Aronia berries, raspberries and aronia berry jam make this cake so lovely fresh. Any other berries can also be used as a substitute and the glaze can be made of any juice, either self-made or bought.
I have made this cake in a cake tin with a cylinder insert of 26 cm and therefore it is quite thin – which I prefer. If you use a smaller cake tin, the bottom layer needs 200gr cookies and 80 gr butter And then again, if you make as much filling as in this recipe, the cake will be deep and therefore you should put berries in two layers.
So, the cake was quite a success but photographing it brought some real problems. First I decorated the cake with roses made of vanilla frosting and then I added some thawed frozen berries on the top as well. The result was quite beautiful, but I just didn’t manage to take any suitable photos by lamp light – either the glaze was too shiny or the flowers were so much overexposed that I couldn’t fix them even in the Photoshop Lightroom. Tens of tries, tens of photos straight to the trash.
Finally I decided to save the whole project until the next day. When I took the cake out from our fridge it turned out that the whole grandeur was covered with juice from the berries and all the beautiful roses were partly violet. So I had to throw away flowers and berries and dry the cake with paper towels. Luckily the cake was so tightly in the tin that all the juice was only on the glaze. New decoration with almond groats and sprinkles and a new try with the camera.
No good photos, neither of the whole cake nor the cake slice. That was the point where I just gave up and thought: “Damn it, let it be then!” And so it was. Whatever, our guests just loved the cake and only one pretty small piece was left the very next morning. I cut it in two equal pieces and noticed that the berries were peeking nicely out from the filling – I just had to try to take a picture this very last time. I brought the lightbox onto the table, put in that little piece of cake and took some photos. And I succeeded in catching some very beautiful photos, one of which can now be seen on this page. What did we learn: never give up right away, to try again pays off in the end.
INGREDIENTS:
(tin with cylinder insert 26 cm)
Bottom:
- 300 gr gluten free chocolate cookies
- 100 gr butter
Filling:
- 6 gelatin sheets
- 3,3 dl double cream
- 200 gr natural cream cheese
- 1,5 dl sugar
- 3 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
- 1 dl aronia berries
- 1 dl raspberries
Glaze:
- 1 dl water
- 4 dl aroniaberryjam
- 5 gelatin sheets
Use a tin with cylinder insert 26 cm.
Cover the bottom of the tin with parchment paper and tighten it with the cylinder.
First you have to turn the cookies into fine crumbs. Do it by putting the cookies in a plastic bag and use any kind of tool to crumble them or use a blender. Melt the butter and mix it with cookie crumbles with your fingers of with a rubber spatula. Mix well to get all the crumbs well coated.
Use your fingers to press the crust firmly and evenly into the tin, that’s the best way to tell from touch if the crust is evenly distributed in the tin. Let the crust rest in the fridge for a while before adding the filling.
Put the gelatin sheets in a small bowl filled with cold water for about ten minutes.
Whip the cream until it’s a thick foam. Add cheese and mix well. Add sugar and vanilla sugar and mix well.
Heat up about ½ dl water and when it’s just about to boil, add the gelatin sheets (squeeze the cold water out first). Mix well but do not boil any longer. Pour into the cream and cheese mixture little by little, blending well all the time.
Spread on half of the mixture over the crust. Add berries and then the rest of the filling. The filling has to be set well before adding the glaze, so let the cake sit for three hours or longer in the fridge.
After the cake has cooled properly, start with the glaze.
Put the gelatin sheets in a small bowl filled with cold water for about ten minutes.
If you’re using jam, put it in a kettle, add about one decilitre of water and heat up till it’s boiling. Pour in another bowl through a sieve. All in all you need about four deciliters of juice to make the glaze for a big cake, a smaller one needs about one deciliter less.
If you use only juice, just heat it up till it’s boiling.
Heat up ½ dl juice and add gelatin sheets (squeeze the cold water out first). Mix well but do not boil any longer. Pour into the juice little by little blending well all the time.
Let the juice cool just a little and then pour it carefully and evenly on to the cake. Let it cool in a fridge overnight before decorating or serving it.
Open the cylinder very carefully not to break the glaze. Help with a knife if needed.
Tags: aroniaberry cheese cake raspberry cheese cake
Ruokasirkusta 