Mini Ice Box Wafer Cakes with Strawberry Whipped Cream

I just helped with a friend's baby shower. We had a lovely blue velvet cake made by the other co-host and I was in charge of another dessert. I chose to make mini ice box cakes because they are easy, cute and delicious! I'd made them once before using chocolate chip cookies and they were very good. This time I found the perfect cookie to use, Marias. They are a Mexican cookie and were next to the Digestives (European cookie). At 50 cents a sleeve, the price was right. Ice box cakes can get rich but these cookies are mild and perfect for the recipe. Any mild cookie would work. I realized why this combo works so well together, it's basically a strawberry shortcake!

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2/3 cup of sugar plus a teaspoon

Splash of vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberries, washed and stems removed (you can use fresh or frozen) plus more for garnish

4 packs of wafer cookies (about 160 cookies)

1. Place strawberries and teaspoon of sugar in blender or food processor and process until it makes a thick, seedy liquid. Set aside

2. In a stand mixer, add cream and beat until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Don't overbeat, the cream should be floppy and light. 

3. While with the mixer on, pour in strawberry mixture slowly until completely incorporated. Put whipped cream into a pastry bag or large gallon bag. 

4. Place wafer on a cookie sheet. Squirt about 1 teaspoon of strawberry whipped cream onto wafer and repeat until you have a wafer tower of 4 cookies with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Repeat until you have as many wafer cakes as you desire. 

5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight. When ready to serve, top with a sliced strawberry.

Yields: about 40 mini ice box cakes

I think I ate the most. I may have squirted some of the whipped cream in my mouth after I was done too. Don't judge

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn and The Cupcake Project

A Guide to Strawberry Picking

We went to a wonderful farm last week to pick strawberries! If you have never done this you absolutely must! To find a location near you try here. The farm we went to also had amazing fresh homemade ice cream. We got sweet potatoes as well for some baby food. That night it felt so good to be eating fresh locally grown food for dinner!

We picked about 10.5 pounds and PB left with a red stained face :) I have gone strawberry picking every year for quite a while so I thought I would put together some tips!

Start by doing your research!

1. Try not to go on a weekend.
2. Look for berries that are: completely red, not too soft, deeper in color.
3. With the strawberry between two the pointer and middle fingers gently pull. Try not to squish the berry.
4. We were picking by the container and not the pound so we gently shook the bucket to get more in.
5. Use them quickly so they do not rot!
6. To hull strawberries you can just cut the tops off, use a strawberry or tomato huller (a quick search on Amazon comes up with quite a few options), or you can use a straw. I tried to the straw method and I found the bigger straws you get from restaurants work better than the typical ones you get at the store. 

 A few things I did this year with my berries:

1. Eat them fresh! I cut them up and sprinkle a little sugar on them to bring out the juices.
2. Simple Preserves
3. Frozen slices for shakes. I mixed with blueberries and frozen yogurt to make them extra yummy! I slice them thick and put them on wax paper on a cookie sheet. I flash froze them until they were half way frozen and put them in a bag. 
4. In a Simple Syrup

After enjoying and sharing more than half of what we picked I sorted them into four categories. No bad spots (frozen slices), one bad spot (simple syrup), multiple bad spots (preserves), and inedible (yuck!). Here are pictures of what I was left with.

From L to R Ugly, Bad, Good

Inedible

Frozen whole

Simple syrup is in the closed containers, the pureed preserves are still cooling in the small containers which fit about 1/4 of a cup., and the frozen strawberries ready for the freezer

With some of the preserves I made muffins and I plan on making some pancakes.

Strawberry Preserves Bisquick Muffins

2 cups Bisquick
1/3 cup Sugar
1 Egg
2/3 cup Milk
1/3-1/2 cup preserves (I only used 1/4 and there wasn't enough to taste the strawberry)

Mix together all ingredients but preserves. I had to add a little extra milk to make it the right consistency then add in preserves.. Fill greased muffin tin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 13-18 minutes. Mine were done on the lower end. Since mine didn't have quite enough strawberry flavor we added preserves on top and they were really tasty! Enjoy!