What a mess!
But it tastes absolutely delicious.
I know you can get strawberries all year round but there’s nothing better than local, sun-ripened fruit, picked and popped in your mouth within hours, or even minutes.
And, if the sun ever shines this year, we’ll soon be heading for the pick your own fields near us.
Which will, inevitably lead to us over-doing it and winding up with a glut.
An Eton Mess is an historic and decadent way to use up any leftover strawbs.
Eton Mess can be made with many other types of summer fruit but strawberries are the original and best (although Lancing College in West Sussex has its own version which uses bananas).

What is Eton Mess?
Eton Mess is a simple dessert that consists of strawberries, meringue, and whipped cream.
It was first seen in print in 1893 and is said to come from the private and very posh school, Eton College. It’s always served at the annnual cricket match against the pupils of Harrow School, Eton’s great rivals.
It’s a very quick dish to create – unless you opt to make your own meringue. But, as Pork Belly says, life’s too short to peel a grape, stuff a mushroom or make meringue!
Why is it called a mess?
Well it might be because of how it looks, all splurged together in the dish, but it’s more likely that the name harks back to the word’s original meaning, that of prepared dish of soft food or a mix of ingredients eaten together.
That use of ‘mess’ has biblical roots when a hungry Esau sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a dish of lentils. The dish he bartered for became known as a ‘mess of pottage’, signifying something of a trivial nature swapped for something of much higher value.
Well, Eton Mess may be trivial but it is a wonderful, summery dessert.
Pork Belly’s got very good at making me a dairy free version. But this time he went one further and made an Eton Mess Cake.

Eton Mess cake
Ingredients
- 280 grams caster sugar
- 280 grams dairyfree butter
- 5 medium eggs
- 280 grams self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp dairyfree milk
For the filling
- 4 tbsp strawberry conserve or jam
- 600 grams fresh strawberries Leave a few whole for decoration, the rest hull and quarter
- 8 shop bought meringue nests We used Tesco's
- 500 mls coconut cream Well chilled, we used Sainsbury's
- 50 grams icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to gas 4,180°C.Grease and line the bases of 3 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking paper. In a large bowl, beat the dairyfree butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Gradually add the eggs, whisking well between each addition.In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together, then sift into the wet ingredients and fold through. Add the dairyfree milk and combine.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the 3 tins.Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Remove from the tins and leave to cool.
To assemble the cake
- Warm the strawberry conserve in a small saucepan and set aside.
- Whisk together the coconut cream and icing sugar to form soft peaks.Place about a third of the mixture into a bowl and set aside.Take six of the meringue nests and break into pieces.Gently fold in the meringue and three quarters of the strawberries into the remaining mixture, leaving the rest aside for the final decoration.
- Brush the top of the bottom cake layer with the warmed strawberry conserve. Spread the filling on top.Brush the bottom of the middle layer with the conserve and place on top.And repeat.Once the top layer is on, brush the top with the remaining conserve and pile on the last of the filling.
- Use the reserved coconut cream to cover the sides of the completed cake.Break up the remaining meringue nests and scatter across the top along with the remaining chopped strawberries..Decorate with the reserved whole strawberries and enjoy.
Other recipes you may like:
• Gluten-free Victoria sponge
• Sorbet of raspberries
• Vegan raspberry and white chocolate no-bake cheesecake