Eton Mess Cheesecake!
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An Eton mess cheesecake with a strawberry cream filling, and homemade meringues on top – the perfect summer dessert!
Say hello to the new summer dessert of your dreams… Eton mess cheesecake. It’s the marriage of some iconic desserts into the perfect summery dessert for all of you. Honestly, it’s beautiful, fresh and I love it.
Eton Mess
Eton mess if one of those iconic desserts of the summer time that we all know and adore. It’s simply some deliciously lightly whipped cream, strawberries and meringue mixed together to make a light and fruity dessert. I love it. Even if I am absolutely and utter full, I will have enough room for a meringue based dessert like this, or even my spring pavlova.
I tend to make my Eton mess myself with a homemade meringue, that is super easy as you can see below, lightly whip my cream together and fold through the fresh fruit.. but when it comes to a cheesecake version?! It’s even better.
Cheesecake Base
The base of this cheesecake is the same as most of my others, where I use some blitzed digestive biscuits and mix with some melted butter. You can use most biscuits that you fancy, but I always think that the digestive is the classic here. If you want to use a filled biscuit, such as a custard cream, or a chocolate topped biscuit, you need to use less butter (about 2/3 of the total).
I don’t mind switching between baking spread or unsalted block butter that has been melted as both work for me, but you can choose whichever you fancy to make it how you want – both work just as well as each other.
Cheesecake Filling
This cheesecake filling is nice and simple and only five ingredients. You could make it less if you want by leaving out the vanilla, but I adore it in this recipe.
- Cream cheese – when it comes to the ‘cream cheese’ of a cheesecake, you MUST use a full-fat one. Full-fat soft cheese such as Philadelphia, or mascarpone both work really well.
- Cream – double cream is pretty much the only thing I would recommend here. If you are in another country it may have different name, such as heavy cream. You basically want the fattiest liquid cream that exists.
- Sugar – I use icing sugar in my cheesecake fillings
- Vanilla – vanilla extract, vanilla pod, vanilla bean extract or anything works – a little extra sweetness
- Fruit – some fresh chopped strawberries folded through the mix
Homemade Meringues
When it comes to making your own meringues, it is actually super simple and only two ingredients. Egg whites, and caster sugar. I used to make this recipe by adding a coloured stripe to my piping bag to colour the meringues, but this is optional and I prefer this without now to be honest.
When making a homemade meringue, you need to make sure that the bowl and whisk you are using is spotlessly clean and that your egg whites are not contaminated with any egg yolk as this protein can break down the meringue mixture really quickly.
I whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, add the sugar 1 tsp at a time, and whisk until glossy and lovely. Pipe onto the baking trays, and bake for a long time at a low temperature for the perfect bake. I also cool my meringues in the oven as this makes the perfect texture for your meringue.
Of course, if you don’t want to make your own meringues, you can use shop bought ones as well, and there is no shame in that. The meringues in this recipe just decorate the top so it’s up to you if you want to make the effort.
Tips & Tricks
- I use this cake tin
- I use these piping bags
- I use this piping tip
- You can use shop bought meringues if you don’t want to make your own
- Recipe updated March 2024 – only change is not adding colour to the homemade meringues
- I always set my cheesecakes in the fridge overnight otherwise they risk being a little sloppy still – you’re more likely to get a better result for the longer you leave it
- This Cheesecake will last covered in the fridge for 3 days
No-Bake Eton Mess Cheesecake!
Ingredients
Mini Meringues
- 3 medium egg whites
- 150 g caster sugar
Biscuit Base
- 300 g digestives
- 150 g unsalted butter (melted)
Cheesecake Filling
- 500-600 g full-fat cream cheese
- 100 g icing sugar
- 300 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100-200 g strawberries (chopped)
Decoration
- 150 ml double cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- fresh strawberries
- freeze dried strawberries
Instructions
Meringues
- Preheat the oven to 100ºc/90°c fan and line two large baking trays with parchment paper
- Add the egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk to stiff peaks
- Add the caster sugar, whilst whisking on a high speed, 1tsp at a time
- Whisk for a further few minutes to make sure it's all mixed in, and then add your mix to a large piping bag with a piping tip
- Pipe the meringues onto the baking sheets – I use a 1cm round tip to make my little meringue shells
- Bake in the oven for 90 minutes and then turn the oven off and leave them to cool completely in the oven. This is useful to do whilst your cheesecake is made and setting in the fridge.
Cheesecake Base
- Blitz the biscuits in a food processor to a fine crumb, or mash them up in a bag
- Add the melted butter and mix to a wet sand texture
- Press into the base of an 8" springform cake tin
- Add the cream cheese to a large bowl and add the icing sugar and vanilla
- Whisk together, and then add the double cream and whisk until thick. Alternately, whisk the cream separately and fold into the cream cheese mix.
- Once its thick, fold through the chopped up strawberries.
- Add onto the base, and make sure to spread the cheesecake until even. Set in the fridge for a minimum of 5-6 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin, and decorate with some double cream whipped with icing sugar, some strawberries, freeze dried strawberries and the mini meringues you made.
Notes
- I use this cake tin
- I use these piping bags
- I use this piping tip
- You can use shop bought meringues if you don't want to make your own
- Recipe updated March 2024 - only change is not adding colour to the homemade meringues
- I always set my cheesecakes in the fridge overnight otherwise they risk being a little sloppy still – you’re more likely to get a better result for the longer you leave it
- This Cheesecake will last covered in the fridge for 3 days
ENJOY!
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J x
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Could I use raspberry instead?
Yes!
Hi, i want to make this cheesecake but i want to put it in 10inch cake tin how can i adjust the recipe?
Karina
Technically for a 10″, you need to to do 1.6x the recipe, so add another two thirds on! Beware it can make it take longer to set! x
Oh lovely thanks a million for the reply 😉
Hello, am wondering if I can use frozen/freeze dried strawberries for the cheesecake filling instead of fresh?
I haven’t tried frozen as they’d obviously thaw, and I’m unsure of how that would work for the liquid content – but freeze dried would work!
I’m going to make this recipe this weekend! Could I add some crushed meringues to the cream cheese filling?
You could, but they tend to dissolve quite a bit so I don’t bother! X
Hi Jane,
Im planning on making this dessert this weekend. I dont have Christmas red paste but do have Wilton red food gel… will this still be ok for the meringue kisses?
Many thanks
Hiya! Yes the wilton one will do well! x
I’ve made this several times – it’s a great recipe 🙂 I’m going to make a batch of mini versions next. Love all your recipes xx
Hi Jane
Planning on making this lovely cheesecake at the weekend and was wondering how far in advance could I make the meringue kisses….would 2 days be ok and store them in an air tight container? Also when cutting the strawberrys up for the filling are you cutting them up smaller than quarters?
Thank you x
You can make the meringue kisses very far in advance, up to a month, as meringue itself once sealed into a container takes ages to go off so 2 days is easy! Depending on size I would say the pieces are about 1cm in size for the strawberries.
Just finished making this as an alternative to Christmas pudding. Really easy recipe to follow and looks great 🙂 Thank You!
Can it be frozen before you put the top decorations on? X
Yes! It must set in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours before freezing however.
I very rarely comment on blogs, but I just had to tell you how beautiful this is and what a clever idea you have come up with. I am going to adapt this to a Keto-friendly recipe and can’t wait to serve it at my next dinner party. Thanks for sharing!
Love Eaton mess and love cheesecake….what a wonderful combination…thanks Jane
Made this yesterday. Was so amazing, thank you for the recipe! I blended the strawberries for the filling instead. This is going to be a frequent dessert for me!
Hi,
I’m so excited to make this recipe, but I was just wondering if it would be possible to blitz the strawberries down, so there aren’t any chunks in the cream cheese filling?
Would the recipe need altering or would it work ok?
Xxx
I would maybe use a bit less as it would be more liquid like, but it should still work. x
My first attempt at a cheesecake and I made this one. Brilliant recipe and tastes so good!!
Hope to make the mini creme egg cheesecake for Easter weekend (that’s if I don’t eat the mini eggs first!!! lol) ?
Ahh thats amazing!! I am so glad!! x
Il est magnifique ! Il donne envie d’en prendre une part ! C’est un régal pour les yeux, merci !