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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Can i bake this in a 7 inch pan? Also can i blitz half the strawberries and leave half of them in chunks?
Hi,
Can I use ready made meringue instead of making them? If so how much would I need?
Hey, you can do and how much you want is completely up to you x
Hi Jane!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe! This went down a treat at home and my mum (who isn’t usually the biggest fan of anything I make) had a second helping! I don’t think I’ve ever commented before on recipes, but this was amazing! Keep doing what you’re doing 🙂 xx
My cheesecake hasnt set despite being in the fridge for 18 hours 🙁 Ive checked the ingredients and method and cant see where I went wrong, what could have happened??
It could be a number of things – and it’s hard to say for certain as I don’t know exactly how you made it, or the ingredients used. Likely is it’s just not whisked enough, or the strawberries have caused a problem etc! It’s worth freezing for at least an hour to make it serve-able for now x
Very easy to make and tastes amazing. I made extra meringue kisses so that it could be refrigerated.
A real show stopper and tastes as good as it looks
Am making this recipe tomorrow but will probably add more Strawberries. I drain them on and between kitchen paper for a while before I use fresh ones in a recipe as it soaks up the excess juice but leaves the texture and flavour intact. Just an idea you might like to try? 😁
Yep you can do that if that works for you..!
I’m now finished with it, all decorations done and I’m very happy with the result. thank you so much for the recipe! I will definitely be making more desserts from your website! x
Hi Jane,
I’m planning on making this recipe tomorrow, but I only have 360g of full fat cream cheese. can I substitute the rest with mascarpone or should I just buy some more? I’m very excited to make this by the way. thanks for the lovely recipe. x
Hey! You can definitely make the rest up with mascarpone! x
Hello, I made this cheesecake yesterday and left it in the fridge overnight in my springform tin to set, when I took it out this afternoon it was a bit soggy at the bottom, I decorated it and transferred it to a different plate to serve, when I went back the plate was soaking with a liquid? Any idea why this may be? This also made the base split when I cut it. I made the raspberry and white chocolate one last week and it turned out perfectly, I followed the recipe exact but used Mascarpone instead of Philadelphia? It tasted good just looking for some advice to avoid the leaking next time. Love your recipes and can’t wait to try more!
Hey! So this can happen sometimes due to the fruit (often I find strawberries are much more of a culprit compared to raspberries)! Other than the soggy bottom, did it set okay? x
Yes it set perfectly apart from that and it tasted lovely, was just unsure where it was coming from, I did think it was the strawberries. Going to try making it again as it was popular! Thanks for the reply 🙂
Hi Jane!
For the meringue kisses; if I wanted them all one colour, (I’m thinking pink!) when would I add the food colouring?
Thank you! Love your recipes! xx
I would add the food colouring towards the end of whisking! xx
Thank you! I’ve tried it as you said – they’re still baking in the oven at the moment but so far so good!
Are they suitable for freezing?
Meringue can freeze, but you have to be careful when thawing them as they can go soggy! Meringue kisses can last for months though in an airtight container in a cool place though!
Oh that’s good to know – thank you so much!
They turned out really well for a first attempt! I had to keep patient with the whisking but I’m really happy with them!😃x
Hi Jane
Thanks for this lovely recipe, can I ask should the cream cheese be at room temperature or chilled before whisking ?
Thank you
I keep it chilled personally! x
Hi Jane,
Absolutely love all your recipes at the moment😍 thinking of making this cheesecake this week. For a 6 inch tin how would you recommend adapting the recipe? X
Hey!! Thank you! I would say half it for a 6″! X
Hi Jane,
I want to make my sister a strawberry cheesecake but she’s asked that there is only lumps of strawberries on top and not inside the filling. Could I make a coulis and mix into the cream cheese filling? Just wondering whether the extra liquid would mess with the setting of it? Thank you 😊
Hiya! So the extra liquid could certainly cause a problem – but what you could do is just spoon a couple of teaspoons worth onto the top of the plain cheesecake, and swirl it through, or use a setting agent like gelatine! xx
Can you freeze this? If so would you freeze it without the decoration on top? When should it be taken out of the freezer to thaw it?
Yes I would freeze without decoration – and I personally would thaw in the fridge as you don’t want it to get too warm, so probably 7-8 hours at least!
Hi, thinking of making this but need it to be gluten free. Do you think it would work the same with gf digestive biscuits?
Thanks
Yes! My favourite GF ones are the Tesco ones, and I only add 135g of butter!