It has been a long while since I have written a blog or shared a recipe as the vortex of daily life and work had my hands full.
However, now, right toward the end of the year I have finally managed to create the space and mainly find that ever elusive energy to create and write a new post.
This cheesecake obviously isn't anything new at all, instead it is an old classic the one I have been making on numerous occasions over the years, mainly during Christmas festivities. It is very simple to put together yet quite extravagant to look at.
I went into trouble of making mini lime meringues and cut out mini mango rounds to use them for decorations. Just because!
Obviously, you don't need to go into the extra length of baking meringues and cutting mini mango rounds, alternatively you can simply use berries, edible flowers if you can get you fingers on them or substitute flowers for tiny basil leaves. Or, you can omit all the fancy adornments and just have the pretty swirly mango pattern grace the sights.
Couple of afternoons ago I took a little stroll through my garden armed with camera to take a few photographs of the flowers that grow there. Elderflower is the favourite at the moment. It is covered with blossom and every time walking past it, its sweet whiffs catch me. I have had numerous plans to make either lemony elderflower cordial or ice-cream or syrup, and recently somewhere on the pinteresphere I spotted sugar made with edible flowers which of course got added to the list of plans!
I'm not entirely convinced that the daisies from this little pot are edible. Although they do make a a very striking embellishment on cakes jus as the strawberry flowers would. Nevertheless I though it would've been wasteful to pluck the strawberry flowers and so have opted (once again) to using the daisies for the photoshoot. They were removed and fed to chickens once I was done.
Ingredients:
250g biscuits (digestives)
160g butter, melted
500g full fat cream cheese (2x250g blocks), at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp caster sugar
60ml boiling water
15g gelatine
1 lime, zest and juice
500ml whipping cream
1 mango, puréed in a blender
Fresh berries, edible flowers and meringue kisses to decorate ( theses are all optional )
Method:
1. Line 20cm diameter and 9cm deep springform cake pan. It is enough to just line the bottom of the pan and leave the sides unlined.
2. Crush biscuits in a food processor to a fine crumb. Move to a bowl, drizzle with melted butter and mix well. Press cookie mixture to the bottom and sides of the prepared pan. I use a cylindrical glass with a flat/smooth bottom to help spread the biscuit crumb evenly.
3. Pour 60 ml of just boiled water into a bowl, then sprinkle it with gelatine. Mix well until gelatine has dissolved. Strain the gelatine water though a fine sieve to remove any stringy bits. Set aside too cool.
4. In the meantime, in a bowl of a stand mixer mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add lime zest and juice and mango puree leaving two tablespoons of mango puree for later. Mix it all well into cream cheese making sure there are no lumps, then slowly add dissolved gelatine and mix some more. Move the cream cheese mixture to a clean large bowl and set aside for a few minutes while whipping the cream. ( Do not leave the cream cheese mixture for too long or the gelatine will start setting.)
5. Clean the bowl of the stand mixer and pour whipping cream cream in. Whisk on medium speed and gradually increase the speed to high. Whip until stiff peaks form. Gradually fold the whipping cream into cream cheese mixture. You can have your whipping cream ready in the fridge at least 1-2 hours prior.
6. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the biscuit lined cake pan. Spoon several dollops of puréed mango on top of cheesecake. Using a long skewer swirl the mango dollops in circular motion into cheesecake. Try not to overdo, but still do it with a bit of confidence. Refrigerate overnight.
7. Decorate with berries, mango pieces and mini meringue kisses when ready to serve.
