Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top!

Another birthday here we come and it is my close friend and also the bestest Boss in the World! And so its time to whip up something super special, and given that she isn’t a huge chocolate cake fan I had to rule out a few must trys! So my thinking cap went on and came up with a fantabulousso cheesecake (yes I know another cheesecake this year, what is with everyone loving cheesecake lately?).

I stumbled upon a saved recipe I had squirreled away for a special time… so out it popped MINI RAINBOW CHEESECAKES!! I sourced this recipe from an old fav at http://www.bakersroyale.com/cheesecake/st-patricks-day-dessert-rainbow-cheesecakes/.

Next step to work out my rainbow colours, 5 in total and I went for my beloved Americolors in the Electric colour range plus the Super Red.

The trick for them looking good (and effective) is to try to use thin white cupcake wrappers or otherwise pastel ones so the colours are seen through the papers.

Cheesecake

2 x 250g (or 16-20 oz) blocks Cream Cheese (softened)

1 cup Castor Sugar

1 Tbsp Vanilla Essence

2 eggs

1/3 cup Thickened Cream

Food Colourings (5 vibrant)

Topping

Whipped fresh cream

Maraschino Cherries with stems

Preheat oven to 180’C (10 degrees under if fan forced). Place a patty cake wrapper into each of the 12 holes of a muffin tin.

In mixer bowl place cream cheese and sugar and cream them together til smooth.  Next add in you vanilla and eggs and mix them in well.  Finally add in your thickened cream and mix it til just combined.

Next step divide your mixture evenly into 5 bowls (4 plus your current mixing bowl), approximately ¾ cup of mix in each bowl.  Colour each bowl of mix a different colour with a generous squirt of Americolor gel (food colouring). Mix it well with a table or dessert spoon, then spoon in a layer of mix of each colour into patty cake wrappers.

Be careful when selecting the colour order, it makes a difference to the look when you place certain colours next to each other. I always put yellow next to red and blue and green always separated with an orange or pink.

Once mix ready in wrappers, place the pan into the oven and bake for 30-40 mins, check they are firm and not jiggley before you remove, if they start to go golden but still giggly, turn off oven but leave them in the heat to firm up.  Be aware and don’t freak out that they will collapse and crack, this is normal apparently. I read to worry if they drop, but hello they definitely drop and all of them and they look like earthquakes! But you fill the craters with the whipped cream and you will never know to the untrained eye!

Once cheesecakes are cool, whip the cream up and place a scoop on the top of each cheesecake, and put a “pretty please” cherry on top! Stem up!

Note - In Australia you can get the Maraschino Cherries from both Campbells and www.usafoods.com.au (based in Melbourne). Let us know if you locate them anywhere else!