Eton Mess cheesecake recipe

I made this Eton Mess cheesecake for a friend’s Halloween party and it went down a treat! If you leave out making the meringues, this is a no-bake recipe! The meringues pictured here are bone shaped for Halloween (I have also had a few say they look like doggy treat, haha!), but you could also pipe out hearts for Valentines or a loved one’s birthday! You can also just make it because it’s damn tasty!

After looking at several different recipes, I  created my own according to the size of my springform cake tin. Feel free to make modifications depending on how you like your cheesecakes – if you want more biscuit base, then make more of it!

You will need a springform tin, an electric whisk (it’ll save your arm!) and something to pipe with if you’re making the meringues!

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Eton Mess cheesecake

Servings 12

Ingredients

For the base

• 210 g digestive biscuits/graham crackers
• 90 g ginger nut biscuits/ginger snaps
• 150 g butter melted

For the filling

• 400 ml double/heavy cream
• 120 g caster sugar
• 500 g marscapone cheese
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Red food colouring gel please use gel not liquid OR 100g chopped strawberries (optional)

For the top

• 450 g strawberries
• 1-2 tbsp caster sugar
• 8 meringue nests not required if you're making your own
• Freeze dried strawberries optional

For the meringues (if you're making)

• egg whites from 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup caster sugar

Instructions

For the biscuit base

• Crush together the biscuits/cookies either by putting them into a ziplock bag and crushing it with a rolling pin, or using a food processor.
• Add the melted butter to the biscuits.
• Grease your springform tin with butter, then add the biscuit base mixture and press down so it's even.
• Put it into the fridge whilst you make the next part.

For the filling

• Whip the heavy cream until you get soft peaks
• In another bowl, mix together the sugar, marscapone, vanilla extract.
• Add 6-8 drops of red food colouring gel if you're using it, this would make the cheesecake pink. You will be adding the heavy cream to this, so make the mixture more red than you would like and the cream should whiten the colour a bit.
• Add the strawberries if using.
• Fold in the double cream until it's mixed thoroughly.
• Put the mixture on top of your biscuit base and put it back in the fridge for at least 6 hours or preferably overnight.

For the top

• Remove the cake from the tin and put on to a serving plate.
• Put 350g of strawberries into a blender or food processor (you can also just mash the strawberries manually), then push the mixture through a sieve to remove the pips.
• Pour the mixture over the cake
• Add meringues
• Cut the remaining strawberries and add it to the top of the cake.
• Add freeze dried strawberries if using.

For the meringues

• Preheat oven to 90C/200F/Gas mark 1/4
• Mix ingredients in a bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form.
• Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe out bone shapes onto parchment paper.
• Put the meringues into the oven and heat for around 45min - 1 hour. Watch the meringues at 45 min and make sure they don't brown. It may take a few tries to get this right, so I suggest only piping a couple initially to test your oven. Take out of the oven once crisp and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Notes

I used a 23cm springform tin for this. You can adjust the recipe according to what tin size you have.
You will need an electric mixer (you can do this by hand but it takes ages and uses a lot of energy!!)