Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle Squares

Lofty plans! I think I have achieved mastery in this category. I have these ideas, seemingly brilliant at first. Then I do some research to see if others have had similar ideas and whether these ideas ever became reality. People talk about their stories. What went right, what went wrong. And then someone posts this oh so simple solution to the problem. But they also add a rider, "I am not sure if this will work in reality". And then I decide that I must be the one to check. Simply because the thread stopped right there.

The plan was to make a layer cake. Pound cake, cheesecake and jelly on top. It turned out to be a mosaic cake as I simply couldn't wait for the jelly to set before adding the cheesecake mixture, could I? The next time I attempt something like this, I will bake the cake, then set the cheesecake over it and then pour the jelly topping on top. But here's how I made it this time.

The cake recipe makes two 8" cakes. I used just one for this recipe.

Ingredients

For the pound cake:

1 1/2 cups Cake Flour/Plain Flour

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups Ricotta Cheese

1 1/4 cups Sugar

3 Eggs

1 teaspoon Strawberry Essence

6 Strawberries, pureed

A few drops Red Colour (optional)

Butter and Flour/Spray for preparing the cake tin

For the Cheesecake:

1/2 tin Condensed Milk (400g tin)

250g Cream Cheese

1/2 tbsp Gelatin

2 tbsp boiling hot Water

Juice of 1/2 a Lemon

6 Strawberries, pureed

For the Jelly Topping:

1 Packet Strawberry Jelly, prepared as per instructions on the pack

To make the cake:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Prepare two 8" round tins.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar and ricotta until the mixture is fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the strawberry essence and strawberry puree and beat well. Add the food colour, if using. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the batter, adding a little at a time.

Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool.

To proceed:

Line a Springform 8" pan base with cling film and then fit the sides portion. Pour the jelly liquid over the base and allow it to set in the refrigerator.

For the cheesecake:

Beat the cream cheese and the condensed milk until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the lime juice and the strawberry puree and beat well again.

Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water. Add this to the mixture and pour it over the the jelly. (At this point, my jelly hadn't entirely set and so began to break. I quickly mixed the two layers to get the mosaic effect.)

Place the cooled cake over the the cheesecake jelly mixture and allow the cheesecake and jelly to set completely.

When set, place a plate on top of the cake, turn it over and remove the springform tin. Slowly remove the base of the tin and peel off the cling film. Cut into squares.

That is what I call a bite sized piece of happiness. And as I have done every year in the years before today, I come back here to share this little piece of happiness with all of you. After all, Sachin's birthday comes just once every year.

Happy Birthday Sachin! Happiness Always.

Strawberry Trifle Pudding

There are days when you set out to make something and you end up making something else. And then there are those days when you want to make something, but you're not quite sure what that is. S's birthday was one of those days for me. I knew I was going to make a nice cake. I knew I would have some portions of cake. But I had no idea what to do with them.

A long time ago, I had made chocolate rum balls with cake leftovers. But chocolate cake, chocolate balls. That would have been a little too much for us to take. I wanted to make a layered dessert. After seeing Meeta’s Strawberry Mirror Cake, I wanted whatever I was making to have a strawberry jelly layer on top.

But halfway through the exercise, I changed my mind and created my own trifle pudding. I mean if those guys at restaurant buffets can serve me anything in the name of Trifle, why can I not cheat myself?

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Cake slices

5 tbsp Strawberry Crush (I used Mapro)

2 tsp Gelatin

3 tbsp Strawberry Custard Powder

3/4 cup Milk

2 tsp Sugar

Arrange the cake slices in a baking dish. Pour 2 tbsp of Strawberry Crush over them and bake for 15 minutes at 350F.

In a small bowl, mix the custard powder with about 2 tbsp of milk. Bring the rest of the milk to boil with the sugar. Add the custard powder misture to the boiling milk while stirring continuously. Boil this for a minute and set aside. After 5 minutes, pour this mixture over the cake slices and allow to set in the fridge for an hour

Dissolve the gelatin in a little warm water and add this to 2/3 cup of boiling water. Add the remaining strawberry crush and mix well.

Pour this jelly over the custard cake mixture and allow to set for a couple of hours in the fridge.

Cut into slices and serve. I had some left over jelly which I froze. I enjoyed my trifle with the frozen jelly pieces.

Why did my pudding not turn out the way I'd expected? Because I didn't wait for the custard to set fully before pouring the hot jelly over it. But that did nothing to affect the taste. S isn't too fond of jellies so I've been treating myself to a little slice every 2 days.

Orange Mosaic Pie

I thought and thought about this one. And in the end it didn't turn out the way I expected it would (thanks to me being impatient old me), but it looked very cute and tasted very nice.

And thanks to my impatience, instead of a layered pie, this pie turned out to be a mosaic pie. But orange is the main flavour and hence this is my entry to the AFAM event hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam.

I heavily modified a recipe I found in the Milkmaid Gold Dessert collection and made this zero fuss mosaic pie.

Ingredients:

200 g Digestive biscuits

70- 80 g Butter

4 tbsp Orange Custard Powder

400 ml Milk

2-3 tbsp Sugar

1 Packet Orange Jelly

2-3 tbsp Orange Juice

Crush the digestive biscuits. Melt butter in the microwave and mix the crushed biscuits. Press this mixture into a pan and put it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until it sets.

Dissolve the custard powder in a little milk and boil the rest of the milk along with the sugar. When the milk boils, add the custard powder milk mixture and stir as it thickens. Cool this for a few minutes and then pour on to the biscuit butter mixture. Refrigerate this till it sets partially.

Prepare the jelly as per the instructions on the pack, but with about 2/3 of the water specified in the recipe, and mix the orange juice. Pour this over the semi set custard and mix gently. The custard will break as the hot jelly is poured over it. And when you quickly whisk the two, it will end in a mosaic of sorts.

Set this entire mixture in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Cut into slices and enjoy.

This pie has the look and feel of a cheesecake but has far less fat. And it is a novel way to eat jelly and custard. S and I ate a slice each this morning and it was yummy. Not too heavy, not too sweet: just right.