Growing up in a Filipino kitchen means knowing one universal truth: desserts don't have to be complicated to be spectacular. Fruit salad and cathedral windows, for example, are perennial party pleasers that come together with just a few ingredients and zero baking.
Save these two desserts recipes for potlucks, family gatherings, or those moments when you want to impress without stress:
- Fruit Salad Eton Mess
- Nestlé Cream Cathedral Window
Store-bought shortcuts? Absolutely welcome. Nestlé All-Purpose Cream? Your new creamy, dreamy secret weapon and best friend.
Fruit Salad Eton Mess
Imagine a cross between two beloved desserts from different sides of the globe: British Eton mess and Filipino fruit salad.
The result? A textural treat that blends crisp meringue, velvety sweet cream, and a medley of chopped fruits guaranteed to surprise and delight your family.
Add fresh sliced strawberries to your drained fruit cocktail, use Nestlé All-Purpose Cream for whipping, grab some store-bought meringue cookies, and assemble with joyful abandon. Prepare it in a big, potluck-friendly serving bowl or in individual cups, parfait-style.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 cups Nestlé All-Purpose Cream, chilled
- ¼ cup condensed milk
- 1 can fruit cocktail, drained
- 100g meringue cookies
- 8–10 fresh strawberries, sliced thinly, for garnish
Whip cream: Combine Nestlé All-Purpose Cream and condensed milk in a large metal bowl. With a whisk or electric mixer, beat the cream and milk together to stiff peaks. Set aside in the fridge to keep it cold.
Prepare meringue: Transfer about half of your meringue cookies in a resealable plastic bag, setting the rest aside for garnish later. With a rolling pin or a small pan, gently crush the cookies into small, irregular pieces. Avoid crushing the cookies into a powder—you want a mix of big and small shards for a variety of texture.
Assemble: Combine the drained fruit cocktail and crushed meringue cookies in a large mixing bowl. Add as much of the chilled whipped cream mixture as you like, then use a rubber spatula to fold everything together. Transfer to a serving bowl and decorate with remaining meringue cookies and sliced strawberries.
Alternatively, you can serve this as individual parfaits. Pipe or spoon some whipped cream into a tall cup, layer with drained fruit cocktail, then with crushed meringue cookies. Continue layering until you fill the cup. Finish with a generous swirl of whipped cream, a whole meringue cookie, and sliced strawberries. Serve cold!
Nestlé Cream Cathedral Window
This dessert gets its name from vibrant jelly cubes suspended in a milk-white gelatin dome, like stained glass catching sunlight in an old church. While store-bought jelly cups work in a pinch, making colored gelatin from scratch lets you play with colors and shapes.
The recipe is wonderfully simple: Just mix, set, and wait. Your patience pays off with a show-stopping dessert that's not just for Christmas. Summer meriendas, potlucks, or casual gatherings make the perfect setting for this treat that’s part dessert, part edible centerpiece. And thanks to Nestlé All-Purpose Cream, each bite ends with a deliciously creamy finish.
Ingredients
Colored Jelly
- 2 tsp (10g) unflavored red gulaman or gelatin powder
- 2 tsp (10g) unflavored green gulaman or gelatin powder
- 1 ½ cups white sugar, divided
- 8 cups hot water, divided
Milk Jelly
- 3 cups hot water
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups condensed milk
- 1 cup Nestlé All-Purpose Cream
- 1 large sachet (about 34g) unflavored gulaman or gelatin powder
Prepare colored jelly: Prepare two wide heatproof containers. Add red gulaman powder and ¾ cup white sugar in the first container. Add green gulaman powder and remaining white sugar in the second container. Carefully pour 4 cups hot water into each container, then stir with a spoon to dissolve the gulaman powder and sugar completely. Cover and refrigerate until solid, about 1 hour.
Once firm, run a knife through the jelly to slice them into small cubes, about ½- to 1-inch in size.
Prepare molds: Add colored jelly cubes to your molds, covering the bottom completely. Depending on the size of your mold and your jelly cubes, add enough to loosely fill the mold while leaving space for the milk jelly mixture to pass through.
Prepare milk jelly: Add water, whole milk, condensed milk, and Nestlé All-Purpose Cream to a pot over medium heat. Whisk to combine. Once it starts to boil, reduce heat to medium-low. Add unflavored gulaman powder to the milk mixture, constantly whisking until gulaman powder is fully dissolved into the mixture. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
Set milk jelly: Pour milk jelly mixture over the colored jelly and into the molds. Fill to the brim and let cool completely before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until completely set, about 2 hours.
Serve: Once cathedral window is set, carefully run the tip of a pointed knife along the edge of the gelatin. Cover mold with a platter and flip, gently shaking the mold as necessary, to release. If your cathedral window needs help, apply a towel moistened with hot water around the mold, about 1 minute.
Alternatively, if your mold is a large rectangular cake pan, slice the cathedral window straight out of the pan and serve in individual dessert plates. Store leftovers for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Notes
Different gelatin brands call for their own liquid ratios. Check the package instructions, and treat them as a starting point.
The golden rule: More liquid creates softer jellies, less liquid makes them firmer. Want a creamy cathedral window? Add extra liquid. Prefer a sturdy set? Reduce the water slightly.
