Mini No Bake Cheesecakes

I love to make cheesecake - It was one of the things I really missed when I first moved here 15 years ago. For the Super Bowl this year, I gave a try to an idea I had knocking around about how I could use a no bake cheesecake mix and make something wonderful that wouldn't take hours of prep time and could be eaten at halftime on the couch -(2am locally) on a Monday morning.

In the last few years, a lot of places sell cheesecake, a couple even call it New York cheesecake...but rarely it is what I call cheesecake. for me there are two types of cheesecake to have in your repertoire:

1) no bake cheesecakes - either from scratch, or if I am going to use it as a basis for my own toppings or creations, I find that Jello makes a good no bake cheese cake. Mon Chou or "Kwarktaart" is NOT the same! :-)

2) A good baked cheesecake. My favourite variation of this has got to be Pumpkin Cheesecake (that recipe is a whole separate post) but it's time intensive, and you need to be able to cook the cheesecake in a water/steam bath to prevent cracking. And please, only use Philadelphia or cream cheese - nothing else matches the taste and texture!  Follow these tips for a perfect baked cheesecake:

For the crust, I either buy graham crackers from places that sell American food items and make the crust myself if I'm going completely homemade, or I use a ready made crust (usually Keebler) that you can find on www.usfoodz.nl

To make the cheesecakes in the photo below: I used the following:

No Bake Cheesecake:

• 1 pkg. Jello no bake cheesecake mix
• 2 tbsp. sugar (fijnesuiker)
• 1/3 cup (80 grams) butter, melted
• 1 1/2  (350 ml) c. cold milk

Sauce

• 1 package (150 grams) fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water

Decorations

• 100 grams white chocolate, suitable for melting
• 6-10 large fresh raspberries selected from the package above
• 1-2 tsp Sunflower oil

First, I got out the cupcake liners and put those in my muffin pan. Then, I put a spoonful of the crust mixture into the liners and used my smallest measuring cup to press the mixture down into a even layer to form the base.

By doing this in the muffin pans, the liners don't ''stretch'' - and since you don't bake these cheesecakes, you need the liners to stay as stiff as possible.

Next, I followed the direction for making the filling - using the enclosed mix together with the cold milk - you'll need a hand/electric mixer for this step.

Then, I spooned the filling over the crust into the muffin liners and placed in the fridge for 2 hours. You want these to be firm before you top them with the raspberries.

Creativity 101
Now, we were in recipe no-mans land.....I had a vague idea how I wanted to make the raspberry sauce based on a how I make homemade cranberry sauce (compote) every year, and white chocolate covered raspberries cut in half to show red and white layers seemed like they would be the perfect finishing touch. With that idea as my basis, I did the following:

• Equal amounts (in measuring cup terms) sugar and water dissolved together and bring it to a boil.
• At the boil, add the fresh raspberries and boil together, stirring regularly for about 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool approx 30 mins. Sauce will be warm and not yet too thick to sieve. 
• Before the sauce cools completely, run it through a sieve to take out most of the seeds.
• The pulp that was left over, I then used about half to spoon back into the mixture - too many seeds do not make for a pleasant experience, but you need some of the seeds and jam-like thickness of the cooked fruit to make the sauce thick enough.
• The sauce/jam will thicken as it cools - you can do this for about 2 hours to come to room temperature or about 1 hour in the fridge.

While the sauce and the cakes were cooling in the fridge, I set about making the chocolate covered raspberries. I held back 10 of the nicest shaped raspberries to use for the dipping.

• You can melt chocolate on the stove in a double boiler method or in the microwave. I used the double boiler (au bain marie) method, melting the chocolate in a glass bowl over a put of (just) boiling water.
• To get the shine and consistency I wanted, I added between 1-2 teaspoons of oil as the chocolate melted, until it coated the back of a spoon smoothly when dipped.
• Then, I dropped the raspberries one at a time into the chocolate, gave them a good coating before picking them out of the mixture with a fork and placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or bakpapier.
• Once all the raspberries were done, I set the timer for 15 mins and then redipped them, following the same process. Once the second dip was done, I set them in the fridge to harden completely

Assembly:
Taking the completed mini cakes out of the muffin tins, I then put a generous teaspoon of sauce on each cake.

Once the raspberries were set, I took a sharp knife (like a potato knife) and cut each raspberry in half.

I needed 12 halves (6 whole) but made 10 just in case. The whole leftover berries I offered as "bonbons" to the hostess - they were very well received that way as well!

For transport, I used a cupcake carrier and left them in the fridge until about 1 hour before serving time.

They peeled away from the cupcake liners easily, held firm and were not too cold to eat, so all the flavors came through!

Enjoy!

Carrot Cake cupcakes - the works!

It's funny how things creep.....I've been dong a lot of baking the last 6-8 months, and at some point wanted to share what I'd been doing. I'm not a big recipe person, but I like taking photos of the completed projects and sharing them on Facebook - then a month or so go, I got into Pinterest , and love being able to ''pin'' the things I've had fun creating or the things I'm filing away to try next time the cooking/baking bug bites

But, with Pinterest...it really helps to have a recipe behind the pin. With things I find, no problem...the things I make/create and hodgepodge from various sources and through trial and error...not so much. Hence, a blog is born. Here is how I make things I make.I'm not a pro, I don't have endless time to devote to my hobbies, and I don't remember to take pictures at each step. But, for better or worse, I will lift the curtain, show off my cheats and share with you my 15 years of trying to make American style goodies while living abroad.

For Thanksgiving last year, I wanted to dust off an old favourite - Carrot Cake (worteltaart).

I always feel a bit guilty to admit this - but I use a mix of well, pre-made mixes and my own touches.

Homemade completely from scratch is always best when you have all the time to do so (and in the long run is usually cheaper per serving) but sometimes I have to find the middle ground between what I want to do and what I actually have time to do in the mere 24 hours we're allotted per day....

Here then, is the recipe as I made it in the photo below - and I'll list the ''from scratch'' option if you prefer that way.

The cake

For this recipe, I started with Betty Crocker Carrot Cake mix. In the Netherlands, I find the best selection of cake mixes on www.usfoodz.com. If you have to go outside of NL, I also order from the UK http://www.usafoodstore.co.uk. Both option are still cheaper than ordering from the US (unless my mom is sending a ''care'' package).

Besides the pre-done cake mix, you'll need the following to make approx 24 cupcakes:

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® carrot cake mix
• 1/2 cup (approx 120 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 cup of water (approx 335 ml)
• 3 eggs (M or L)
• a generous dash (1/4 teaspoon) of cinnamon (kaneel) - optional

Now, I'll leave the debate of box mix vs scratch off the table for now - BUT, whether you use a box mix or your own, what takes this cake from good to YUM is the add ins.....

I recommend combinations and variations of the following:

• 1/2 cup (75 grams) chopped nuts - I like pecans, but walnuts are less expensive and work equally well
• 1/2 cup (75 grams) dried cranberries (or raisins). I highly recommend the cranberry and pecan combo
• 1/2 cup (75 grams) white chocolate chips (bakvaste) that will not melt in the oven - I buy mine here

For the box mix, the baking instructions are:

• Heat oven to 350°F / 175°C
• In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, water and eggs on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes.
• Stir in the added ingredients , one at a time, and mix gently (silicone spatula or the like works well).
• Pour into baking cups in cupcake pan, filling each about 2/3 full. I find the metal ice cream scoops the supermarket sells works quite well as a single scoop. Do not overfill, and tap on a flat surface to eliminate the largest air pockets before putting in the middle to lower half of the oven.
• Bake 17-22 minutes, turn the tray once during baking. Remove to wire rack within 1-2 minutes, then cool completely before frosting. If you leave the cupcakes in the pan too long to cool, you run the risk of the cupcake liners pulling away from the cupcakes - I think it's due to the steam having no place to go. Even with the add in's this is a pretty moist cake - which is one of the things I love about it!

If you want to make the mix from scratch, the ''add ins'' stay the same, but you can find an excellent recipe (in dutch) from the Albert Hein website:

Ok, now for the frosting:

I admit, I usually have a can of frosting (from Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines) knocking around in my pantry, but for cream cheese frosting, I usually do make my own. For these cupcakes, I used the box mix and homemade frosting - go figure!'

The main ingredients are cream cheese (roomkaas) - I like to use Philadelphia (which is available pretty much everywhere now) , powdered sugar and butter: to scale this recipe for more or less cupcakes, I use the rule of halves - however much Philadelphia you use, you use approx 1/2 that amount of butter and half again the amount of powdered sugar.

• 450 grams Philadelphia (2,5 packages as they are sold here)
• 225 grams (unsalted)butter at room temperature
• 125 grams powder sugar
• 1,5 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)

Mix the butter, Philadelphia and vanilla together on medium speed until you have a creamy consistency. Then, add in the powdered sugar bit by bit until everything is mixed completely.

You can spread the frosting on with a knife or use a piping bag ( I used a star shape tip to get the swirls)

If you want to buy your frosting, you can get it at the same places as the cake mix above but store bought frosting is sweet (and, yes, I say that as an American!)

Finishing touches:

I did use pre-made vanilla frosting for the decorations because I needed to color and pipe it - as it was decoration I wasn't too concerned about the taste as I'd made my cream cheese frosting. You could make extra cream cheese frosting, or use a standard buttercream recipe for the piping decorations.

Using Wilton Icing Gel, I colored one batch orange and one green for my carrots and and tops. Using two small round tips, I made a triangle shaped zig zag with orange, then added a line with three angled lines coming away from the baseline as the green top. I had enough dried cranberries left over that I placed one on top of each cupcake as additional decoration.

Start to finish - about 3 hours. The cupcakes must be completely cool or the frosting will slide right off!