Three Berries Walk into a Bar of Cream Cheese

I made strawberry cheesecake cupcakes for a friend's housewarming and they were a hit. I decided to walk on the wild side and turn the recipe into a cake. To be honest, it was less for the sake of innovation and more just old fashioned laziness that drove me to tinker with the recipe. This is also the first time that I've decorated a cake. Altogether, I must say that it was a rather ambitious project. The cake consists of 4 components: the graham cracker crust, the cake, the whirled-in cream cheese and the frosting. The process is a bit intricate, but I assure you that the results are well worth the effort.

Recipe
For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups blackberries
pinch of salt


For the cheesecake filling:
8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon strawberry jam


For the raspberry butter cream frosting:
1 cup milk
1/2 cup raspberry syrup
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar


For crust and decoration:
1/3 box graham crackers (11 sheets, crumbed)
3 sheets of graham cracker broken up into 4 pieces each


Special equipment:
12 inch spring form cake pan



First things first, preheat the oven to 325º. Put the 11 sheets of graham crackers in a large ziplock bag and crush them with a blunt object. My weapon of choice is a heavy glass jar. Don't be shy and get all up in the crackers' grill. The pieces don't have to be completely pulverized; some larger pieces will add texture, and texture is good. Spray the sides and bottom of the spring form pan with cooking spray and distribute the crumbs evenly along the bottom of the pan.

Next up, we assemble the cake component of our dessert. Using an electric mixer, cream 6 tablespoons of softened butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar on high until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mix well in between. Add the vanilla and continue to beat on high until light and fluffy, for around a minute. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and milk; mix manually with a spatula using a folding motion, until just combined. Fold in the berries and pour into the spring form pan. Spread the batter with a spatula to level the top.

The batter should be light

Even the top with a spatula

Now, we begin work on the cream cheese portion of the cake. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients listed under the "cheesecake filling" section and whisk on high with an electric mixer until well combined and fluffy. Drop large dollops of the mixture on top of the cake batter. Using a butter knife or chopstick, whirl the cream cheese in with the cake batter. Try not to disturb the bottom of the pan with the graham cracker crust. It will take a few passes before the cream cheese is laced throughout the batter. Don't worry if the mix isn't very even, it doesn't need to be perfect and the baking process will take care of the rest. 




Pop the spring form pan in the oven for 60 minutes. When the cake is done baking, the center will still be a bit giggly due of the cream cheese. Don't worry about the unsightly cracks on the top, we'll beautify it with frosting later. Let cool complete before removing the spring form or else the cake will collapse on you. It's faster to chill it in the fridge, but make sure to wait until it's not piping hot anymore before sliding it into the cooler. 

While the cake cools, we can prepare the frosting. In a medium sauce pan, heat the milk, raspberry syrup and flour on medium low heat. Continuously whisk until the mixture starts to thicken, which should take around 5-7 minutes. Don't be tempted to turn up the heat if the roux takes a while to coagulate and be patient. We don't want to burn it and have to start over. When all the liquid have been absorbed by the paste and the mixture stops thickening, you're done. Another way to tell that the roux is done is when you tilt the pan, the paste stays in place. Think fake boobs. The whole process should take around 12-15 minutes.




In a stand mixer, combine the sugar and butter. Stir it a bit manually with a spoon before turning on the mixer so you don't get a dusting of the powdered sugar. Using the wire attachment, whisk on high until light and fluffy, around a minute or so. Add the raspberry syrup roux into the sugar/butter mixture and mix on high for another minute. If you want a brighter pink frosting, put in a drop or two of red food coloring. Beware that a drop of food coloring goes a long way.




When the cake is completely cooled, we can start the most exciting part -- the decorating!! I put in a star shaped pastry tip and created a bunch of independent swirls without any overlapping. I then filled the spaces between the large swirls with smaller swirls by simply dotting on a bit of frosting. It actually turned out beautifully. I then slid in the graham cracker pieces and put a blueberry in between the pieces.

Not bad for a first timer!

The profile

Reflections
The cupcake version of this recipe only called for 25 minutes of baking. You can't imagine the panic that permeated my mind when even after 35 minutes in the oven, the cake was still as jiggly as a chick on her first day of fat camp. I had to add time to the timer in 10 minute increments until the cake finally started to firm up and brown on top. All's well that ends well because the cake turned out great, but I certainly suffered moments of despair as I nervously perched in front of the oven observing the baking process. Sometimes, you just gotta believe.