My Cookbook: Souk to Table 
4-Ingredient Nescafe Cake (No-Bake!)
This ridiculously easy but addictive ice box cake which goes by “nescafe cake” across the middle east is a recipe you’ll want up your sleeve! With only 4 ingredients (tea biscuits, whipping cream, condensed milk and coffee) and 20 minutes, you’ll have a crowd pleasing dessert ready to chill in the fridge. Serve it cold from the fridge, dusted with a layer of cocoa powder!
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Hungry Paprikas.
The Best of No Bake Desserts
Personally, I love having a variety of very easy desserts up my sleeve because I am not very into baking. This is one of my favourites that I make over and over again because it’s the perfect combination of 1) delicious and 2) easy!
This “nescafe cake” is known across the middle east and its quite easy to replicate at home using your favourite tea biscuits (I love the Maria brand but any will work), coffee, whipped cream and condensed milk. I used to sweeten the cream with powdered sugar, which works well too, but I recently switched to using condensed milk for sweetness and I love it so much more. It adds a deep caramel-like flavour to the cream as well.
This is the type of dessert I make during the summer months, but also when I want to feed a large amount of people. It is grouped with my other easy no bake desserts like this chocolate lazy cake and my more special pistachio tiramisu.
How to Make Nescafe Cake, Step-by-Step with Photos
First, start by combining the whipping cream and condensed milk in the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can also use a hand mixer). Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Brew the coffee (any type) and allow it to cool for a few minutes.
I used an 8×12 inch glass baking dish which yields 3 layers of biscuits and 3 layers of cream. You can use a smaller dish and end up with more layers.
Note: Rectangular tea biscuits are easiest to layer since they lay flat next to each other. But my favourite type of tea biscuits is Maria and they’re circular, so I make it work by breaking some of the cookies in half and adding them to the middle rows to cover up some of the empty spots. See the photo for how I do it!
Dip the tea biscuits in the coffee on both sides, then layer them on the bottom of the dish, side to side. Do your best to cover the full surface area. Add 1/3 of the cream mixture and smooth it out into an even layer.
Add another layer of coffee-dipped tea biscuits, another layer of cream, then a final layer of biscuits and a final top layer of cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 7 hours or overnight.
Once you are ready to serve, dust the top generously with cocoa powder (I prefer unsweetened), cut into even square slices and serve chilled.
A Few Tips!
I suggest refrigerating it no less than 7 hours to get a rich creamy tasting cake – this gives enough time for the biscuits to soak up the coffee and cream.
Remember that if you use a smaller dish, you will likely have more than 3 layers, and if you use a larger dish you’ll likely have 2 layers. This recipe makes 3 layers for an 8×12 inch dish.
Other Cool and Creamy Desserts You Will Love
If you tried these recipes, please consider leaving a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page – I’d love to hear from you! You can also hop on over to Instagram and say hello!
4-Ingredient Nescafe Cake (No-Bake!)
Ingredients
- 500 ml heavy whipping cream (2 cups), 35% fat or higher
- 150 ml sweetened condensed milk, half a 300ml can
- 400 g Maria cookies, 2 packets, each pack is 200g (See Notes)
- 8 oz coffee or espresso, 235 ml
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, to dust
Instructions
- To start, combine the whipping cream and the sweetened condensed milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, whip the cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, for roughly 3-5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, brew the coffee and pour into a wide bowl or dish to cool down slightly.
- Dip the cookies into the coffee and line them up on the bottom of an 8 by 12 casserole dish. See step-by-step photos for how to lay them out. Spread 1/3 of the cream mixture over top. Repeat the layering process two more times, ending with the last 1/3 of the cream mixture. You will have 3 layers of cookies and 3 layers of the cream. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 7 hours or overnight.
- Before serving, dust generously with cocoa powder, then cut into pieces and serve chilled.
Notes
- I love the flavour of Maria cookies, so that’s what I use, but any tea biscuit will work. In fact, rectangular tea biscuits will work even better since they line up nicely in a rectangular dish. But if you have circular cookies, see my step-by-step photos in the blog post to see how I split the cookies up to cover the bottom evenly.
- You can brew filter coffee or espresso, just make sure it is strong enough to taste the coffee flavour.
- You can sweeten the whipped cream with powdered sugar if you don’t have sweetened condensed milk. Start with 3 tablespoons of sugar and taste and adjust to your liking.
Low effort, high reward dessert! Perfect for the warmer weather!
Thank you for the reveiw Rebecca, so thrilled you loved it! Perfect indeed for warm weather 🙂
Such a quick and easy recipe. I have made this a few times now and it has been a hit every time, with every crowd!
Hi Amina, I’d like to make this but can you clarify using espresso instead of coffee – 1 shot of espresso comes as 30 ml, so are we to add water until it makes 240 ml..? I feel that would be very diluted. Should it be 2 shots of espresso then add water to get 240 ml? Would love some clarification, thanks!
Hi Jelena! Sorry for the confusion – yes I would do two shots of coffee then dilute with water to get to 240ml. The last few times I made this I used Americano which also works (and that is essentially what you’ll be getting when you add the water to the espresso! Let me know how it goes!
I ended up using 3 shots of espresso for 240 ml and it worked out well! I did forget to pick up condensed milk, so I used powdered sugar, but when I tasted the whipped cream it was not sweet at all, so I ended up doubling the powdered sugar as well as drizzling maple syrup in between the layers. It was still only just lightly sweet, my sweet obsessed in laws said it wasn’t sweet enough but my guests loved the light sweetness. Would def make again and try with condensed milk.