My late mother-in-law used to make this fridge cake and it was very popular with her guests. She used to make 3 triangular cakes but I found it easier to make one large flat one. It needs to stay in the freezer (maybe I should have called it a Freezer Cake!) and I try and have one in the freezer all the time in case I have guests at short notice and don’t have time to bake. What’s nice about it is that you do not need to thaw it. You can cut it immediately it comes out of the freezer. Once it is frozen either cut just enough slices you need or cut up the whole thing and freeze the slices wrapped in tin foil. Although the original recipe insists you use cream cheese and not cottage cheese I have used cottage cheese which is more economical.
250 g butter
250 ml sugar
2 eggs
500 g cream cheese or cottage cheese (2 tubs)
20 ml vanilla essence
3 packets tennis biscuits (don’t use the broken ones) (See discussion on tennis biscuits in the comments section!)
cherries (I sometimes use a 170 g bottle of Maraschino cherries but the regular ones are also fine)
Beat butter and sugar to a cream. Add beaten eggs. Beat well with a wooden spoon. Add cream cheese or cottage cheese and vanilla essence and mix very well until the whole mixture is a creamy texture. Over-beating might make it too runny.
Pack 9 biscuits on a large piece of buttered tin foil (in a square). Use a square cake tin about the same size and place the tin foil with the arranged biscuits in the tin. If the tin is slightly larger position this into one corner and pack the other two sides with whatever you can find as a support. Pieces of polystyrene work for me. If you don’t do this the mixture will leak out. Spread one third of the mixture over the biscuits. Add another layer of biscuits and another layer of mixture. At this stage place your halved cherries evenly over the mixture and then another layer of biscuits. Repeat with the last layer, finishing with a row of biscuits. Fold the excess tin foil over this and put the whole lot in the freezer. Once it has frozen solid you can remove it from the tin and it will keep its shape.
Cut each square into three slices. This will give you 27 slices.
Keep the cake in the freezer, not the fridge as it will get too soft. You can eat it immediately it comes out of the freezer. It is not necessary to thaw as it will never go completely hard.
If you don’t like the look of the plain biscuits on top you can top it with chocolate butter icing but I prefer it without the added calories!
Makes 27 slices
Hey there, Pam
DO you know, my mouth is actually watering when I look at this cheesecake! It seems like all your recipes are going to become “MUST BAKES”.
Thank you for sharing it all.
Luv Caryl
That both sounds and looks BEAUTIFUL! And how wonderful to have it at the ready!
Thanks, Pam!
And thanks for stopping by the Army of Four Digest! 🙂 I’m their mom – signed in with my account. 🙂
KZ
Ooops. Almost signed in with my account.
Need…. more…. coffee……
Sorry for the confusion. My latest comment seems to have deleted the first one… who knows what this one will do.
Your recipe both looks and sounds wonderful! And I love how you can have it at the ready! Many thanks!
And thanks for stopping by the Army of Four Digest! I’m their mom. 🙂
KZK
Thanks so much. I got all three comments. Thanks for the visit again!
yummy!
check out my baking blog and tell me what you think:
http://thegodscake.wordpress.com
Michael
Your recipes are great! Te photos are very impressive too! Good luck with your blog. 🙂
Thanks Trev, I promise I will make something chocolate soon!
That looks and sounds incredible. Can you tell me, is a tennis biscuit the same as a lady finger? When I make Tiramisu I use the hard lady fingers, I hope thats the same thing.
Anne and Sasha
A tennis biscuit is a sweet flat square biscuit which makes it good for layering. I assume your lady finger is the same as our finger biscuit (also called budoir) which is round and finger shaped so this is not the one to use here. Perhaps you could explain a Graham cracker to me. Could it be that? Is it sweet?
Pam
Tennis biscuits have coconut in them, and are a slightly more brittle version of the graham cracker. graham crackers are more like Marie biscuits, which are available in the US as Mecxican “Marias”
(Ex S.A. Born and bred, transplanted 24 yrs now in US?) I Know ’em all!
Yes, our finger biscuits must be the same as yours. I use them for tiramisu.
I’ve never heard of tennis biscuits either, but this looks closer to our graham crackers (yes, they ae sweet) then to lady fingers.
This looks delicious and so perfectly sliced. Great idea to keep one in the freezer at all times!
I have found a picture of tennis biscuits on the following link. Perhaps check it out and see if it’s similar to something you have. You’ll find it about two-thirds of the way down the page.
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/category/opinion/
Hope this will help.
Hi from another Pam!! Also a South African but living in Northern Cyprus now. Karen from Army of Four blog sent me your address. Enjoying the taste of home. Will keep checking to see how many of my favourite recipes appear.
Hi Pam! You’re welcome to stop by any time and hope there will something new for you to see soon. Hope you’re enjoying Cyprus.
Australia does not have tennis biscuits either. I have not found an equivalent yet. The coconut biscuits here are not flat and square and are just not the same thing!
Barb, check out the link Pam from Cyprus sent. There are two shops I can see that sell South African goodies in Melbourne.
Thanks for your note. I have seen them in the South African shops I have visited here but you can’t get them in a regular supermarket.
Believe it or not I managed to find Tennis Biscuits here in Cyprus, imported all the way from South Africa. Have them in my fridge for “just in case” LOL!!! There is quite a lot of SA stuff around here. You just have to hunt. Anyone go to this site: http://funkymunky.co.za/ Lots of SA recipes and also a list of overseas shops that stock SA goodies!
I’m glad you managed to find tennis biscuits in Cyprus. I didn’t realise they were exclusive to South Africa. Thanks so much for the useful link too. It looks very interesting. Had a quick look but will explore it more later.
Wow…quite a chatty blog this is becoming! This is wonderful! It’s really interesing to find that what we take for granted here in SA others have never hear of. (i.e. “Tennis” biscuits. Did they not originate in the UK?)
Luv Caryl
Here is a website about South African biscuits.
http://teriton.co.za/
Scroll down on the left hand side until you see Origin of Names and then click on Tennis Biscuits! Plus plenty others!!
Thanks so much for this interesting link on South African biscuits. Now all we need is a chart of biscuit substitutes for each country and then all our recipes will be interchangeable! I appreciate your research.
Thanks alot for the recipe i really like it i like fridge tarts very much rather to bake.
Hi Pam
I just found this website by luck , im from South Africa…living in Cyprus now. Please could you tell me where you bought the tennis biscuits ??
Hope you get this message
Lana