Strawberry & Blueberry No-Bake Cake

Since I started this blog a lot of you have told me you won't try to prepare the recipes by yourself no matter how easy they look in the blog. The reason? It looks like you don't believe you will be able to do it. I always answer the same: they are really easy recipes, and if you don't give them a go then you will never find out.

A couple of weeks ago I saw amazing pictures from a recipe in Facebook. It was a berries no bake cheesecake and looked sooo easy to make that I thought, why not?

I bought all the ingredients and prepared it. Step by step. For goodness sake, it was even called "easy" no bake cheesecake!

The following day, as a treat, I invited my friend Fran for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. Fran is one of my best friends. One of those people you love. Top to toe. The kind of friend you can count on, no matter how hectic our lives can get. And she's really into healthy, tasty, real food. So a strawberry and blueberry cake looked just like the best thing to share with her.

The cake was in the table, and she didn't say a word. Not a good sign. I then served two pieces. We both tried it, thinking we were just about to experience the most sublime of creations. We looked into each others' eyes with a forced smile.

You know what? It was the most disgusting cake I've ever done. Honestly, disgusting. Gross. Awful. Upsetting. Yucky. It went straight away to the rubbish bin. Literally. I picked her plate without asking, while she still didn't know how to tell me how horrible it was, and threw it away.

And then, embarrassed and frustrated, I suddenly understood all these people that find a suposed to be easy recipe from Facebook or a food blog like mine, and things go wrong and never dare to approach the kitchen again. And I felt I needed to apologise. Yes, because maybe, some of you who read my blog and send me messages with your concerns, have tried to prepare one of my recipes without success and have thought "that's not for me". And I´ve been so unfair and so unsupportive, that I´ve just told you "oh, c'mon, I´m sure you can... they are really easy recipes!".

As with everything in life, and in a desperate attempt to find out if I was the only one, I googled "disgusting recipe ever". And guess what? There are lots of people out there, people like me and you, who see a recipe in a magazine, on Facebook, in a blog, and think "I can do that". And then wreck it. But let me tell you something, it may not be you. It may be the recipe itself. Maybe the instructions are not clear, maybe the ingredients are not in the right amount. Or maybe the whole recipe is just a big fat culinary mistake that nobody ever should dare to try.

And to cheer you all up a little, here it is have a great blog called Bad Jelly. A food blog about these recipes that never should have seen the light of day. The "Banana Candle" is my favourite and goes specially for Fran.

So please, accept my apologies and let me encourage you to keep cooking. Yes, this recipe was an absolute disaster the first time. But did I gave up? No. I carried on cooking, and baking, and playing with ingredients. And, stubborn I am, I prepared this summery cake again. And again. And again. And in the forth attempt... I managed  to make one of the most refreshing and fruitful cakes ever. I won't say it´s really easy this time, but I promise, it is definetely worth it a try!

WHAT YOU NEED

For the Crust

1 Packet Digestive Biscuits
3tbsp Melted Butter
2tbsp Brown Sugar

For the cake 

150ml Greek Yogurt

100gr Sugar

2tub Cream Cheese

1can Condensed Milk

5 Gelatin Leaves

1cup Fresh Blueberries  

1cup Fresh Strawberries

Some extra fruit to decorate

WHAT YOU DO

Crush the biscuits roughly and combine with the melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix until the crumbs have been thoroughly coated with the butter. 

Put the crumbs in a cake tin and press firmly into the bottom and sides to form the base of the cake.

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Then remove and gently squeeze to remove any excess water. Pour over 3 tablespoons of boiling water and stir to dissolve.

In a big bowl mix the yogurt, sugar, cream cheese and condensed milk until smooth. Add the dissolved gelatin.

Split the mixture in 2 bowls, adding the strawberries to one of them and the blueberries to the other. Blend together.

Pour the blueberries mixture over the cake base and put in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then add the strawberry mixture and leave in the fridge overnight.

Unmould, decorate and serve.