White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Kahlua Icebox Cake

This month's Cake Slice Bakers challenge was for a white chocolate espresso icebox cake. Well we really aren't fans of coffee at this house (unless it's my homemade Kahlua) so I subbed out the espresso beans for vanilla beans and then added a touch of Kahlua to it in the end. It was delicious with just a hint of that Kahlua flavor.

We left for the beach last week and in the rush to get out of here I didn't have time to post this. Please accept my apologies.

Icebox cake

You’ll need:

¼ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons powdered gelatin

2 ¼ cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean – split in half and scrape out seeds –save it all

9 ounces white chocolate – I used nestle white chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-3 tablespoons kahlua or other coffee liqueur. The recipe called for hazelnut liqueur.

Nabisco famous chocolate wafers. They are usually near the ice cream supplies J

1.      Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap both ways so that the plastic hangs over the edges and you’ll have enough to wrap over the cake.

2.      Pour water into a heat proof cup, a small measuring up works great for this, add the gelatin and let sit and soften for 5 minutes.

3.      While the gelatin is doing its thing, put ½ cup heavy cream in a sauce pan with the vanilla bean. Bring the cream to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and let mixture sit for 15 minutes (or more)

4.      Meanwhile put the cup of gelatin in a small skillet or saucepan, pour enough water around cup that it comes about halfway up the sides. Heat the water while stirring the gelatin until the gelatin is completely dissolved.  Turn off the heat but leave the gelatin in the hot water (this will keep it from setting up before you want it to)

5.      Place the white chocolate in a large bowl

6.      Remove the vanilla bean from the cream, return the pan to the stove and heat until it gently boils. Pour the hot cream over the white chocolate. Let the mixture stand for 30 seconds and then whisk until it is smooth and completely melted. Whisk in the vanilla extract and kahlua. Set aside to cool for around 15 minutes.

7.      In the bowl of an electric mixer add the remaining heavy cream (it works well to chill your bowl and whisk before doing this) beat until soft peaks form, gently whisk about 1/3 of the cream into the chocolate mixture then fold in remaining cream.

8.      Scrape about 1 ½ cups of mousse into the prepared pan, smooth it into even layer. Using a small metal spatula spread about 1 tablespoon of mousse onto one side of the wafer, put it up against the long side of the pan, repeat until you are on the other side of the pan, you will need to do this 3 times to fill the pan. Spread the remaining mousse across the top and then cover with the plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 4 hours to set up. It will stay good in the freezer for days J  

It said to let it sit at room temp for 10 minutes….we didn’t it was still good J