Blueberry Lemon Ice Box Cake is a no-bake dessert made with creamy layers, bright citrus-blueberry flavors, and graham cracker sheets.
If you’ve tried other no-bake desserts on the site like Avalanche Cookies or Haystack Cookies, you know how easy it is to make a sweet, delicious dessert without having to wait on a long cook time. Blueberry Lemon Ice Box Cake is a perfect dessert for parties or summer BBQs.
Sabrina’s Blueberry Lemon Ice Box Cake Recipe
Because there’s no baking involved, this dessert sets up with a soft, cake-like texture rather than the crumb of a traditional cake, and you can easily assemble it the night before for a polished, restaurant-ready presentation. Making the cake is easy and you can layer it in a large bowl or in a glass dish so that people can see the beautiful levels inside. After assembling the cake, loosely cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 24 hours to let it set before serving.
Another great feature of this cake is that it is so customizable that you can use the same basic recipe and swap out ingredients for any occasion. See some ideas for variations below!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 2 pints fresh blueberries
- 13 ounces blueberry jam , (I used Bonne Maman)
- 1 lemon
- 12 sheets graham crackers
Whipped Cream
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Using an ice cold bowl or stand mixer bowl and whisk attachment add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla to the bowl, whisking or beating with the whisk attachment on medium-high for about 2 minutesor until stiff peaks form).
- Mix the blueberry jam, most of the bluberries (reserve one handful for the top of the cake), the lemon juice and most of the zest (save just a sprinkle for the top of the cake) together.
- In a 9" springform pan layer whipped cream then a single layer of graham crackers.
- Top with the blueberry mixture, then layer with more whipped cream, then another layer of graham crackers and continue, ending with whipped cream, then blueberry jam.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap gently and refrigerate for 4 hours.
- Garnish with remaining fresh blueberries and the remaining lemon zest. (You can also garnish before freezing if you are going to keep this frozen for a while).
Notes
Nutrition
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Table of contents
Chef’s Note: Decorating
A helpful hint for decorating your cake: let it sit for the full 4 hours in the fridge before you start decorating it or you will end up with a gooey mess.
How to Store
- Serve: You should leave it in the fridge overnight to make it firm and chilled. Don’t leave it out very long or it will melt.
- Store: Leftover ice box cake will be good in the fridge for about 3 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze: Ice box cake is good for about 1 week in the freezer.
Variations
- Powdered sugar: use a traditional white powdered sugar or pick up a colorful version and dust the top of the cake with it. This is an easy way to dress it up without having to spend a ton of time on it.
- Berries: you can arrange berries on the top of the cake to give it a pop of color that tastes delicious. I’d recommend using blueberries and blackberries, or slicing strawberries in half. A word of warning though, definitely add the berries right before you intend to serve it or the whipped cream will be dyed by the juice.
- Nuts: sprinkle your favorite sliced or crushed nuts over the top for a crunchy topping that also looks fancy.
- Vanilla Ice Cream: homemade vanilla ice cream is the prefect creamy side to have with your cool icebox cake.
- Sauce: try drizzling Chocolate Ganache or melting Salted Caramel over the top to make beautiful and tasty designs.
- Ice box cupcakes: you can make a much smaller version in a muffin tin, you will just have to have a much steadier hand. Line the bottom of each part of the muffin pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to grab onto when you pull them out. Make thin layers of cookies and whipped cream and let them sit in the fridge for 24 hours before serving.
Related Recipes
More Easy No Bake Desserts
Photos used in previous version of this post:
My bookclub loved it! So much flavor. I gave it a 3 star because it was melting and falling by the time I cut the 3rd piece. I had it in a 9 inch spring form pan like the recipe called for in the fridge for 6 hours, although, 4 hours was all that was called for. My friend is going to make it so I told her to treat it like an ice cream cake and freeze it, then slightly thaw so it doesn’t fall apart while slicing. We’ll see.
Hi, I’m in the U.K. what would I use instead of graham crackers?
Thanks!
Hi! Do you have any cookies or crackers similar out there?
Hi Sabrina, This looks so-o good, and I do want to try it soon. A bit confused as to the serving bowl, or pan. The picture of the finished product in the bowl is lovely, but how do you serve? If you put it in a spring form pan, is it firm enough to cut? And one more question! What size glass pan would be appropriate for the amount of ingredients: 9″X 9″, or even a 9″X 11″ ? I would like to do as you suggest and use glass so the layers will be visible. Thank you so much.
I love that this blueberry lemon icebox cake will impress everyone without taking a whole afternoon to make. This will make the perfect summer treat!
Definitely!
Such a gorgeous and delicious dessert! This is certainly perfect to have frozen at all times! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, Paula. So glad you enjoyed it!
Blueberry and lemon are two of my favorite flavors together. I also love that this is no bake!
It’s so easy!
Made this for the family and it was a hit!
Thanks for coming back to let me know, Katie. I appreciate the 5 stars.
I’m a little confused that the first layer is the whipped cream – does the graham cracker soak it up so it is just a soft graham cracker layer on bottom?
Yes 🙂
You need to look at this published recipe. No mention of jam in the ingredient list. Ingredient list states sugar but the directions use powdered sugar. No mention of where to use the lemon.
Yikes! Thank you so much. It was missing most of the steps and many of the ingredients. I fixed it all. I appreciate you catching it so quickly, before anyone tried to make it.