The Lovely Wife deserves a lovely cake...

The Lovely Wife celebrated her 30-something birthday on Monday, 10th August. I still haven't figured out what it is about women and their ages. I mean, I have no issue announcing to all and sundry that I am 42 - although my birthday is in November and that means I am still 41 but for all intents and purposes, I am 42. With women, and here I apologise to all the women in the world that are NOT 'afraid' of their ages, they are always hiding their ages with early 30's, mid 40s, late 20's or something or other. I just dont understand it and I guess I never will...but I digress as usual.

For The Lovely Wife, who is not only lovely but also wondeful - not just for putting up with me but simply because she is - this cake was specially made for her birthday. Although The Lovely Wife loves chocolate, I wanted to make something light and fruity that would tickle her taste buds more than chocolate would. To put it simply, I wanted to make her something that she would really like and so after thinking hard for a few weeks, I came up with this - Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Cake!


The Lovely Wife had hinted at an Ice Cream cake but I had just stared at her rather grumpily. How dare she read my mind and figure out what I was trying to do for her. I had already decided I was going to use Dory Greenspans Perfect Party Cake for the base and I surfed around for a Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream recipe. I found one that I liked on Joy of Baking by Stephanie Jaworski and I based my recipe on that.

For the ice cream, I used my kenwood ice cream maker that produced a lovely thick, creamy ice cream. I made some mini cakes with the leftovers that The Lovely Wife sampled on Sunday as she didn't want to cut her cake before her actual birthday!


For the actual Birthday Cake, I grated some chocolate over the top of the cake for garnishing/decoration.




After spending more than 24 hours in the freezer, the cake was really frozen solid and I had to let it thaw a bit before we attempted to cut it. Even with the thawing, the cake was a little hard to cut but nothing that a firm hand and a sharp serrated knife coulnd't overcome!



To say that she loved the cake would be a little bit of an understatement! I was rather surprised with how well it turned out too although the strawberry chunks I added in at the churning stage seemed to be a little frozen and icy. Still, there was the nice subtle taste of cream cheese that went really nicely with the strawberry ice cream. My little princess loved the cake too although my son was a little disappointed. He wasn't too keen on the strawberry ice cream although he did like the cake. He commented that he would have preferred something with chocolate in it but I told him the cake was for Mummy and not for him!

All in all a very succesful birthday cake and what really matters is that The Lovely Wife really, really enjoyed it! Happy Birthday!

Strawberry Cheesecake Icecream Cake

1 recipe Perfect Party Cake
1 recipe Strawberry Cheesecake Icecream

Bake the cakes and set aside. Place one layer into a springform pan and cover with half the ice cream. Place another layer over the ice cream and cover with remaining ice cream. Freeze overnight. Allow to thaw about 10 mins before serving.

Perfect Party Cake
Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).
For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
4 ounces butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Based on http://www.joyofbaking.com/StrawberryCheesecakeIceCream.html by Stephanie Jaworski. I added an egg yolk and used fresh strawberries for the puree rather than sauce.
Recipe:
2 cups (500 ml) cream
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
125 grams cream cheese, room temperature
4 egg yolks
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
250g fresh strawberries - processed into puree
250g fresh strawberries, chopped coarsely in food processor

In a small saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the cream and vanilla extract to the scalding point (the milk begins to foam up). Remove from heat
Meanwhile in a stainless steel bowl beat the cream cheese, egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy (about two minutes). Gradually pour a little of the cream into the whipped egg yolk mixture to temper it, making sure you keep whisking constantly so the eggs dont curdle. Pour the tempered mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. Return pan to the heat to and stirring constantly with a whisk cook until the custard becomes thick.
Immediately remove the custard from the heat and continue to stir the custard for a few minutes so it does not overcook. At this point stir in the vanilla extract, if using, and the strawberry puree. Cover and let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate the custard until it is completely cold (several hours but preferably overnight).
Transfer the cold custard to the chilled container of your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once made, stir in the cut up fresh strawberries and transfer the ice cream to a chilled container and store in the freezer.

Cheesecake the daring way

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

When I saw this challenge, the first thing that struck me was the word infamous - surely we wouldn't be making a cheesecake that was notorious, having a bad reputation, of ill repute? Or perhaps it is Abbey that is infamous - but I think not. I think that in usage, the word infamous has come to mean well known - even if it is usually meant to mean well known for a bad reason.

Whatever it is, I was rather excited. Anyone who has read my
history of my cooking would know that I have had a long history with cheesecake and I enjoy making them. I have my own recipe too but each time I make it, I play around a little bit and although I really like my recipe, I still haven't perfected it. Tastes great, but at times it cracks, at other times the water bath leaks into the pan, sometimes the cake sinks; you get the idea!

As Jenny put it, The real challenge this month was to take the basic recipe given and play with it. Make it unique. Make a showstopper of a dessert. Add flavor, sauces, decorations – dress it up and show it off.




So what did I decide to do?

Well firstly the crust. I used Oatmeal biscuits for the crust and added a touch of chocolate to it.

Next, I followed the recipe exactly except that I left out the alcohol - for no other reason than I just didn't want to put it in. I wanted to see how the cake turned out, taste the cheese and not have anything to detract from it, and if I liked it then Next time I'd play around with alcohol!

I also decided to follow Jenny's tip and use a throw-away foil pan - it helped that I had one on hand.

I was kind of surprised that the recipe called for 24 ozs of cheese - that's 3 slabs and at today's prices it was bloody expensive. Then one day while I was at the supermarket, I found Tatura cream cheese instead of the usual Philadelphia cream cheese. The tatura was a fair bit cheaper (about 30%) than the Philadelphia and although I prefer the taste and texture of Philadelphia, I opted to go with the Tatura.

The cake was a breeze to whip up and I have to admit that the foil pan was a great idea. No seepage of water at all! The cake baked up really well and I followed the timing and temperature exactly. No cracking either and no sinking!!

I had a little left-over crust and cheese so I made two cheese-cakelettes in ramekins. This was a good idea as The Lovely Wife and my princess couldn't wait to taste the cake!



Once the cake was ready and in the fridge, and after devouring one cakelette, I contemplated the best way to 'jazz' up and 'dress up' the cake. I have always wanted to make a chocolate covered cheese cake and thought that this would be a good time to do it.

I decided to jazz it up a bit more by making a Chocolate-Caramel ganache. and poured it over the chilled cheesecake. I then roasted some almond slivers and sprinkled it all over. Finally, to finish off the 'dressing', I 'tarted' up the cake with strawberries!

This is the unveiling of the cake just prior to serving. The kids helped me to 'dress' the cake with the strawberries!





The Verdict?

The cheesecake was a great success. I think I prefer the flavour of mine but this had great texture and a great flavour too. The Lovely Wife thought that this was one of the best cheesecakes she had ever eaten and she liked the addition of almonds and strawberries - although she wasn't quite sure if she liked the ganache topping.

My two kids LOVED this cheesecake as you can see in the pictures. They were too busy eating to bother about posing and they had a slice after every meal till the cake disappeard.



We had invited two good friends, Raymond and Priya, to share the cheesecake and they both enjoyed it. Priya - who is another Cheesecake Queen - thought it was superb. Can't you tell how much she enjoyed it?!!


Thanks Jenny for this challenge. It was a lot of fun to make and even more fun to eat!

Chocolate Caramel Ganache
Ingredients
2 tbsp sugar
water
125g chocolate
125 ml cream
Method
Make caramel by melting the sugar in the water and boiling it till it becomes amber. Add in the cream carefully as it will splutter and keep stirring till smooth. Remove from heat and add in chopped chocolate, whisking till smooth. Allow to cool slightly and then pour over chilled cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Cheesecake Pops - Daring Bakers

This months challenge is rather special for me for two reasons. Firstly, the hosts for this month are Elle and Deborah. So what's so special about that? Well, when I joined the DB's back in July 2007, Elle was one of the first DBers to visit my blog and welcome me aboard. Not only that, but we soon became foodie buddies! I only wish I had more time to get to know more of you.



Secondly, When I first saw the challenge for this month, my thoughts immediately went back to about 9 years ago. I had gone to Cincinnati, on work, for about a week. One night, we were all hosted to dinner at this supposedly famous restaurant on the outskirts of Cinci(I cant recall the name). The restaurant was famous not only for its buffet spread but for the video games that abounded all over. What has this got to do with the DB challenge? Well, you see, there was this dessert on the dessert table that looked like a chocolate covered ice cream on a stick. It was triangular in shape, had this dark chocolate covering and of course an ice-cream stick (what the Americans would call a popsicle stick) coming out of it. I of course took one and as I bit into it, I realised it was not ice-cream but a delicious, creamy cheesecake! I swear it was so good that I went back and had another one… or maybe it was another two (I’m not ashamed to admit and show my greedy side to you all!). I cant quite remember how many of those choc covered cheesecakes on sticks I ate. All I do remember is that this was one of the best desserts I had ever tasted.

I also remember telling The Lovely Wife when I returned how awesome the dessert was. She doesn’t remember me telling her any such thing though…

So, now at least I know that this delicious dessert is called Cheesecake Pops. So you see, memories are always special and something that triggers a wonderful memory is even more special!

I was very excited to see this recipe and promptly decided to jump into making it. 4th of April was the date I started on this challenge which makes this the EARLIEST I have ever attempted a DB challenge.

Anyway, this is how it went. On the 4th evening, I started this challenge. I've had experience with Cheesecakes and a Water Bath before so that didn't frazzle me. The Cheese batter came together very nicely and although the recipe called for a 10" pan it didn't specify the shape. I used a 9" Square pan and still had quite a bit of batter left over so I baked another small dome.

I baked the cheesecake for about 45 minutes and it came out just slightly golden on the top. I regret not taking pictures but I was kind of tired and Friday nights is when the kids are allowed to stay up late and play - and they want to play with Daddy too!

The kids enjoyed the smells wafting out from the kitchen and I must admit, I had a hard time not trying to sample the cheesecake while it was cooling. After it cooled, I chucked it into the fridge to let it firm up overnight. Then it was time to go to bed.

The next morning, I took the cheesecake out. It had been in the fridge for just over 8 hours and seemed like it was nice and firm. Experience has taught me that a cheesecake needs to be cut with a knife dipped in warm water but we all ignore what we have learnt don't we! Somehow, I expected that the cheesecake would be really firm and hard - dont ask me why, but that's what I expected from the way the recipe was worded. I should have known that it wouldnt be so hard and firm coz the pops that I had eaten in Cinci were delightfully creamy inside.

So anyway, that's my reason (and excuse) for my rather 'ugly' shaped pops. I tried rolling one or two with my hands and although I did get lovely balls, I figured that I'd just cut them into rectangles and triangular shapes. I know, I know, the recipe stated 2oz sized balls but I figured eating a larger shape was what I really wanted!

In preparation for this challenge, I had looked all over for Ice Cream sticks, as you can't find lollipop sticks here (unless you want to eat a whole bunch of lollies). I finally found Ice Cream Sticks in an art and craft store. I also bought a set of plastic cocktail sticks and used both the cocktail sticks as well as the ice cream sticks. Into the freezer the pops went and I left them there for about 3.5 hours.

I used good quality Dark Chocolate mixed with a little shortening - just like the recipe said. The taste was still fantastic and the 'snap' was there - just like tempered chocolate but without having to temper it. Good thing too since the last time I tried to temper chocolate, I got into quite a temper. Me that is, and not the chocolate. But I suppose you've heard this kind of joke too often...



I didnt have much space in my fridge so what I did was to clear the freezer and put the trays in there for a little while for everything to harden. Then I packed the pops into tupperwares and I could now store them in the fridge!

Oh, and I had these great ideas of coating the pops in nuts, in sprinkles, of piping milk chocolate over the dark chocolate, dusting them with snow powder, so many wonderful ideas. But I didn't get round to doing it coz as soon as I had covered them in chocolate, I realised that I would need to have the sprinkles and nuts ready - and I didnt have those ready did I?



My way of rationalising my 'failure to decorate' is simply that chocolate with sprinkles or anything else would be akin to 'contaminating' the chocolate. Pretty good excuse dont you think?!!! :)

The Cheese Pops were absolutely, fantabulously, stupendously tasty! As good as I remember having them in Cinci - actually better! The cheesecake was lovely and creamy and almost melt in the mouth.

My official tasters loved it. My daughter especially since she loves cheesecake. The Lovely Wife thought they were wonderfully decadent although perhaps a tad too rich. She also thought that my sizing was a little on the large size.





I took a whole bunch of the pops to work and they were a hit. Everyone thoroughly enojoyed them. More than enjoyed them actually! Chocolate Covered Cheesecake on ice cream sticks is not quite the norm over here so to say that they were a hit would be a real understatement!!

I'd like to know though exactly how firm the cheesecake is supposed to be. Should it have cut cleanly with a sharp knife or should I have used a knife dipped in warm water like a normal cheesecake? Or is it possible that the cheesecake should have been cooked longer than what the recipe stated?

I'd like to see how everyone else fared with this recipe and if you are interested, check out the rest of the Daring Bakers at the official Blogroll!

Thanks again to Elle and Deborah for this great challenge. One thing I do realise is that I need to stop being so lazy and try and decorate a bit...!




This is the recipe.



Cheesecake Pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor.
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)


Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 160 degrees C. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.