This confection was assembled for the birthday celebration of a friend of mine. His wife requested a low-carb cake for his birthday party, so I decided to go with a cheesecake. I love baking cheesecakes, but since the man of the hour is a bit of a food connoisseur, I knew I had to take the flavor of my cake to a new level.
Since strawberries were in season (and on sale) at the time, I based my cake around that fruit using a Martha Stewart recipe for inspiration. This cake is essentially three layers - a graham cracker crust, a layer of strawberry cheesecake (2/3), and a thin layer of vanilla cheesecake (1/3) on top.
Before the first step of the cake itself, I baked a tray of strawberries drizzled with corn syrup. The berries turned a deep red color, and the smell was heavenly! Mmm, baked strawberries. Next, I mashed them up to be added to the cheesecake batter later. They were crushed very easily as they had softened during their time in the oven.
Though the graham cracker crust should have been the easiest step, it turned into a learning experience for me. I happened to have some whipped butter in my fridge, and thought that using this product would save me time in melting it as called for in the recipe. What I did not consider is that a tablespoon of whipped butter contains less butter (and more air) than a tablespoon of butter in stick form. So I measured out the number of tablespoons of butter called for by the recipe, and baked the crust. This misstep wasn't nearly as dramatic as the one detailed in my last post, but the crust did end up being a little crumblier than I would have liked. (In fact you can see some crust crumbs on the plate in my photo!) The correct amount of butter would have held the graham cracker crumbs more tightly together. The taste was not affected, as far as I could tell.
The next step was to mix up the cheesecake batter. This was done in the usual way, except for the addition of two very special ingredients. The first was a cup of mascarpone cheese, which is a delicious, sweet Italian triple-cream cheese. Most of the cheese in the recipe was regular American cream cheese, but replacing a quarter of it with mascarpone made for a much smoother, more distinctive-tasting cheesecake without giving up the stability provided by the denser conventional cream cheese. The second ingredient which delighted me was the seeds of a freshly scraped vanilla bean. I am used to using vanilla extract, and have learned from experience when to use the expensive organic kind and when I can get away with the regular grocery store stuff, but a freshly scraped vanilla bean took the flavor to a whole new level! At about five dollars per bean, this isn't something I would use for just any recipe, but I think it added a lot to this cake. I can still remember the sweetness of the vanilla fragrance that lingered for hours after that tough, dry-looking pod yielded its precious, delicious seeds. The bottle I bought contained two beans, and the one left in my pantry is calling me to make this cake again! Any birthday parties coming up?
After blending the cheesecake batter, five cups were removed to be mixed with the mashed strawberries prepared earlier. The strawberry and batter mixture was poured into the crust first, followed carefully by the remainder of the vanilla cheesecake batter to avoid disturbing the layered effect.
I baked the cake according to the recipe, using a water bath under my springform pan to provide even heating and prevent cracks in the top of the cake. After it had cooled and rested in the refrigerator overnight, I decided it was missing something - a topping! I blended some leftover strawberries with the juice of half a lemon, then strained the mixture to remove the strawberry seeds and make a tart, tasty coulis. The slightly sour coulis complemented the sweet cheesecake very well.
Though my photo does not show it, the layers of this cake provide an impressive visual effect, and the taste is perfect for strawberry season!
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