Turn Oreo Thins Into An Icebox Cake In Just A Couple Easy Steps

Everybody loves dessert until it comes time to make it. From delicate soufflés to multi-tiered cakes, there's a reason why restaurants sell a lot of sweets — it can be a ton of work to assemble something that looks as good as it tastes. There's one exception to the rule, however: an icebox cake. This quick, crowd-pleasing treat is almost as easy to make as it is to eat, and it's a lovely way to end a meal on a hot summer's day. All you need are four simple ingredients (Oreo Thins cookies, whipping cream, vanilla, and sugar) and a loaf or cake pan — no special pastry-making skills required.

All you have to do to make an icebox cake with Oreo Thins is whip up a bowl of our foolproof whipped cream with powdered sugar and vanilla (although this also works with pre-made whipped topping like Cool Whip), and layer it in a cake or loaf pan with the cookies. Once it's assembled, store the cake covered in the fridge for at least eight hours so that the cookies absorb the moisture from the cream to make delicate cake-like layers. That's all there is to it. Instant pudding is a great extra ingredient for an icebox cake, as is sliced fruit. They are not necessary, however, and if you make too much whipped cream, just save it for serving later. And if things get a little soupy? Simply pop the whole thing in the freezer for a true icebox cake experience.

Icebox cakes came on the scene in the United States in the 1920s, when Nabisco started selling chocolate wafer cookies, which had a recipe printed on the back. At the time, refrigerators were just starting to gain traction in home kitchens (they wouldn't become widespread until the 1930s), so most people still had an actual icebox, which is where the treat got its name. An icebox is sort of like a permanent cooler, and was typically a large, insulated wooden cabinet that held a large block of ice to keep the food inside cool. These days, icebox cakes are made in the refrigerator the same as they would have been in an icebox — by layering whipped cream with thin cookies and other ingredients — but calling it a refrigerator cake just doesn't have the same allure, so the name stuck.

There are a lot of variations out there for icebox cake, like our Filipino frozen mango float edition, but the OG cake will always be chocolate since the first recipe used Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers (and yes, the word "famous" is part of the name). Sadly, their fame was fleeting because the company decided to discontinue the cookies in 2023, much to the chagrin of no-bake dessert lovers. But never fear, because Oreo Thins can fill the void as the dark chocolate cookie of choice for making icebox cake.