Lately I have really felt like eating cheesecake. I had some cream cheese in the fridge, but I didn’t feel like making a fruit cheesecake. While looking in the pantry I saw a bottle of rose syrup that we bought from the Indian grocery store. We all love this syrup and we drink it diluted in cold water as a refreshing drink or I use it to make sweets (more about this in the future posts). So the idea of a rose cheesecake came to me by chance. I know cheesecake is not an Indian sweet and the combination of rose and cream cheese may appear strange… but I can assure you that the result is delicious! I have invented this recipe from scratch and it came out really well, so I thought it would be a good recipe to share on the blog. Wouldn’t it be perfect to make for Mother’s Day this coming Sunday?

Ingredients: (makes a 16 cm cake)

1 ¼ cup biscuit crumbs (I have used scotch fingers)

80 gms butter, melted

250 gms cream cheese at room temperature

125 ml lightly whipped cream

1/2 cup sugar

10 tbsp rose syrup

2 sheets (4 gms) of gelatin (colla di pesce) for the cake and 1 sheet (2 gms) for the topping, or 2 tsp of gelatin dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water for the cheesecake and 1 tsp for the topping

Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter in a bowl. The quantity indicated will make a thick base. If you prefer it thinner, make 3/4 of this dose (1 cup biscuit crumbs and 60 gms of melted butter).

Put some baking paper at the bottom of a springform pan, by unclipping it, putting the paper on the base and re-clipping the pan. Trim the remaining paper.

Press the crumbs and butter mix into the pan and chill it.

In the meantime, beat the cream cheese and sugar together using an electric mixer. When it is smooth, add 4 tbsp of rose syrup and 2 sheets of gelatin dissolved in water (follow the instructions of the gelatin you are using).

Add the lightly whipped cream into the cheese mixture and incorporate it gently.

Pour the rose cheese mixture onto the prepared base, flatten it by shaking it and tapping it gently on the bench top and refrigerate the cake for 1 hour.

Prepare the rose topping by dissolving the remaining gelatin in 6 tbsp of hot rose syrup (follow the instructions of the gelatin you are using, just substitute water with rose syrup). Pour the rose gelatin on top of the refrigerated cheesecake, spread it uniformly (move and tilt the cake to spread the gelatin evenly) and put the cake back in the fridge for at least 2 more hours (better overnight).

Before serving, open the springform pan very carefully. To make sure that the cheesecake doesn’t stick to the sides of the pan, pass a hot wet towel all around the sides of the pan and use a straight cake spatula or a knife to loosen the cream from the pan.

To decorate it I have made a fondant rose and added some mint leaves to it. You can find step by step instructions on How to make a rose with fondant in the Techniques page of this site.

Serve the cheesecake as is, or with some whipped cream on the side.

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