Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Cynthia's Strawberry Cheesecake


I feel like I'm on a baking frenzy. I've been baking on Sunday, Monday and today too! (: It sure is a luxury to be able to bake. Somehow, even though I'm tired, I always find some source of mysterious strength when it comes to baking!



So despite the few hours of sleep last night, the long and frenzy day I had today preparing for the Parent Teacher Conference tomorrow night, the trip to ICA to collect my passport, the impromptu tea I enjoyed with Catherine and her hubby, the trip down to the banquet venue to choose our banquet invites and to do a survey of the venue, I still garnered energy to play in the kitchen.

It's always a blessing to bless others with food so I made a No bake Strawberry Cheesecake for my colleagues to enjoy tomorrow. After all, it's a really long day we're all gonna have tomorrow.

It's also my first ever Parent Teacher Conference! (:

In any case, I'd rate this recipe a difficult level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 3 hours all in all to prepare. 




Cynthia's Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe

This recipe yields a 8" cake

250g strawberry yoghurt
250g plain yoghurt
500g cream cheese, preferably room temprature
5 tbsp gelatin powder
200ml water
150g castor sugar

270g digestive biscuits
112g unsalted butter

300g strawberries (slightly less than 4 punnet)
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice (from 1/2 a lemon)
3 tbsp castor sugar

pink wilton gel food colouring

Method

These are the digestive biscuits I used. 

Have the digestive biscuits in a thick clean plastic bag or a sturdy ziplock bag. 

Crush it till you get something like sand. I used the back of my wooden mooncake mould to 'whack' the biscuits!

Melt the butter over a double boiler or in the microwave oven on medium high heat for a minute or till melted. Allow it to cool before pouring it into the bag of biscuits.

Shake the bag to mix the butter and biscuits. You should get something like wet sand. For this cake, you'd need to use a baking tin with a removable base or a cake ring with a cake base. Springform pans are okay but I just don't like them. I feel that the first two choices creates a cleaner cake. 

Using the back of a spoon or big spoon (easier to work with), smooth out the mixture and compress it as best as you can, ensuring that the sides are well compressed. Pop into the freezer to set while you prepare the cream cheese component.

In a microwavable bowl, have the water and gelatin mixed together. Microwave on medium-high heat for a minute or till mixture is all dissolved. Allow to cool. You may choose to do this over a double boiler. 

In a mixing bowl, combine half of the cream cheese and half of the sugar. Whisk well on low speed till mixture is creamy. 

Add in half the gelatin mixture. Whisk well on low speed till well combined.

This is the yoghurt that I used.

Add the 2 packets of plain yoghurt into the mixing bowl.

Mix well on low speed till well combined.

Pour into baking tin that has the digestive biscuit layer.

In the mixing bowl, add remaining cream cheese and castor sugar. Whisk well on low speed till well combined.

Add remaining gelatin mixture, whisk well on low speed till well combined.

Add in strawberry yoghurt along with a small bit of pink wilton gel food colouring.


Whisk well on low speed till well combined.

Gently pour it into the middle of the plain cream cheese mixture. I had intended to do swirls but since this was quite pretty, I left it as it was. Pop cake into freezer (with another cake board or plate below the cake tin/cake ring for better stability) for 1 hour 30 minutes - 2 hours or till a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake. You should also feel some light resistance. That way, you'd know that your cake is ready. Bring down to chiller and prepare strawberries. 

Wash strawberries and slice a small part of the top to level the strawberry.

In a non stick pot/skillet, add the strawberries, water, lemon juice and castor sugar. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat.

Stir well. Crush one strawberry and mix well into mixture for better flavour.

Allow mixture to bubble.

Beautiful bubbles! Cook for another 1 - 2 minutes and remove strawberries. 

Allow strawberries to cool completely. They are meant to be slightly soft. 

Remove cake from cake tin by running the back of a small paring knife along the sides of the cake. 

Gently push the cake base up while pulling the cake 'walls' down. You may wish to prop the cake base on a taller unit like a milo tin cake and gently pull the cake 'walls' down.

For less mess, I had my cake placed on another cake base. You may opt to serve it on the cake bottom alone.

Arrange strawberries on top of cake. Serve chilled. For best results, chill over night to allow cheesecake and base to firm up real good. (:

NOTE: Some have asked me why I cooked my strawberries. I cooked them as a compote as it prevents the drying of the fruit. It also gives it a better shine which dry fruits do not have. In fact, plain strawberries will start to dry once left in the refrigerator. The compote also tastes great so that's why I choose to cook them! (: 

Here are some tips and things to note when 'baking' this cake! (:
1) Do be precise with your measurements, especially the gelatin. This is the type of baking tablespoon to use:
2) Do warm up the gelatin. If you do not have a microwave oven, you may boil it over very low fire to warm it up. 
3) Do watch the timing when setting the cake. Remove it from the freezer after the cake is set. Store the cake in the chiller. The cake stores best in an air tight container.
4) The cake contains cream cheese and even if it doesn't melt, I do not recommend leaving this for long in room temperature.
5) Do not leave the batter out for too long when preparing the cheesecake. It will firm up. 
6) The cake should be consumed within 3 - 4 days for maximum freshness. 

Pretty work of art isn't it? I hope that you'll enjoy this recipe! (:

Check out these beautiful renditions of this cake by many of my friends and readers like yourself! (:
By Veronica Tee

By Ayanie

By Jes Lyn

By Happy Crafter - Lena

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: 




57 comments:

  1. Very Nice cake :)
    Would like to know when you Pop the cake into freezer, do you cover the cake?

    Which cream cheese did you used?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you! i did not cover the cake.. and i used Phoon Huat's cream cheese

      Delete
  2. Can I know why you cooked the strawberries?? Is it to make it less sour???

    Coz recently made strawberries shortcake and the strawberries are sour totally spoilt the appetite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      It does make it a little less sour with the sugar and stuff.. I made it compote style so that it has a nice shine to it and doesn't wilt/dry up like regular strawberries do (:

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the clarification Cynthia. Maybe I will try this when I make my shortcake again :)
      Jazzlyne

      Delete
    3. No prob! My pleasure (:

      Do try it! (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  3. Hi. May I know where I can buy the cake ring + base? Also, is it spill-proof? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      They are two separate items. A cake base would be a cake board or a really flat plate. A cake ring is not spill proof but if the digestive biscuit crust is packed tight and right (see notes in recipe above), it will not leak (:

      Delete
    2. I understand. But is there a specific store where I can buy these 2 items at one go? I'd like to recreate this :) Thank you!

      Delete
  4. i should try this...thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe

    ReplyDelete
  5. Will try ur recipe, thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm so going to try this.. Thanks for the recipe.. All this recipe need weighing machine?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure! Baking requires precision so I'd recommend that you get a digital weighing scale (:

      Delete
  7. hello Cynthia,

    Your strawberry cheesecake sure looks good. Need to know why you used yughurt as I find most of the recipe on the internet used cream or whipping cream?? Will it taste the same?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      Yoghurt here works as a substitute for whipping cream which some people may not fancy. It is not as light as what whipping cream offers but judging from the response by those who tried the recipe, the taste is as good as it can get (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  8. Dear Cynthia,

    Thanks for your quick response.. Will try your recipe, thanks for sharing.

    bye.

    ReplyDelete
  9. tis such a easy yet delicious recipe from u dear....
    btw, did u add the gelatine mixture into the white butter mix?
    i wana give a try for my finance birthday.. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's my pleasure to share (: there's no butter in this recipe for the cake portion (the butter is only for the crust). Just pour the gelatin into the cream cheese mixture and mix well (:

      Do try it for his birthday! I'm sure he'll love it! (:

      Delete
  10. Hello cynthia can I re-blog thiS? I'm a food fanatic so I decided to creat a blog about food only. Besides I love yoghurt and chesse esp. Chesse cake. This recipe is perfect for me. Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Castiel,

      Sure! But please do my blog due credit by linking it up.. Thanks! (: Oh yes, do give it a try! (:

      Delete
  11. Can I use Philadelphia Cream Cheese? Also If I don't have the Wilton food colouring, can I use the normal food colouring?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! Yeah that would work too! So as long as its not the softened spreadable cream cheese (: yeah, you may use liquid food colouring but personally I don't like it as the colours can be a little gaudy and it stains my fingers really badly!

      Delete
    2. Hi Cynthia, is it a must to put the coloring? Any natural coloring that can be substitute? Btw, the cake is really looks nice. Thanks for sharing.

      Delete
    3. Hi Cynthia, y cant we use the soft cream cheese? I'm an amateur so I dunno anything... learning from scratch... tq

      Delete
    4. If you do not put the food colouring, you can substitute by popping a few strawberries into the mixture. However, it will not be as strong as that of food colouring. It's my pleasure to share! (:
      Soft cream cheese can be used but I won't recommend it as it is runnier and softer.. the amount of gelatin in this recipe may not firm it up in the same amount of time or even firm it up well enough

      Delete
  12. Hi, how to transfer the cake to another card board base?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello! You can run an offset spatula under the cookie base and then slowly slide it off to the other cake board (: It comes off quite easily btw!

      Delete
  13. Sorry to ask, if I had done this cake on this day , but can i keep it in the fridge till the another day ? Will be still be the same as it was ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah that shouldnt be an issue. But it may dry up a little.. so I'd recommend doing it the night before or the day itself (:

      Delete
  14. HI Cynthia,
    Can we also use All Purpose Cream in place of the yoghurt?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,

      That would make the outcome of the recipe very different. If you'd like to use all purpose cream, I'd suggest that you find a recipe that calls for it to get better results (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  15. Hi Cynthia,

    Can we also use All Purpose Cream In Place of yoghurt.?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,

      That would make the outcome of the recipe very different. If you'd like to use all purpose cream, I'd suggest that you find a recipe that calls for it to get better results (:

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  16. 5tbsp means 5 tablespoon right? The texture of my cheesecake is very jelly. Is it suppose to be like that? I thought it will be softer and creamier... I used exactly the same brand as your.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      Yes, this cheesecake is more jelly-like rather than creamy like regular cheesecakes that use whipped cream (:

      Delete
  17. Hi Cynthia, TQ for yr sharing!! I had tried. ...but why...when I pour the 2nd strawberry layer...the plain layer already firm up? And the texture looks like Jes lyn...and not like yours... :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Lyann!

      Don't agar agar the recipe again hor XD

      Love,
      Cynthia

      Delete
  18. Hi, cynthia...strangely mine didnt turn out like yours...it was more like lena's..2 layers of color...but the taste was delightful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      Am glad that you liked the taste! Did you pour yours from the middle? Maybe you took a while so the lower layer set? (:

      Delete
  19. Hi Cynthia! I'm gonna try to make strawberry cheesecake this week using your recipe but I have a question. Do I just pour the strawberry in the middle immediately after the pouring the plain yogurt and it magically becomes like that, i.e. strawberry center and plain yogurt outer part? I'm scared that my version would have 2 layers instead of yours. Btw, Veronica Tee's version looks so perfect to me. I mean perfect circle and perfect bowl-shaped strawberry part. Lol! Please help me. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello!

      Yes, you have to pour it almost immediately to prevent the plain layer from drying up. You'd also have to pour it in the middle from a low height of 15cm or so to allow the shape to form (:

      Delete
    2. Okay thank you so much!

      Delete
  20. Hi Cynthia, can I cfm that it's really 5 tbs of gelatin u are using? I couldn't get the lot desolved. Had a prob pouring out the batter after that. I try to pm u the pic Ltr. Think my presentation fail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Eunice,

      Yes it is 5tbsp. It should have no issues dissolving in the amount of water indicated in this recipe.

      Delete
  21. Hello, im just curious since you used phoon huat cream cheese. Does phoon Huat cream cheese taste like Philadelphia Cream Cheese? which one taste better in your opinion? :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi! Do you still remember how much you bought the cream cheese for? :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. hi Cynthia. I love reading your blog.

    Jus curious. When is the good time to put the cooked strawberries on the cake? After the cake has been chilled?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello,

      You need to allow the strawberries to cool down before placing it on the cake. And yes, the cake has to be set before you do so.

      Delete

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