paper that hangs over two sides. That will make it easy to remove the cake from the pan for slicing. Please note: an 8×8 inch pan will not work here; this recipe fills a 9×9 inch pan completely. If you don’t have one you can make this in a 9×13 inch pan instead; you’ll just have to do 3 layers of graham crackers instead of 4 (three layers of cream; two layers of ganache).

Make the Ganache

You’ll start by making an easy chocolate ganache. Seriously, this is simple! Place two cups of chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Place one cup of cream in a microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and microwave it for 60-90 seconds until it is just beginning to bubble around the edges (this is called scalding the cream). Pour the cream over the chocolate and place a lid or plate on top of the bowl to catch the steam. Allow the chocolate to sit in the warm cream for about five minutes, during which it will melt. Remove the lid and whisk the cream and chocolate together until smooth and silky. Ganache complete! Place the ganache in the fridge while you do the next step.

Make the Cream

Next, place the softened cream cheese in a medium-large bowl. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat it well until it is whipped and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme and beat until incorporated. Then fold in one half of the thawed Cool Whip, then the other half. This completes the cream layer.

NOTE: If you don’t want to use a whipped topping (like Cool Whip), you can whip an additional 1.5 to 2 cups of heavy cream in a separate bowl, and fold that into the cream cheese and marshmallow creme mixture.

Assemble the Cake

By the time you have mixed up the cream layer the ganache should be fairly cool. Once it’s no longer warm it’s time to start layering! (Just don’t leave it in the fridge too long or it will get too stiff to spread.) Here are the layers you will create:

• Layer #1: Graham Crackers + Cream + Ganache
• Layer #2: Graham Crackers + Cream + Ganache
• Layer #3: Graham Crackers + Cream + Ganache
• Layer #4: Graham Crackers + Cream

Place approximately 6.5 graham crackers across the bottom of your 9×9 inch pan as shown below. You will need to break a few crackers to fit, and depending on your pan you might need to trim the edges of a cracker as well. You can spread just a little cream on the bottom of the smaller cracker pieces to help them stick to the parchment paper and not move around when you spread the first cream layer.

Run a knife or spoon through the cream to split it into fourths. Spoon one fourth of the cream onto the graham crackers and use an offset spatula or knife to spread it out smooth. Dropping small spoonfuls of cream all across the graham crackers makes it easier to spread out.

Spoon about a third of the ganache over the cream layer, again dropping small spoonfuls. Use the back of the spoon or a clean offset spatula to spread the ganache out over the cream. Make sure to get it all the way to the edges!

You’ll repeat that two more times: graham crackers, 1/4 of the cream, 1/3 of the ganache. For the top layer you’ll do a fourth layer of graham crackers and the remaining 1/4 of the cream.

Chill, Top, Serve

Once the cake is assembled, cover it with a lid or a double layer of foil or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving (up to 24 is just fine). When you are ready to serve, you can top the cake with any additional toppings you’d like. I used a kitchen torch to toast some mini marshmallows and dropped them on top, then added chocolate curls and an additional crushed up graham cracker. You could even drizzle it with chocolate sauce or syrup if you like!

To serve, grab the edges of the parchment paper and gently lift the entire cake out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut into slices. NOTE: You can also leave the cake in the pan when cutting; it’s just kind of hard to get the first slice out looking good if you do so.