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Lemon Icebox Cake

This No-Bake Lemon Icebox Cake is made with shortbread cookies, sweetened cream cheese filling with a touch of lemon zest. No oven needed!

A DELICIOUS NO-BAKE LEMON DESSERT

There is no dessert more satisfying to me than a lemon one. I crave lemon desserts all year round. So the other day I was really wanting something lemon-y, but of course, didn’t want to turn the oven on. This dessert comes together super quick and it’s a fun little twist on the traditional icebox desserts that use graham crackers – like my No-Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake.

No-Bake Lemon Icebox Cake slice served on a white plate topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a lemon slice.

TIPS FOR MAKING THIS ICEBOX DESSERT

  • You can totally use graham crackers for this if you want (just don’t dunk them first like this recipe calls for.)
  • If you can’t find the Dublin-style Pepperidge Farm cookies, just go with another crunchy type cookie like the Chessman cookies, shortbread cookies or even Nilla wafers.
  • Fresh lemon juice is really going to make the difference here and give it a really fresh lemon taste. The bottled lemon juice will give it a bitter, unpleasant after taste.
No-Bake Lemon Icebox Cake recipe from The Country Cook, pictured: slice served on a plate and topped with a fresh slice of lemon.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)

  • cream cheese
  • sugar
  • lemon zest
  • heavy cream
  • Pepperidge Farm Dublin cookies (can use lemon or chessman too)
  • fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • whipped cream, for serving
cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, heavy cream, Pepperidge Farm Dublin cookies, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, whipped cream, for serving.
*only two bags pictured here

HOW TO MAKE NO-BAKE LEMON ICEBOX CAKE

Using an electric or stand mixer, mix together cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest until smooth.

softened cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest in the bottom of a mixing bowl.

Add in heavy cream and mix for about three minutes until thick and fluffy.

adding heavy cream to cream cheese and sugar mixture in KitchenAid stand mixer.

Now, time to get started on the layers. Dip each cookie into the lemon juice.

dipping a cookie into lemon juice in a measuring cup.

Then layer into the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish.

lemon-dipped shortbread cookies layered into the bottom of a white square baking dish.

Spread 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture onto the cookies.

sweetened cream cheese mixture .spread on soaked lemon cookies

Continue this process two more times (layer of cookies followed by layer of cream cheese mixture). You should have three layers total.

three layers of lemon cookies and lemon sweetened cream cheese mixture.

Cover the dish with plastic wrap and pop into the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours (or overnight).

covering lemon icebox cake with Saran plastic wrap.

Slice and serve!

lemon icebox cake shown in a white serving dish, cut into slices with two slices missing.

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Originally published: July 2015
Updated & republished: June 2020

NO-BAKE LEMON ICEBOX CAKE

Lemon Icebox Cake

This No-Bake Lemon Icebox Cake is made with shortbread cookies, sweetened cream cheese filling with a touch of lemon zest. No oven needed!
5 from 5 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 9

Ingredients

  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese softened
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon zest zest of two lemons
  • ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 3 (6 ounce) Pepperidge Farm Dublin cookies (Chessman or lemon cookies work too)
  • ½ cup lemon juice
  • whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

  • Using an electric or stand mixer, mix together cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest until smooth.
  • Add in heavy cream and mix for about three minutes until thick and fluffy.
  • Dip each cookie into the lemon juice and layer into the bottom of an 8" x 8" baking dish
  • Spread 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture onto the cookie layer.
  • Continue this process two more times (a layer of cookies followed by a layer of cream cheese mixture.) You will have three layers total.
  • Cover the dish with plastic wrap and pop into the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours (or overnight).
  • Slice and serve with whipped cream.

Video

YouTube video

Notes

  • Keep refrigerated.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 503kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 34g | Sodium: 373mg | Sugar: 24g

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

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10 Comments

  1. Oh lemon anything is my favorite too…. might try this with coconut cookies & pineapple. I love that you use those cookies.

  2. I must make this or my 90 year old husband of 69 years of marriage. I still try to make him happy. Lemon is his favorite dessert…I use a lot of your recipes… Thank you.

  3. Brandi this looks and sounds amazing. I love those lemon cookies 🙂 I think they're really yummy in icebox cakes!!!

  4. Sounds fabulous! Such great ideas coming out of that beautiful brain of yours Brandie! =) L-L-L-Luscious!!!

  5. Chrystal, good question. It depends. A lot of time the dried lemon peel can be tough or sometimes a bit harder to chew. If that is not the case with yours, use it. But my experience is, once dried lemon peel gets cold, it gets tough. If you have lemon extract, that would work too. Hope that helps!

  6. I was wondering if it would be ok to use dried lemon peel instead of fresh? This looks so good, but I don't have any use for fresh lemons.