HAPPY....HAPPY...HAPPY

The 4th is such a cool holiday. All festive and happy and summer. It usually means hot dogs and cookouts and watermelon or strawberry shortcake. This year was no exception. The plan was hotdogs at Sissy's house...like we did a couple of years ago. But...the A/C in her house stopped working. 

Let me just say...it has been Crazy HOT.  I mean CRAZY! So, Sissy did what any of us would do...changed the venue to Dad and Mamacita's house. 

And, because I was feeling festive and a little brave, I made dessert. Yes! I was in the kitchen actually making something. {It has been a while!}

Let me say right off the bat that I did not come up with this recipe or idea. I got the idea from a blogger I've been reading: The Glamorous Housewife. Oh my gosh, what a fun blog. Last weekend as I was browsing my favorite blogs (similar to how I used to browse magazines) I saw that Bethany had a video called Ice Box Cake. I watched and was convinced I could actually do this. 

Bethany's recipe calls for strawberries (of course) and whip cream (double yeah!) and lemon curd and cookies. 

I used vanilla wafers and cool whip. {not a plug...I just happen to like them.}

This morning I felt oh so domestic as I sliced the strawberries. (I soaked them in a little sugar after they were sliced.) The lemon curd was really a secret ingredient. Bethany tells us to microwave for about 30 seconds to make it easier to spread. What a good idea! 

Here's how the cake is assembled. Whip cream on the bottom of the dish followed by cookies (in my case vanilla wafers). Then strawberries layered over the cookies and lemon curd over the strawberries. I put another layer of cookies on before adding more whip cream because I wanted the cake to be cakier.

The layers repeat until you either run out of ingredients or you run out of room in your dish.

Then, into the refrigerator it goes (covered with foil or plastic wrap.) It stays there at least three hours. And then....you have cake.

I surprised Sissy and Dad and Mamacita when I brought the cake. Have I mentioned I haven't made anything in the kitchen in quite a while? Sissy is the real cook in our family. And, this wasn't cooking...but it was homemade. And it was yummy.