Cheesecake Recipes and questions?

kangamama

How about a variation on option 3?

Draw the letters onto a piece of greaseproof paper then cut out the bit you want to fill, lay this over another piece of greseproof then drizzle chocolate into the holes, leave for a minute until it sort of starts to set then remove the stencil, hopefully it wouldn't run and you could stick the letters in the fridge until they've set, peel them off then place them on the cheescake.

Never tried it so no promises but thought it might be worth a try.

floyd

Or instead of cocoa powder, why not use finely grated chocolate as this shouldn't dissolve in the same way as cocoa will. Make your stencil out of cardboard, that way, you don't have to let it touch the top of the cheesecake, just hold it above like they do in Costa when they dust cappuccino's with cocoa powder through a coffee bean stencil

Fen1

DO they have any sort of cake decorating bits and bobs where you are?

You could make a pattern from silver balls / little iced shapes for the letters and dates. Easily done in this country, but don't know about Spain.

How confidant a cook are you? If you are not fussed about the name and date, the following idea looks fancy and you can get a great result with just a little practice ( plus you can eat the practice runs!)

If you have access to two different colours of chocolate it is more dramatic: 1. on a large square of greasproof paper, draw the circumference of your cheescake. This is your guide.
2. Melt each chocolate separately.
3. Take one spoon and make a drizzle across the diameter of the circle.
4. Repeat the process, but at an angle to the first drizzle, with a clean spoon with the second chocolate.
5. Repeat the process, alternating chocolates, making sure that there are connecting threads.
6. You end up with a lattice effect that sits on top of the cheescake.
7. Chill thoroughly before slipping onto the cheescake, and keep the whole thing chilled for as long as possible before serving.


This may not be ideal in Spanish weather, but will impress the neighbours. A similar effect can be made with spun sugar, but it's a lot more of a faff.

I found this website with video links for cake decorating. Have not watched myself, but might be of some use to you.
http://www.azcentral.com/home/food/cooking201/lesson2.html

MrsTinks

I'm guessing with a cheese cake you'd want to keep it as cool as possible before serving - good tip is to take some bottles of water (the square water bottles like evian are ideal!) and freeze them then place the food on top to keep it cool.
Personally I like the fancy chocolate works suggestested above I just LOVE that kinda thing

lil_me

Would use grated chocolate too, extra posh if you can maybe use white for the date, milk/plain for the name etc.

heavenleigh

What about spelling the name out in chopped pieces of fruit? this should be easy to do, and would add to the taste. I supose this would only work if the name was quite short or you had a huge cake.
Another idea would be to stencil coulis on top, would be as effective as chocolate but wouldn''t melt the same.

Leigh xx

sandy2_2

floyd wrote: »

Or instead of cocoa powder, why not use finely grated chocolate as this shouldn't dissolve in the same way as cocoa will.

Thank you everyone for your ideas, here's the finished products. I used cardboard stencil and grated dark chocolate. Every last scrap was eaten. The baileys cheesecake was very sweet, the carrot cake was lovely, the topping on the banana loaf was gorgeous and the lemon drizzle cake won first prize in the village competion
Thank you for your help :j :T :A

Penelope_Penguin

Congratulations - they look yummy!

Penny. x

sandy2_2

I forgot to post this when I put pics of my cakes on. Hubby made bread pudding for the locals..so here it is

Angelraesunshine

all looks yummy well done