diff --git a/site/profiles/manifests/nginx/simpleproxy.pp b/site/profiles/manifests/nginx/simpleproxy.pp
index c9f124e..cfc0bfb 100644
--- a/site/profiles/manifests/nginx/simpleproxy.pp
+++ b/site/profiles/manifests/nginx/simpleproxy.pp
@@ -99,6 +99,8 @@ class profiles::nginx::simpleproxy (
     # merge the hashes conditionally
     $nginx_parameters = merge($defaults, $extras_hash)
 
+    mkdir::p {'/var/cache/nginx':}
+
     # manage the nginx class
     class { 'nginx':
       proxy_cache_path      => {