Recipe: Red Berry and Vanilla Cheesecake

"This lovely summer cheesecake is so pretty and delicious, it would be lovely for a Holy Communion party or a Summer BBQ," said Mercy Fenton in her weekly column. 

"If you want to see distinct colour change do add a little red food colouring to the raspberry layer, I didn’t so it’s barely visible."

For the base:

Line the base of a 9 inch spring form tin with a disk

Ingredients

250gr biscoff biscuits crushed

100gr butter

Method:

• Melt the butter over a bain marie of water.
• Once melted add the biscuit and mix well.
• Press evenly onto the base and smooth with the back of a spoon, chill.

Strawberry puree

Ingredients

175gr strawberries

15ml lemon juice

50gr sugar

¼ leaf gelatin

Method:

Soak the gelatine in cold water.

Simmer the strawberries and lemon juice gently and cook to reduce the juices. Puree with a hand held blender then pass through a fine sieve.

Lift the gelatin from the water and add the gelatin to the hot puree to dissolve.

Set aside to cool.

Raspberry puree

150 gr fresh or frozen raspberries

50 gr sugar

Method:

• Simmer the raspberries and sugar until the berries are soft, then pass the pulp through a fine sieve.
• Set aside to cool.
• Red food colouring - optional
• For the cheesecake

Ingredients

500gr cream cheese

150gr caster sugar

4 leaves gelatine

30ml boiling water

400ml cream whipped

Method:

• Put the cream on to beat to stiff peaks then chill in the fridge
• Using a spade beat the cream cheese and sugar; don’t over mix, it just needs to be smooth.
• Soak the gelatin in cold water, once soft lift out the gelatin from cold water and squeeze to remove excess water.
• Dissolve the gelatin in the boiled water.
• Add the dissolved gelatin to the cream cheese mix.
• Divide the mix into three bowls - roughly 200g per bowl.
• Chill the mix until it begins to thicken and set a little.
• Working quickly you have three layers to complete.

Layer 1:

• Add the raspberry puree to one bowl of cream cheese, mix well then fold in 100gr whipped cream. (Add food colouring if using)
• Spread over the base of the cheesecake and level as evenly as possible.
• Return to the fridge.

Layer 2:

• Add 130gr of the strawberry puree to the cream cheese , mix well then fold in 100gr of whipped cream.
• Very gently spread over the raspberry layer, level as best as possible then chill.

Layer 3:

• Finally add 2tsp vanilla extract to the last bowl of cheese, fold in the remaining whipped cream. Roughly 200gr.
• Again carefully spread the mixture over the cheesecake. Smooth evenly without upsetting the layers.
• Spoon some of the remaining strawberry puree over the last layer then refrigerate until set. Decorate with fresh strawberries and raspberries.