Cheese Layer Cake with Cherry Jelly

Cheese Layer Cake with Cherry Jelly © kvalifood.com

With a biscuit base, cheese layer, fruit and jelly, this is a classic Danish cake — though it comes in many variations. My favorite is the one with whole cherries in jelly on top. The yellow cheese layer and the deep red jelly look great together.

Ingredients

Base

  • 75 g butter
  • 150 g whole grain wheat crackers

Cheese filling

  • 4 sheets gelatin
  • 200 g mascarpone (or cream cheese)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 dl crème fraîche 38%
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 egg whites
  • 50 g powdered sugar

Jelly

  • 1 jar preserved cherries (approx. 340 g)
  • 2½ dl cherry juice
  • 4 sheets gelatin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLXymr6qEwk

Directions

Base

Melt the butter. Crumble in the crackers and mix together. A food processor or stand mixer works fine for this. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of a springform pan.

Cheese filling

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water until soft, about 10 minutes.

Mix together the cheese, egg yolks, crème fraîche, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Put the gelatin in a bowl and melt it in a bain-marie. If you use a thin metal bowl, it’s usually enough to just set it in a bowl of hot tap water.

Let the gelatin cool slightly, then pour it into the cheese mixture.

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks while gradually adding the powdered sugar. Fold them into the cheese mixture.

Pour the cheese filling over the crackers in the springform pan and refrigerate the cake, covered, for at least 4 hours — overnight if possible.

Jelly

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water until soft, about 10 minutes.

Drain the juice from the cherries and top it up with water to make 2½ dl.

Melt the gelatin in the juice in a small saucepan.

Arrange the cherries on top of the cake.

Pour the jelly over the top once it begins to set.

Refrigerate, covered, for at least four hours.

The cake is ready once the jelly has fully set.

Notes

See my recipe for Easy Cheesecake for more videos. It’s not quite the same process, but it’s very similar.