Every week, on Tuesday, I make afternoon treats for R’s office meeting. This started out as a project for me to keep busy while I transition into a life of being “jobless” for the first time in my life since leaving high school.
At the office there are about 30 staff members and I make treats for all of them. I usually make tea cakes or cupcakes because they are things that can be served at room temp, and they can be transported easily in an air-tight container. The treats are made the night before and R takes them in to work with him the next day. Sometimes I take them in myself ~ that’s when I pack them up, hop on my pink bicycle, secure the container to my basket carrier and paddle off towards the city. We live approximately 20 mins away by bike, across the Ij Harbour, so in order to get to Amsterdam city center I have to hop on a ferry, bicycle and all.
Very early on it became apparent that I could use this opportunity to practice my baking skills. I don’t do this for financial gain, but I do ask for feedback from staff members. They have become willing taste test subjects, so to speak, and I think they are relishing their role a bit too much. On some days R tells me he gets mobbed at the door the minute he walks into the office. Having said that, not all my confectionary creations have had a 100% success rate. There have been days where the recipe I’ve been working on turned out a complete disaster. That’s when one would see me frantically dashing to the local supermarket to buy a boxed cake mix to ensure I at least had something for R to take to the office with him. The good thing about the boxed cake mix here in Amsterdam is they are actually pretty good. I use a French mix, and I am amazed at how moist the cakes turn out to be, as advertised on their box. Comes complete with a packet of frosting too!!
Browsing through the internet looking for inspiration one day I came across a recipe for what looked like a very decadent Black Forest Cheesecake. It looked super YUM, and it so happened I had a can of dark cherries in my pantry, but I wanted to make them as individual cheesecakes.
First challenge: making the crushed biscuit base. I haven’t had much success with crushed biscuit bases ~ too crumbly and too risky for a morsel of cheesecake that will need to be peeled from their individual paper casing. When I embarked on this project of making afternoon treats for the office I listed out several criterias :
a) They have to be fuss and mess free as they would be consumed while their weekly meeting was in progress.
b) The cakes have to be able to either be pre-cut before the meeting, or be made into individual portions to begin with.
c) They need to be stable enough to be served at room temperature, and retain their freshness.
So the last thing I needed was a biscuit base that crumbled when handled or bit into. Then as I was strolling thru the aisle of the supermarket I came across a most spectacular product. It was a jaffa cookie with kirsch filling and coated in a layer of chocolate. FABULOUS! And what was even better was that it fit the bottom of a muffin hole perfectly. And at € 1.29 a box, I bought 3 of them.
Ingredients :
- 36 Cherry Jaffa Cakes, whole
- 550 g cream cheese
- 200 g marscapone cheese
- 200 g semi-sweet chocolate, melted
- 75 g superfine sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 40 mls double cream
- 5 leaves gelatine
- 1 can dark cherries in syrup or cherry pie filling
- 50 g dark chocolate curls
This is a super easy, non-bake cheesecake and it yields about 36 individual cheesecakes depending on how generous you want to be with the cheese filling.
Place a jaffa cake into individual paper casings and then place everything into a standard muffin pan.
In a bowl or mixing stand cream the cheeses and sugar together until well incorporated. Make sure not to beat in too much air, so keep the speed low while doing this.
Add in the vanilla extract and the melted chocolate. Just be careful the chocolate isn’t too hot.
Place gelatin leaves in a bowl of very cold water to soften (I even put some ice cubes in there). Then heat up the cream and dissolve all the gelatin leaves in it. This only takes a few seconds. Then pour this mixture in with the chocolate cream cheese.
Place mixture into a piping bag for ease of filling those paper cups. Choose any piping nozzle shape u want ~ I went for a large star tip. Now pipe out the cheese mixture over the cherry jaffa cakes.
Top each with a cherry and sprinkle with chocolate curls.
Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hrs or over night to set the gelatin.
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