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Sunday, December 26, 2010

HCB: Cranberry Crown Cheesecake and Financier Style Vanilla Bean Pound Cake

Another catch up week for me, as it turned out. First we have Cranberry Crown Cheesecake.

I am not a big fan of cheesecake, but I am curious about this cake. It has more sour cream than cream cheese in it, and the cranberries component sounds yummy.

This cake is pretty easy to make. Even though I make my own ladyfingers it, it only took a couple of hours to put together. Not bad compared to some of the other cakes in the book.

I made 1/2 recipe again in a 7 inch pan. Not sure whether 1/2 recipe ladyfingers would be enough, I made 2/3 recipe. Turned out to be the perfect amount, have just enough ladyfingers for the sides and the bottom.


The cheesecake batter came together very easily. First whisked the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Next add the eggs vanilla mixture. Finally, add in the sour cream until blended.

I put the cake pan inside a 9 inch silicone pan that I got for $5 on ebay last year. This is the 1st time I used the silicone pan, and it felt good using it, considering it's $5 hehe. The silicone pan is then placed inside a baking pan with an inch of hot water.

I must have overbaked the ladyfingers, because only after 15 minutes, the tip started browning, so I cover the edges of the cake with foil for the rest of the baking time.


After the cake finished baking, I left it in the oven for an hour, as Rose prescribed. I was a little worried about this, what if the cake overcooked. But I thought to myself that I should trust Rose, as always. After the 1 hour mark, I let the cake rest at room temperature for another hour, before storing it in the fridge overnight.

At this point, I realized that I had forgotten to spray the pan with baking spray prior to baking. Shoot! Now I'm really worried and stressed, what if the ladyfingers stuck to the side of the pan.

As you can see from the pictures, that didn't happen. I don't know why it didn't, but I'm glad regardless.


Tasting impressions:
This is really good. I'm not a cheesecake fan, and hubby isn't either. But we both love it. It paired up really nicely with the cranberry topping (which was so good btw, that I made more of it, with the rest of the frozen cranberries).  Hubby said it's the best cheesecake he's ever had. I remembered that he said the same thing about the Baby Lemon Cheesecakes. Which tells you one thing: Rose's cheesecakes are awesome :).

Financier-Style Vanilla Bean Poundcake

I wasn't planning on making another cake this weekend. But yesterday I felt like having some dessert, and as the cheesecake needs to be refrigerated for a day, and I have leftover egg whites at room temperature, I thought of this cake.

This is the easiest cake to make in the book. I made 1/2 recipe and it took me 15 minutes to put everything together. The 15 minutes even includes mis-en-place, using the microwave to soften the butter, and weighing the batter into each of the 5 financier cavity. It took longer to bake the cake (18 minutes). Of course what's really sad is that it took us 5 minutes to eat the 5 cakes.

I have to apologize for the bad picture. I brought 3 of the cakes to my husband, who was upstairs - along with 2 cups of coffee - as a surprise. I didn't want the coffee to get cold so I didn't bother doing the fancy photo shoot and just snap a quick one with the camera.

Tasting impressions:
I had a feeling I will like this cake, after reading what the HCB bakers thought of this cake. I tend to like light and airy cakes more, and though I do like pound cakes, sometimes they are too much. This little babies are really good, too good perhaps as we both wolfed down all 5 of them in minutes.

7 comments:

  1. The cheesecake looks amazing. I wish I had time to make it. Good to know that it worked well with just half the recipe. That's probably what I'll do. The financiers look good too. Glad you and hubby liked everything :o)

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  2. Your cheesecake looks just perfect. I love the slight curve of the ladyfingers. beautiful.

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  3. Perfection - both look amazing. Absolutely love your photos!

    :)
    ButterYum

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  4. The little cheesecake really does look like a crown.

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  5. Both looks soo yummy! I have lots to catch up with all of you! And your photography skills are improving by leaps & bound! BTW, i can't remember if i replied to you about going to Tokyo..i thought i did but then again..like i didnt..lol! Tokyo is expensive for accommodation and transport. But you can go budget wise and it's still affordable..like stay at service apts and use their subway which is pretty convenient and easily accessible even from airport (which is what i did). Food wise, for normal family style restaurants (not those high class hotel ones) is pretty reasonable imo (same price range in Singapore). So i think you should go visit Tokyo before you have kids! "D

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  6. JEN!!!!!!!! The pictures are AWESOME.. girl you are rocking it! Man that bath light is kicking butt ... LOOOVEEE the slide picture!

    I totally lazy-out this weekend, did no bake once! We are getting ready to make Hallacas, national christmas dish made in Venezuela and this is like a 5 day affair.. I been cooking, food shopping, prepping and just could not bring myself to do anything else except that...

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  7. jen, your top photo is simply amazing--the light, the styling, everything! i am just about to start this cake (at midnight, i know) and i can't wait to try it tomorrow. if non-cheesecake people can love this dessert, it's gotta be good!

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