My first time baked a cake using gelatin turned out to be a failure. That was when I baked the Strawberry Mousse Delight. The moment gelatin was added to the water, it became lumpy and sticky, I just couldn’t dissolve it properly. Later I found out that there is a technique to dissolve gelatin…

First, pour the water required in a bowl, then sprinkle gelatin powder onto the surface slowly. Let it absorb without stirring with spoon or anything. Once absorbed it will turn into clear color. Continue to sprinkle once turned to clear. See photo below, for the differences between the original (center) light brown color, and the soaked clear color surrounding the light brown.

Once all have absorbed water, put the bowl onto double boiler, meaning a pot of boiling water, to double boil it. Stir with a spoon until all dissolved into clear water-like texture, as if nothing is inside.

Set aside to cool before adding into whatever cake batter you are making.

I have never ever made any chilled cakes (as in non-bake) before. The reason is that, most of the recipes I found, use at least an egg. I just cannot accept eating raw eggs, especially for the kids – salmonella is nothing funny!

Then, one of my friend shared with me this recipe of a Ribena Marble Cheesecake, obtained from this blog called Happy Home Baking. It is a chilled cheesecake, and it doesn’t require any eggs at all. I checked out and immediately love it. I like Ribena. My children like Ribena. And we have lots of Ribena cordial at home. It also uses 1/2 yoghurt and 1/2 cream cheese –> all in all, it looks like very refreshing. And most importantly, it is so pretty!

This is how it looked, before I added the Ribena topping. It is so pretty that makes one feel very sayang to cover it up with the dark Ribena topping, but I just did so lah — the blogger did not cover it and she claimed that it lacks Ribena flavor.

True enough, after covering it with the Ribena topping, the marble effect disappears, but the taste is fantastic! Well, at least it has better Ribena flavor!

[Added in Mar] I made this so many times again and again. With a square pan, it is so much easier to cube and serve in small cups – very convenient for party setting!

RIBENA MARBLE CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
Base:
150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
70g butter, melted

Filling
100ml water
2 tbsp gelatin powder
250g cream cheese
75g caster sugar
250g natural plain yogurt
75ml Ribena cordial

Topping
100ml water
2 tsp gelatin powder
80ml Ribena cordial

Method
1. Use 8″ round loose-base cake tin. She asked us to line the side of the cake tin with parchment paper or plastic sheets — which I used book wraps, which I have plenty.
2. Mix crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter together and press onto the base of the cake tin. Freeze for 1 hour. (OMG, when I am writing, only I realized is to ‘freeze’ not ‘chill’, but mine turned out okay with chilling).
3. Melt gelatin into water on a double boiler. Cool to room temperature.
4. Cream cheese with sugar. Add in the gelatin solution and yogurt, continue to beat till the batter is smooth.
5. Divide mixture into two equal portions. Add 75ml of Ribena into one part, mix well.
6. Pour the 2 parts onto the cake base in alternate blobs. Swirl with a knife or chopstick to create a marble effect. Chill for 2 hours.
7. Topping: Melt gelatin into water on a double boiler. Once well melted, remove from pot and stir in 80ml of Ribena cordial. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, pour mixture over the cheesecake and chill overnight until set.

When I baked the Chocolate Chips Cheesecake the other day, I had 100g left over Sour Cream, so have decided to bake a cake that uses just 100g of that. This Orange Mascarpone Cheesecake recipe comes in handy.

Here is the recipe.

Okay, I know it looks pretty much like an ordinary cheesecake, but it tastes refreshing, perhaps with the orange and the sour cream. Many who tried it said it is very nice. But they have not tried the previous chocolate chips cake, so… hehehe, ok maybe this is my 2nd favorite then, putting the cost aside.

Orange Mascarpone Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients
200g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
50g melted butter
250g cream cheese
250g Mascarpone cheese
110g sugar
30g flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest from 1 orange
Juice from 1/2 orange
100g sour cream

Method
1. Mix digestive biscuit with butter and press onto an 8″ cake tin base.
2. Preheat oven to 160C.
3. Cream cream cheese with sugar and flour until creamy. Add mascarpone cheese and continue to cream further.
4. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
5. Add vanilla essence, orange juice and zest one by one while mixing well.
6. Finally add the sour cream and mix well.
7. Pour the mixture onto the cake tin.
8. Steam bake at 160C for about 60 minutes or until center is set.
9. Remove cake, and after it is cooled, chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours before served.

I have been using Philadelphia cream cheese all the time, bought from cake ingredient shops. They usually cut from 1kg size into 250g or 500g portions upon requests, and this is much cheaper than buying the 250g packs from supermarkets. However, when I saw Tatura cream cheese from Tesco, I was so delighted, because 250g is even cheaper than those I used to get! And Tesco also have sour cream and costs not much different from the shop I frequented. So I bought the ingredients I needed, and baked this Chocolate Chips Cheesecake.

Next morning, after chilled enough, I sliced the cake and took a photo of it. Not pretty, all smeared up, and I suspect that my recipe book sliced the cake before making the deco! It looks awful, BUT…

The taste is so yummy! This, is by far, the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever made, I think!

It is rich, but refreshing! Can’t relate both together right? But it is true! It uses 500g cream cheese, so should be a very jelak cheesecake. But, it also uses sour cream as topping, plus orange zest and orange juice in the cream cheese. This has caused the cake to be so refreshing!!

CHOCOLATE CHIPS CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
200g Oreo biscuits, crushed
50g butter, melted
500g cream cheese
120g caster sugar
20g flour
2 eggs
Zest from 1 orange
Juice from 1/2 orange
200g UHT whipping cream
100g chocolate chips
400g sour cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
Chocolate chips for topping/deco

Method
1. Mix Oreo biscuit with melted butter well, and press onto an 8″ cake tin base.
2. Preheat oven at 160C.
3. Cream cheese with 120g sugar and flour until fluffy. Add eggs and continue to cream until smooth.
4. Add in orange juice, zest and whipping cream one by one, cream until well mixed. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin. Steam bake at 160C for approx 60 min and the center is set.
6. When cake is almost ready, mix well sour cream and 2 tbsp sugar. When cake is ready, remove the cake from oven, pour the sour cream mixture onto the cheesecake. Continue to steam bake for another 10 minutes.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top immediately, when it is still hot. Cover the whole surface with chocolate chips.
8. Chill for at least 5 hours before served.

I’m not sure whether the brands of cheesecake make any difference or not, but this cake is definitely my most liked cake. The texture is very smooth, taste is so rich but refreshing… yummy!