Monday, November 26, 2012

Mascarpone cheesecake



I made a mascarpone cheesecake for baby pig's birthday celebration with the *oink! oink!* family yesterday ^^. He turns 11 today.. Happy Birthday, baby! ^^

And it's a really delicious, soft and light creamy cake.. everyone loves it, especially baby who had 2 helpings ^^! However, I feel the texture fell a little short ~ not as smooth as I expected ^^||.

In fact, right after I added the eggs, the creamy batter started to curdle and separate (and I haven't even added the lemon juice, etc yet ^^||).. turning the batter into tiny grain-like texture.. I actually prayed that the cake would turn out okay.. and it did ^^ though not as perfect as I would have wished for.

Mascarpone cheesecake (recipe from gourmetbaking and foodnetwork)
Crust
125g ground almonds
75g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
35g sugar
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter (I made brown butter ^^)
Filling
500g cream cheesecake
500g mascarpone cheese
200g sugar (next time, I'll reduce sugar to 150g)
1 tsp lemon juice (some zest too if you like) (and 1 tbsp rum ^^)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Mix ground almonds, digestive biscuits and sugar together. Add melted butter and mix well. Press the crumbs into bottom of baking tin and bake for 12-15 minutes. And leave to cool.
* tip: for easy removal of cheesecake, line the baking tin with a big piece of aluminium foil that covers the bottom and sides of the tin. To remove cake, just lift up aluminium foil and voila, you have a nice whole cake.

2. Prepare water bath.

3. Beat cream cheese, mascarpone cheese and sugar till smooth and creamy.

4. Add lemon juice (+ zest) and vanilla extract. I added some rum too ^^!

5. Add eggs one at a time till blended and smooth.

6. Pour mixture onto cooled crust and bake 325F/160C for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Leave cake to cool in oven by leaving the oven door slightly open.

7. Refrigerate overnight. Best served chilled.

* I just made half the recipe ^^ WE are still on "diet" (???)

I love cheesecakes! But I cannot say that I'm a fan of crusts in cheesecakes.. I would've preferred them without ^^ But this crust is EXCELLENT! I love it! Maybe it's the ground almonds, or it could be the browned butter.. I don't know. It's just wonderful ^^!

Well, I'm definitely going to make this cake again for sure, because it's really good ^^ but next time I'll add the mascarpone cheese last after adding the eggs, and see what happens ^^. For all I know, this is how this cheesecake is suppose to be ~ not super smooth (??), just delicious! (^^)

Anyway, with this cake.. my happy run in november officially ends ^^|| and what a month it has been.. I celebrated a personal milestone and more milestones for a few of my bestest friends, and of course, the wonderful 2 1/2 parties ^^! What more can a girl ask for ^^?! This has been the best month ever!!! (^^)


4 comments:

The Squishy Monster said...

I wouldn't mind being on *this diet*! =) I adore masacarpone and love that your cheesecake is baked perfectly--no cracks in sight!

Lisa Ho said...

Happy Birthday to 'Oink2'...

Scrolling down the pages of your bakes..makes me drool.. am so hungry :P

Mel said...

Hi Hui
Your cheesecake look so perfect baked! You know what, I am so scared to bake cheesecake nowadays, infact I feel I don't have good hands in baking cheesecake. Talking about cheesecake with the crust... I used to eat a slice right after dinner those were the days....
ReallY/ Are you all still on diet? How come cheesecake on the menu? ha....

pudgy butterfly said...

squishy ~ haha! we are always on a make-believe diet, squish! this cheesecake may have no cracks ^^.. but the texture's a bit off, i'm afraid ^^|| otherwise, it could've been a perfect cheesecake ^^

lisa ~ thanks for the sweet, encouraging words, lisa! my bakes are always simple, straightforward and boring stuff, unlike yours.. wish i could churn out food and bakes likes yours.. and also learn how to style and photograph like you ^^ i'd like to blame my little point 'n shoot and the night shots.. but it's the lousy photographer who's not doing a good job! hahaha! ^^

mel ~ we are always on diet because we have fat genes ^^ making smaller portions of sweets/dessert is our way of "dieting"! haha! the things we twist and turn to our advantage, eh? ^^ a'way, don't give up on cheesecakes.. you made a perfectly fine one, recently, don't you remember? i still think cheesecakes are the easiest cake ever, unlike my archilles heel, chiffon cakes! ^^