Monday Recipe - Frozen Fruit Salad

The Teacup Cottage was a lovely little place in Acworth, Georgia, where you could come on a Saturday afternon for a great cup of tea, delicious food, and good conversation. 

Whenever I visited, I always had the 'Hens Nest.'  It included a scoop of chicken salad served on Chinese noodles (the nest), a lovely cheese biscuit, fruit, and a scoop of their luscious frozen fruit salad.  It was to die for!  Of course, the nice folks at the Teacup Cottage were more than reluctant to give out their recipes.  My favorite was that frozen fruit salad.  Here you see it on the combination salad plate they served.  It's the pink salad at the top.  This plate also contained chicken salad and potato salad.  Oh, it was so delightful!  And don't you just love the teapot with its cute little tea cozy?  The Teacup Cottage's teacups were of many different designs and all of them were so elegant.

Now comes the bad news:  the Teacup Cottage closed a few years ago.  I miss it so much! I have tried to recreate its luscious frozen fruit salad and have come up with a reasonable facsimile, although nothing could really compare to their version.  Try this sometime!  You can store individual servings in the freezer and pull them out as you need them - so handy when you have unexpected company!

Frozen Fruit Salad - reminiscent of Teacup Cottage's

8 oz. cream cheese, regular or lite

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup mayonnaise (this can be low-fat)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 - 8-3/4 oz. can sliced peaches, well-drained and chopped

1/2 cup maraschino cherry halves, well-drained

1 - 30 oz. can fruit cocktail, well-drained

1 - 6-1/2 oz. can crushed pineapple, well-drained

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped; or a tub of Cool Whip

Put cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and let it come to room temperature. 

Add powdered sugar and mayonnaise.  Blend well.  Add vanilla extract.  Blend well.

Fold in fruit and  marshmallows.

Fold whipped cream or Cool Whip into mixture. 

Ladle into individual serving cups and freeze.

Defrost no more than 15 minutes before serving.

I have ladeled the mixture into muffin liners but you must remove the liners about 5 minutes into the defrosting process, as the dessert does not serve well out of the liners. 

Silicone muffin cups are perfect, as you can dip them in cold water and remove the cups easily when defrosting.

You can also shape the mixture into a loaf and serve it at the table, cut into slices.

Thank you so much, Deborah of Confessions of a Plate Addict who graciously consented to let me use these photos that she took during a visit to the Teacup Cottage in 2008.  Her blog is a must-visit!  So much to see and admire - and she has some remarkably beautiful kitties, too!  If you would like to see more photos of her visit to the Teacup Cottage, including some of the beautiful things they sold, go here.  She also has some fanatastic recipes on her blog - all photographed beautifully!  I must try the cheese ball recipe! Yum!