I felt really honored (haha) when my Mom said okay when I asked if I could make her birthday cake this year. She usually does everything (and to perfection), and I'm no where near as amazing as her in the kitchen...so the fact that she let me handle "the cake" was a surprise. The cake is always the highlight of a birthday party, right? So the pressure was on, to make this birthday celebrant happy.... with TWO cakes!
My recipe
The base: Graham crackers. Mash and mash and mash til fine. Then I added a spoon of sugar, and some melted butter (I didn't measure the butter because I really don't measure anything when I bake *I follow my heart* haha!). I mixed everything with a spoon until the crumbs were no longer loose; they were all held together with the butter. Then I flatted the crumbs on the bottom and sides of a springform pan. Refrigerated while making the filling.
[Since I opted for the no-bake cheesecake, I decided to not use the oven at all even for the base. Whenever I bake cheesecake, I also put the crumbs and pan in the oven to settle, but this time I refrigerated instead. A lot of baking sites suggested this, but I don't think it was a good idea in the end, because my cracker base kept crumbling down. It's either that, or my base was too thick.]
The filling: Mind you, this was my first time making a no-bake cheese cake; I always use the oven. So I learnt that if you're not going to bake it (with eggs), you use gelatine instead! I went for lemon flavor. I mixed a 3 oz pack with boiling water then kept aside to cool. While waiting, I blended about 550g of cream cheese with two spoons of sugar. Instead of vanilla essence, I used cinnamon powder. When the gelo wasn't so hot anymore, I poured it into the mixture and continued to blend and blend until it was very smooth. Then in the end I folded in some all-purpose cream, and a few spoons of chia seeds [another experiment].
Take the base out of the fridge and pour in the mixture. I like it when the crumbs rise up from the sides, it almost looks like a pie! I topped the filling with some raisins and cinnamon powder. Refrigerated overnight.
And here it is! Springform pans are amazing; just loosen the grip and voilá!
So even though the base didn't set so well (crumbly crumbs), the filling was amazing! My mom's friends absolutely loved it. It wasn't too sweet; it had a sweet kind of sour though - from the lemon gelo. It was really soft too. It tasted very rich - most of the cheesecakes I've had outside taste very creamy (and I don't like that). I only used 3 spoons of cream, so you could really taste the cheesiness of the cream cheese. True to the name! :)
The cheesecake finished! Except for two slices which one of my mom's friends asked
me to keep in a tupperware for her to take home!
me to keep in a tupperware for her to take home!
***
This was the cakes table - my ice box and cheesecake,
and two other cakes that my mom's friends brought.
Behind the lens :P
Here's the mango and sour cherry cheesecake I made for my Dad
on his birthday earlier this year:
