Who wants to turn on the oven when you want a fabulous summer dessert? These easy no-bakes are so light and delicious and they come together in a jiffy. Instead of the oven, you put them in the fridge or the freezer. And the flavor and ingredient options are endless. Here are recipe links to two I made: Pina Colada Icebox Cake and a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie.
You can do the quick version of these, by using whipped topping, instant pudding, or a premade crust if you do a pie version. But you can easily elevate them by making your own sweetened whipped cream, with a splash of vanilla. And you can make a pastry cream in place of the boxed pudding.
If you use a tub of whipped topping, fold it into the ingredients, don’t beat it. Whipped topping can easily deflate if beaten too much. It won’t get any fluffier than out of the tub.
For the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie, the original recipe wasn’t a pie and used a square pan, but I thought a pie would be fun. I added a layer of Nutella to the bottom of the crust and let it chill before adding the peanut butter/cream cheese/whipped topping layer.
The recipe for the Pina Colada Cake doesn’t quite fill up the 13 X 9 pan, but that’s OK. I was able to do 3 layers of graham crackers (18 total) for mine.
To decorate both, I made real whipped cream and used a pastry bag to pipe it. I garnished the pina colada with fresh pineapple chunks and maraschino cherries. For the peanut butter chocolate pie, I used “Shell” chocolate topping that hardens when cold, along with half chocolate sandwich cookies.
On the same site, you’ll find lots of other creative ideas for all sorts of ice cream cakes and other chilled desserts.
Have a sweet rest of your summer!
