Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake - Strawberry Jelly Heart

As much as I enjoy eating these Jelly Cheesecake, photographing them proved to be an extremely frustrating and uninspiring experience - quite possibly because all the imperfection rendered during cutting and slicing them (e.g. jagged edges) were magnified in ghastly detail through the camera's lens.

A very popular non-bake cheese cake in Singapore, this recipe has been blogged over and over again by food bloggers in Singapore. More well known as Strawberry Jelly Heart, this was possibly the brain child of a local home bakery who had first encapsulated a heart-shaped strawberry in jelly over cheese cake.


The pleasing combination of digestive biscuit base, cheese cake and jello is extremely easy to make-if there was ever a Cheesecake for Dummies, this would easily qualify as one. The only thing that one needs to focus on is to make it look pretty... which wasn't difficult until I started slicing it.

This is an overall crowd pleaser, everyone loved it when I served them - the cheesecake is not overpowering while the digestive biscuit base is fragrant and buttery. The Jello?... brings back childhood memories...

For those who are interested, Valerie Kong conducts a very good and meticulous class for this and other cheesecake recipes. However, the recipe has become well tested in many blogs, an example is Happy Home Baker's blog.



Recipe ( from HHB)

base:110g digestive biscuits(about 8 pieces), chopped into fine crumbs
40g melted butter

filling:
250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
50g icing sugar
1 tablespoon gelatin powder
40ml boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 box Jelly crystal (strawberry flavour)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water

Some strawberries, cut into heart shapes

Method:
1. Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of a 18cm cake tin. Chill for 30 minutes.

2. Place gelatin powder and boiling water in a bowl. Heat a pot filled with some water until just simmering and place the bowl inside the pot. Dissolve gelatin and boiling water in the bowl. Keep warm.

3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese , icing sugar and vanilla essence until smooth & creamy. Blend in gelatin solution and mix well.

4. Pour the cheese mixture into the cake tin. Layer the strawberries on the cheese mixture. Chill for at least 3 to 4 hours.

5. Dissolve the jelly crystal in the cup of boiling water, followed by the cold water. Pour the jelly on the cheese mixture. Let it set before removing from the cake tin.