The story that goes with this recipe in Rose's Heavenly Cakes describes how as a young person, only recently employed, she risks being sacked from her job so that on her lunch hour she can drive across town to taste a whipped cream cheesecake. I have to confess that I had never even heard of a whipped cream cheesecake before this weekend. But, I'm with Rose, I'd now risk quite a bit if someone told me they had found the best whipped cream cheesecake. This thing is amazing. It is really tasty and tangy, like any good cheesecake but it is light and airy and delicate.
It is, as described, no bake. Instead, it has a bit of gelatine in it to give it some setting power and then it is lightened by using whipped cream cheese, whipping that quite a bit, and then adding in whipped egg whites. The whole thing is not for the faint hearted when considering fat, but then again, it has lots of calcium in it, and we all need strong bones.
First you make a custard, to which you add the gelatine. Rose mentions that the cream cheese, creme fraiche and sour cream need to be at room temperature so that the gelatine in the custard doesn't get lumpy when mixed together. I didn't get this perfectly right and it was ever so slightly lumpy. It really didn't detract though from either taste or presentation at the end. In fact, none of my loyal panel even noticed.
After making the custard, you whip the cream cheeses until they are quite creamy, add in the custard, whip again.
Then you make something called Italian meringue. And although I've made pavlova and meringues many times, I've never used this technique - which is to make a sugar syrup and then add this to the whipped egg whites. It certainly goes quicker because you aren't adding one spoonful of sugar at a time to the egg whites. Although I was a bit nervous about adding something a bit warm to egg, nothing untoward happened. The meringue was lovely and glossy.
You then fold in the egg whites into the cream cheeses and then fill a springform pan with the lovely, frothy batter. Oh - I also forgot - I made the biscuit base the day before so it was sitting waiting in the fridge. As a source of great regret to me, we do not have graham crackers available in Australia. I remember them from my visits to America and they are wonderful malty almost nutty taste and nothing really approximates them in the Australian cooking world. I used a mix of Malt biscuits and Gingernut biscuits for by cheesecake base.
As a final bit of protection, you put a lid on the cheesecake and let it rest in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Rose recommends making a cherry coulis as a serving suggestion. I made a boysenberry and blueberry coulis from frozen berries. If I'd been a bit organised I might have been able to find frozen cherries but these were just fine.
The cheerleading for this cake was led by my husband who thinks I can stop here and just make this every week, followed by the rest of us who all enjoyed this wonderfully light creation. Wow, Rose. This is amazing.
