Fridge Cake

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