We attended a high school graduation this past week, and since I only knew one graduate, I had a little time to let my mind wander during the ceremony.
I thought about how making friends has changed for me in the 20-plus years since I was in high school. It used to be so easy: you all went to the same place every day for nine months of the year.
Recently, we had a wonderful dinner at some friends’ house. The only reason it happened? We put it on the calendar almost a month in advance.
It used to be a lot easier to keep up with people when I just saw them in my fifth-hour class every day.
Regardless, I was so excited to be able to break bread with these friends, as we’ve been talking about making plans for about forever and finally managed to make it happen.
Plus, they were making a spread of Mexican food, which is always on my thumbs up list.
I offered up my dessert-making abilities to contribute to the meal and immediately started looking for a new recipe to try.
I landed on an icebox cake from Nancy Lopez at the blog “Mexican Made Meatless.” You can find the original post at https://mexicanmademeatless.com/carlota-de-limon-mexican-lime-icebox-cake/. I added extra vanilla in my version.
Carlota de Limon
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup lime juice freshly squeezed
- 12 ounces evaporated milk
- 12 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- about 14 ounces Maria cookies or Nilla Wafers
- fresh lime zest from two or three limes
Instructions
- Pour the freshly squeezed lime juice through a fine mesh strainer to remove any small particles.
- Add the strained lime juice, evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla to a blender or food processor and blend until the mixture is completely smooth.
- Pour just enough of the mixture into the bottom of an eight-by-eight-inch baking dish to create a thin layer.
- Cover the entire bottom of the dish with a single layer of cookies, breaking them to fill in gaps, if you need to.
- Pour a layer of the milk mixture on top. You want enough to cover the cookies. Spread it out evenly.
- Repeat with another layer of cookies and then another layer of the milk mixture, continuing until all the mixture is used up. Make sure the final layer is the milk mixture.
- Sprinkle lime zest, to taste, on top, cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.
- Slice the cake and serve it, and make sure to refrigerate the leftovers.
This was delicious, and it was really easy, too. If you’re not familiar with icebox cakes, the cookies basically melt into the filling a bit while in the refrigerator to create a slice-able dessert.
If you’re a fan of key lime pie, you’ll like this, too. It’s a great summer dessert. And if you’ve never tried Maria cookies, they are delicious. They’re basically a very thin vanilla wafer.
And now we need to get busy with our friends to get another dinner on our schedule. If we act quickly, we may get to see them again before the summer is out.
This piece first appeared in print May 15, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
