Strawberry Cheesecake Cake

This one’s been in the blog bank for a while - since Mother’s Day to be exact. I wanted to bring a cake to a family potluck for mother’s day. The Huz’s family has 5 aunts (and one uncle) so they like to celebrate Mother’s Day together. Instead of bringing a cheesecake, why not make a cake that plays on a cheesecake? I’m really into desserts that are like other desserts (e.g., a cake that’s a take on a pie, an ice cream that tastes like birthday cake, a doughnut that tastes like root beer, etc). It’s confusing and awesome.

This cake has many components, so I premade the cake layers and froze them and kept the graham crunch in an airtight container until assembly day.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Graham Crunch

adapted from Milk Bar Cookbook

Ingredients

¾ cup graham crumbs

2 Tablespoons milk powder

1 Tablespoon sugar

pinch of salt

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Toss graham crumbs, milk powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl to combine.
3. Pour in butter and cream and toss to combine.
4. Spread on a baking sheet and break apart large chunks. Bake for 25 minutes tossing halfway through.
5. Cool completely. Break apart and big pieces. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Vanilla Cake

From Anna Olson.

Baked in 3, 6-inch cake pans. 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

If the cakes dome, cut off to make them flat (and you can eat the best part of the cake!)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup cream cheese, softened

½ teaspoon lemon juice

½ cup icing sugar

3 Tablespoons strawberry jam

pinch of salt

Directions

1. Beat butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer to combine.
2. Add lemon juice, icing sugar, jam, and salt and beat until fluffy.

Cream Cheese Marshmallow Frosting

Ingredients

½ cup cream cheese, room temperature

1 ¼ cup butter, room temperature

1 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 jar marshmallow cream

pinch of salt

pink food colouring

Directions

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together with a stand mixer (paddle attachment) to combine. Add icing sugar and vanilla and beat to combine.
2. Add marshmallow cream and salt and beat to combine.
3. For an ombre decorating effect, colour ⅓ of the frosting with a dark pink and the remaining ⅔ light pink (less food colouring).

*note that this frosting won’t be completely smooth - it’ll look a little bit curdled. I know, not ideal for a frosting, but it does taste great.

Assembly

Components

1. 1 cup thinly sliced strawberries
2. Vanilla cake layers
3. Strawberry jam
4. Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling
5. Cream Cheese Marshmallow Frosting

1. Smear a small dollop of strawberry cream cheese filling on you cake plate or cake board. Ideally, use a turntable for easier decorating. Place the first layer of cake on top.
2. Spread strawberry jam. Top with strawberry slices.
3. Spread the strawberry cream cheese filling and sprinkle the graham crumbs on top.
4. Place next cake layer and repeat. Finish with the final layer.
5. Frost the entire cake with the light pink cream cheese marshmallow frosting. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
6. Spread the dark pink frosting on the bottom ⅓ of the cake. Smooth out with a large spatula, blending the line between the two colours as you twirl the cake around.
7. Add graham crumbs along the bottom. Decorate to your liking. Keep in the fridge until an hour before serving.

Verdict: I really liked the flavours of this cake - really reminiscent of a strawberry cheesecake. The crunch of the graham crumbs on the outside gave the cake an interesting texture. Too bad that the graham inside the cake turned soft. It was definitely a crowd pleaser!

Caramel Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

I was really itching to bake something and as if on queue, there was another birthday celebration. I was thinking about how much I liked this birthday cake, but wanted to swap the passion fruit curd for something else.  I figured replacing it with cheesecake might be nice, and why not add caramel too?  I was excited to start this multi-layer cake project!

Check out the verdict (and lessons learned) at the end of the post!

                                                      

Caramel Chocolate Chip Layer Cake Parts

All parts are from (or adapted from Milk Bar Cookbook except for the caramel sauce.

Includes

1.   Chocolate chip cake

2.   Chocolate crumb

3.   Caramel sauce

4.   Liquid caramel cheesecake

5.   Coffee frosting

*Everything can be made a few days in advance except for frosting.

Chocolate Chip Cake

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, room temperature

1 ¼ cup sugar

¼ cup tightly packed light brown sugar

3 eggs

½ cup butter milk

½ cup oil

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cup cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cake pan with parchment.  The original recipe suggests baking the cake as a sheet and cutting circles from them.  I used round baking pans and sliced the layers.

2.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars for 2 minutes until fluffy.  Add eggs and mix for 3 minutes.

3.  On low speed, gradually beat in buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.  Increase speed and beat for 5 minutes until the mixture is homogenous .

4.  Add flour and baking powder and mix on the lowest speed for 45 seconds until just combined. Fold in ½ cup of chocolate chips.

5.  Pour batter into pans and sprinkle the last ¼ cup of chocolate chips.

6.  Bake until toothpick comes out clean.  30-35 minutes for a sheet cake, 55 minutes for a tall round pan.

7.  Cool and cut layers or rounds to the size of the cake you want.

Chocolate Crumb

Ingredients

1/3 cup flour

½ teaspoon cornstarch

¼ cup sugar

1/3 cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons salted butter, melted

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.  Combine flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a bowl.

3.  Add butter and mix with a hand blender or stand mixer on low until you get small clusters.

4.  Spread on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

5.  Cool completely before using in recipe.

Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

½ cup sugar

2 Tablespoon corn syrup

3 Tablespoon butter

1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions

1.  In a small pot over medium high heat, melt sugar and corn syrup until golden.

2.  Mix in butter.

3.  Carefully mix in whipping cream.

4.  Transfer to a bowl or jar to cool completely.

*Use in cheesecake recipe

Liquid Caramel Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 brick of cream cheese

½ cup sugar

¼ cup caramel sauce (from above recipe)

1 Tablespoon corn starch

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons milk

1 egg

Directions

1.  Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F.

2.  Beat cream cheese for 2 minutes.  Add sugar and beat for another minute or until incorporated.

3.  Beat in caramel sauce until smooth.

4.  In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and salt.  Beat in milk, then egg until thoroughly mixed.

5.  Gradually add the egg mixture to cream cheese mixture as you beat on medium speed.  Beat for 3 minutes.

6.  Pour batter into a baking pan (mine was 6 inch x 6 inch) and bake for 15 minute or until the edges are set but the middle is still jiggly.

7.   Cool completely and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Liquid caramel cheesecake after baking.

Coffee Frosting

*Make frosting right before use.  Do not make ahead of time and refrigerate – it will separate.

Ingredients

1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup icing sugar

¼ cup homo milk

2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

Directions

1.  In a small bowl, whisk milk and coffee.

2.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes, until fluffy.

3.  On low speed, gradually add coffee milk and whip until fully combined after each addition.  You’ll end up with fluffy, shiny, frosting.

*If you’re having a hard time incorporating the milk into the butter, add more icing sugar.

Assembly

1.   Place the bottom layer of the cake on a plate. Wrap a piece of acetate around the cake and secure it together with tape so that it forms a ring.

2.   Spread half of the remaining caramel sauce.

3.   Spread half of the caramel cheesecake on top. (Piping it makes the job easier)

4.   Sprinkle half of the chocolate crumb on top.

5.   Pipe 1/3 of the coffee frosting on top of the crumb. 

6.   Add next layer of cake, and repeat the process.

7.   Put in freezer for at least 2 hours. Peel off acetate and defrost in the fridge for 3 hours before serving.

Lesson’s learned: I baked the chocolate chip cake in one tall cake pan, which was a mistake.  The chocolate chips sank to the bottom and sides.  Next time, I’ll use 3 separate cake pans, or bake as a sheet cake and cut out layer.

Verdict:  This cake was well received.  It was very sweet, so know your audience!  This cake easily serves 16 people because you don’t need very big slices.  I especially enjoyed the caramel cheesecake – it was divine!

Caramel Cheesecake Brownies

More caramel and cheesecake.  My friend was hosting a tea party for her birthday.  I love going to her house for tea parties because she has the nicest spreads, from the tea pots and saucers, to the white damask linens and tiered dessert stands.  And an abundance of cute food!  I wanted to contribute, and although I would normally bake a cake for a friend’s birthday, I thought that it would be too much for this party.   So I decided on brownies since they could be cut into small squares – perfect for a tea party.  This is the first time that I would make brownies (ever!) and I knew which recipe to try.  For a while now, I have been eyeing the Baked brownie (you know the one from Baked in NYC?) because it has been declared the best brownie of all time by numerous food bloggers.  But of course I wanted to change it up a bit, and so I thought I would incorporate cheesecake and caramel (it seems as though I have a thing for caramel and cheesecake lately) to make caramel cheesecake brownies!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Caramel Cheesecake Brownies

Makes a 9x9 inch square pan.

Caramel Cheesecake

Ingredients

4.5 oz caramel (19 squares of pre-made caramel)

8 oz cream cheese (1 block)

2 Tablespoon sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.    Melt caramel and a tablespoon of the cream cheese over simmering water.

2.    Beat the remaining cream cheese in another bowl over simmering water.

3.    Add the melted caramel to the cream cheese and beat until blended.

4.    Add sugar and beat.

5.    Add egg and vanilla and beat.

6.    Cool in refrigerator while you make the brownie batter.

*Note: I think it would’ve worked better if I had made a caramel sauce from scratch (like from this post) and added that to the cream cheese.  That way, there would have been no need to heat the cream cheese over simmering water.  But I was lazy, so I used the premade caramel squares.

Melting caramel.

Brownies from Baked

From here and here. I halved the recipe.

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 Tablespoon all purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

5.5 oz dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup salted butter

½ teaspoon instant espresso powder

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

2 ½ eggs, room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking pan with parchment.

2.    In a bowl, mix flour and cocoa.

3.    In a large bowl, melt chocolate, butter, and espresso powder over simmering water.

4.    Turn off heat and mix in sugar.

5.    Add eggs and whisk.

6.    Add vanilla and mix

7.    Sprinkle four mixture and fold with spatula until just mixed.

Chocolate, butter, and espresso powder melting.

To bake:

8.    Pour ¾ of brownie mixture into the pan.

9.    Pour cheesecake mixture on top.

10. Pour the remaining brownie mixture on top and make swirls with a toothpick.

11. Bake for 45 min or until middle is firm when you shake the pan.

12. Cool completely in pan before cutting.

Bottom brownie layer.

Cheesecake layer.

Brownie batter on top and swirling.

After baking.

Verdict: These turned out great! They were a tad sweet, but brownies usually are.  I loved the chewiness and dark chocolatiness!