Berry Icebox Cake

What I love about this recipe is how easy it is to make. You don't even need an oven. Also, it's a perfect summer dessert. During the hot summer days, you don't always want something as rich and decadent as chocolate. I mean, I love chocolate as much as the next person, but occasionally I want something different and lighter. So the icebox cake is perfect for those occasions. Tommy, who isn't big on sweets, even said he really liked it and that I should make it again in the future.

I will say, next time I make this, I will make a few changes. It didn’t turn out quite as well as I had hoped. It was absolutely delicious, but it didn’t look as pretty as I had hoped. But I have thought about what I would do differently, and I will mention all the changes below.

So, what do we do first? Make sure your cream cheese is fully softened. Beat the cream cheese and the dry pudding mixes together until they are blended and smooth. I used a stand mixer, but next time, I think it will be better to use a hand mixer. The beaters on the hand mixer will help to make the mixer smoother. This time, I ended up with some small clumps of pudding that didn't get broken up, so my pudding wasn't very smooth.

Next, gradually beat in the milk. You want to add just a little milk at a time, beating between each addition, until all the milk is mixed in. If you try pouring all the milk in at once, it will slosh everywhere when you turn the mixer on.

Now, fold in 8 ounces of the cool whip by hand. Leave the remaining 4 ounces for the next step. Make sure it is thawed fully. If it’s still partially frozen, you’ll end up with clumps of cool whip in your mixture.
Now that your pudding mixture is ready, it’s time to assemble your cake. I had my little helper with me again today. And by “help”, I mean that Elayne ate a bunch of blueberries and tried to get into the pudding. 😊 So anyways, start by spreading the remaining 4 ounces of cool whip into the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan.

Next, add a layer of graham crackers to the pan. Break them up as needed in order to cover the entire pan.

Now add a layer of pudding on top of your graham crackers, and then top it with a layer of blueberries and strawberries. I will say that you should determine how many berries you have in order to know how many to put. I ended up putting too many berries in the middle of the cake, and then didn't have enough leftover to make the top look pretty. (This could also be in part to Elayne eating all my berries 😂)

Repeat the layers of graham crackers, pudding, and berries two more times. So you should end up with three layers of each. After all the layers are in, your pan should be mostly full. Put your pan in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours. I left mine overnight. This gives the pudding time to set, and it lets the graham crackers get soft.

Right before you are ready to serve your dessert, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave. Be careful not to burn the chocolate. It is very easy to do. Just a few seconds too long in the microwave and your chocolate gets hard and dry. Anyways, when I melted the chocolate, I got it smooth and melted, but it was still pretty thick, which meant I couldn’t drizzle it onto the dessert very easily. So it didn’t look great. But, I did a little research, and you can add just a little vegetable oil or canola oil to your chocolate while it’s melting to make it thinner and easier to drizzle. I’m going to try that next time. So once your white chocolate is melted, drizzle it on top of the berries as best as you can, and now you’re ready to eat!