Strawberry yoghurt mousse cake

This is a recipe that sits between mousse and cheesecake. It’s firmer than mousse (because of the gelatine that sets it) but isn’t as densely textured or rich as a cheesecake. In other words...the perfect summer pud!

The addition of yoghurt stops the cake being too sweet and gives a silky texture. Whenever I puree strawberries for such a recipe I always then sieve the puree to remove as many seeds as possible – it is an extra stage but so worth it.

The other thing I’d point out was that I used Hobnobs for the biscuit base rather than digestives. It might be me getting old but I find digestives taste incredibly salty these days and, where possible, I avoid them. The hobnobs provide a flavoursome base with the lovely addition of oats. For those of you who don’t know what a hobnob is it’s an oaty, sweet biscuit.

This recipe has a few processes to it but none are difficult. It is easier to make if you have a food processor but you could make it without - I do however think that it might be a little tiresome to make it manually.

When I removed the sides of the cake tin I did have a small panic that the whole thing was going to collapse...thankfully it didn’t. The texture of this mousse is soft and I recommend serving it reasonably quickly on removal from the fridge. The softness is also what makes it such a joy to eat.

I decorated the cake simply with strawberries and blueberries. Those lovely people at Abel and Cole gave me some wonderful English blueberries which were juicy and sweet and very possibly the most flavoursome blueberries I’ve tasted.

Ingredients:
300g hob nob biscuits (or any biscuit you use for making bases)
175g unsalted butter
500g strawberries, hulled and washed
75g caster sugar
4 leaves gelatine
250ml Greek yoghurt
300ml double cream

For decoration: strawberries and blueberries

How to make:

- Start by making the base: place the biscuits into the food processor and blitz until you have crumbs.

- Meanwhile, melt the butter.

- Stir the biscuit crumbs into the butter then pour in the base of a 20cm springform tin. Press down. Leave to cool.

- Puree the strawberries in the food processor until you have liquid pulp.

- Pass the puree through a sieve to remove as many seeds as possible – this will provide a silkier texture.

- Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water and leave to soften.

- Pour the strawberry puree into a saucepan and stir in the sugar.

- Heat until the sugar has dissolved and the puree is warm but not boiling.

- Squeeze all the water out of the gelatine leaves and whisk into the puree. I find using a whisk, rather than a spoon, gets the gelatine to absorb quickly without any lumps.

- Put to one side to cool.

- When the puree is at room temperature whisk in the yoghurt.

- Whisk the cream until you have stiff peaks then fold into the strawberry mixture.

- Pour over the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

- Decorate as desired – I used strawberries and blueberries.

- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.