Eton Mess Passionfruit Cheesecake - Queen Baking Club

I'm looking forward to Christmas
Though I'm not expecting a visit from Jesus

I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

                                                                                  Tim Minchin, White Wine in the Sun

For the Queen Baking Club Facebook group recently, the allocated recipe from the Queen website was Eton Mess Passionfruit Cheesecake.  This recipe was not difficult, but had a number of elements, meaning that it is not a recipe to hurry.  

This cheesecake is a mashup of Eton Mess, the famous English dessert made with crushed meringues, strawberries and lashings of cream,  and a cheesecake.  This no-bake cheesecake comprises a crushed biscuit base, a creamy two-tone (yellow and orange) passionfruit cheesecake filling, Chantilly cream, sliced mango and passionfruit, and striped mini meringues (though the yellow stripes don't show up well in the photos).

As you can see, it is a rather rich and luscious confection, with a very summery appeal. 

I thought the mini meringues were rather cute, albeit very fragile.  An intriguing technique used in making these meringues was to heat the sugar in the oven before adding it to the beaten egg whites.  Perhaps this was to aid in combining these two elements more easily.

My notes on the recipe are as follows:

• I used the base of a glass to smooth out the biscuit base rather than the back of a spoon.
• I poured the boiling water over the gelatine to dissolve it - I found that merely sprinkling the gelatine over the water was not sufficient to melt the gelatine, which would have then made a lumpy, rubbery mess in the cheesecake.
• I softened and chopped up the cream cheese  before beating it to allow it to beat as smoothly as possible.
• Don't top the cheesecake until you want to serve it, as everything goes very soft very quickly once the fruit is added.

For people celebrating Christmas in warmer climes, this cheesecake would make a lovely alternative to Christmas pud to have after a cold seafood main course.  (But me, I love my roast and hot Christmas pud with lashings of custard.)