It can be difficult to make one dessert to please everyone at large family gatherings. In our family for example, there is someone who doesn’t eat chocolate while a couple others don’t care for lemon desserts. My challenge for Easter was to find a dessert recipe that I could make ahead. And, I wanted it to seem light and fresh and be the perfect end to a ham dinner.
Then I remembered a favorite old recipe, Cherries-Berries on a Cloud. The bottom is a meringue layer that is topped with a mixture of cream cheese, whipped cream and miniature marshmallows. It is served with a combination of canned cherry pie filling with sliced, fresh strawberries. Not only is this a make ahead dessert – you must make it ahead.
I started the meringue layer on Saturday. It is baked at 275°F for 1 hour and then the oven is turned off. After 12 hours, the meringue layer looked like this.
Sunday morning, I spread the whipped cream mixture over the meringue and covered the top of the baking dish with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator before going to church.
I skipped the cherry pie filling and instead mixed about 2 quarts sliced strawberries with one tub of strawberry pie glaze (found in the produce department of a supermarket).
Not only was this a perfect Easter dessert, it would be a good one for Mothers' Day (just four weeks away) as well.
Cherry-Berries on a Cloud
Meringue
6 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
Filling
2 packages (3 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Cherry-Berry Topping
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups sliced strawberries or 1 package (16 oz) frozen strawberries, thawed, drained
1. Heat oven to 275°F. Grease bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan. In large bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Beat in 1 3/4 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Spread in pan.
2. Bake 1 hour. Turn off oven; leave meringue in oven with door closed 12 hours.
3. In large bowl, mix cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and the vanilla until smooth. In chilled medium bowl, beat whipping cream until stiff. Fold whipped cream and marshmallows into cream cheese mixture. Spread evenly over meringue. Refrigerate at least 12 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
4. In medium bowl, mix all topping ingredients until well blended. Spoon over individual servings of dessert. Store in refrigerator.
10 servings
It was a beautiful and warm day in Minneapolis on Easter Sunday. Jack hid plastic eggs for Blake in our back yard and we all enjoyed watching Blake hunt for them.