It is no surprise that later in life, with a family of my own, I started making this same cake as a holiday treat. If you’re unfamiliar with icebox cakes, this is an easy “cake” made by layering thin chocolate wafer cookies and whipped cream. The cake needs to be chilled, which is an important step. This is when the cookies soften and the assembly transforms into sliceable dessert. For almost two decades now, our family has spent New Year’s Eve in New Hampshire with several other families with children. When the kids were younger, they’d have their own little feast and were scurried off to bed before the grown-ups popped the champagne corks and sampled the caviar. On the menu for the kids, always and forever, was this icebox cake. But now it had a new interpretation: we made it the form of a snowman, or snowperson, as we called it to be totally exemplary and PC. As the years went by, some of the guests changed, but the snowman cake remained a constant. It was giant (serving at least thirty), and the kids always helped make it. Now that they are older, they’ve taken it over. Some of the more recent iterations: The Edward Snowden Cake (he had glasses), The Snow Lady (she had a skirt and eyelashes), and Snowbama. If you don’t have a big enough platter, use the back of a baking sheet and line it with parchment. The circles serve only as guides, as do the amounts of cookies and whipped cream. You could make this pretty much any size and shape you like by reducing or increasing the amount of cream and cookies. The point is that it’s a very kid-friendly project, even with small children. You could use other candy decorations or make a tree instead of a snowman. You or your kids will have plenty of cool ideas, I’m sure. Regardless: have some fun! You can design this cake any size you want. Just cut the circle guides to fit your serving plate. If you prefer, you can assemble this icebox cake in loaf pans lined with plastic wrap. When ready to serve, turn them out onto a platter and cover with whipped cream. Place a small dab of whipped cream beneath each parchment paper circle on your plater to hold them in place.
