Cake with cherries and cottage cheese, dessert for New Year

Prepare the jelly. Since the cake has cherries, it is best to use cherry-flavored jelly. For this cake, we will need two packs of jelly, each designed for 400 ml of liquid. Prepare the jelly from one pack according to the instructions, and the second one will be needed for the cream. Pour the jelly into a tray and put it in the refrigerator.

Cut the sponge cake into small cubes. This cake is most delicious with dark cocoa sponge cake. To save time and effort, I use ready-made sponge cake from the store. But if desired, you can bake a sponge cake using any of your favorite recipes, for example, this one. The sponge cake should be small, about 20 cm in diameter. Tip: if you cut the sponge cake in advance, put the cubes in a container with a lid to prevent it from drying out.

Before assembly, dilute the second package of gelatin in 100 ml of hot water. It will be quite thick. Let it cool slightly, but be careful not to let the gelatin start to set.

Prepare the cherries. Thaw them, remove the pits, and let the excess liquid drain. You can even lightly squeeze them. Prepare the cream cheese filling. To prevent the gelatin from clumping in the filling, it should not be cold, so take the cream and cream cheese out of the refrigerator in advance. Beat the cream with a mixer and add the cream cheese, beat well again. While continuing to beat, add the diluted gelatin (the one diluted in 100 ml) and half a cup of shredded coconut.

Line a removable cake pan with parchment paper. Layer a thin layer of the cream on the bottom, then add cubes of gelatin and cake, alternating with cherries. Repeat with another layer of cream, cake, cherries, and gelatin.

Spread the remaining cream on top and smooth it with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until fully set. This cake can be assembled one day before serving.

Remove the plastic wrap and invert the cake onto a serving dish.

Decorate the sides and top of the cake with coconut chips. I prefer not to use excessive decorations on such cakes, because coconut chips imitates snow, so I leave the cake as is, only decorating it with a few marzipan snowflakes.

This cake will also look impressive with red berries, rosemary sprigs, candied fruits, marmalade - any decoration that you associate with a festive mood.