Pope Cheesecake: Chocolate Pecan Toffee Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

This is a continuation of the Customised Bake Trial that I am sincerely glad I did as I now know the extent of inaccuracy that recipes can have or knowledge level they expect.

This time, I made my own caramel butterscotch sauce with a method that seemed to work, added the pecans in afterwards, then poured it on the base, and placed it in the fridge to cool. Mistake. The lovely oozy caramel hardened into a near impenetrable toffee. I really must research this caramel umbrella practically to fully understand this.

Pecan Caramel

Anyway, in a desperate bid to save my springform from hacking machetes, I baked the base with the toffee layer for 20 minutes to soften it before the cheesecake mix went in.

One of the comments from the client was that it was dense. Although a very kind offer was extended for me to stay and join my colleague client, I opted out, thinking I would come home and snoozeafter not sleeping all night. That didn't happen. It seems I can survive on a half-hour disco nap.

Chocolate Cheesecake Mixture

Back to the matter in hand... the denseness. This may have been due having 100g less of cream cheese than what was required. I may amend that sentence... in my crazed sleep-deprived brain it seems wrong. I adjusted the mixture on the fly, reducing the sugar, chocolate, and egg content, to compensate, but that may well have been the reason. I have tweaked my method, so I got a much better finish on the cream cheese mixture than on the first attempt.

Pre-bake

I was able to procure frozen raspberries easier than I thought I would, and the sauce was delicious. I was tempted to syphon some off for private usage, but decided I would make another batch as I still had more sauce.

Sauce

Overall, I believe the review was good, and I was pleased with the cake... just a shame I didn't have enough cream cheese.

In honour of the client who designed this cheesecake, I will call this a Pope Cheesecake.

Finito

Pope Cheesecake and Berry Fruit Sauce available at Samara's Baked Goods

Chocolate Pecan Pie Cheesecake with Berry Sauce - Customised Bake Trial

I am very excited about this cheesecake, especially as this is an original recipe for a bespoke order from my store.

My client and I went through my recipe books and settled on a chocolate cheesecake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery book as a base, and incorporating nutty and fruity elements. We decided to try out a nut base with a raspberry sauce to drizzle over it.

I did some research into nut bases, and found a few gluten free options, but then I found a Pin that incorporated pecan pie and cheesecake.

Cocoa Biscuit Base Mixture

This gave me the idea to make a pecan pie filling to sit on the cocoa base, and top with the chocolate cheesecake.

The recipe seemed suspicious as it included eggs in a sugary-syrup pecan mixture with melted butter, and this potion was then expected to be boiled! With eggs in it!!! Outrageous. I was seriously torn whether to go with my instinct and omit the eggs, or to follow the rules. The jobsworth won this time. In my mind this was no win, as the mixture puffed up unexpectedly and when stirring it to calm it, I discovered the sugars had melted and burned to the bottom of the pan along with a substantial amount of pecans, and these offensive burnt bits were happily entering the good part like so many bad salmon.

I was in a dilemma again. Should I cut my losses, and make another batch, or was it *just* passable? Miss Thrift won that battle: I plugged on, and tapped into the hope that the predominantly sweet flavours will put up a spirited fight against the burned flavours. If it harms the taste, I will opt for a nut crust for the final product.

Then came the cheesecake mixture. Feeling somewhat deflated from the pecan pie filling fiasco, I wasn't as diligent as I should have been when incorporating the melted chocolate into the cream cheese mixture, and was left with some unattractive chocolate clumps floating about. Something to fix for next time.

Speckly Chessecake

I have finally bought a pan large enough to hold my springform tin for Bain Marie baking, and I made such a hoohah of getting that into the oven, that I disappointed myself. I remembered to wrap the tin in foil - eventually - however I may have been overzealous when filling the pan with water, and I'm worried that the water got into the springform... and my cake! I'll have to watch out for that when it's sliced.

Homemade Blueberry and Raspberry Sauce

The original plan was to make a raspberry sauce to drizzle over the top, and having become accustomed to a frozen 'pick and mix' selection of fruits in Swedish supermarkets, I didn't anticipate there not being any available. Ah, such arrogance. I had to improvise and buy a packet of raspberries mixed with blueberries. I made a simple sauce, and I will make sure I go to a larger supermarket and find frozen raspberries if the client doesn't like this trial.

Baked! What a lovely colour

The author of the pecan pie recipe said that her cheesecake developed a huge crack, and whilst I have not yet been afflicted by this, I made sure to cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door open for an hour to prevent it.

I will see how it cuts tomorrow at work, but I am actually feeling quite positive about this cake, despite the pecan pie filling mistake.

Hummingbird Cake

Based on recipe from... You guessed it: The Hummingbird Bakery book.

A signature fruit cake that I would never have attempted, again because it is a layer cake (see Brooklyn Blackout Cake), and also because it has pineapple in it. Not my cup of tea... Or so I thought!

The batter was easy to create, and the bake was very simple. Again, being a reluctant cake decorator I unceremoniously slathered the cream cheese frosting on, and arranged some pecan nuts on the cake. It actually had its own charm. I'm hindsight, I should have probably levelled the cakes as the result was quite a tall assembly, but meh! I didn't want the scraps about.

The cake turned out to be lovely and light... Whilst it was mainly a banana and pecan cake, the cream cheese frosting made it reminiscent of carrot cake.

Definitely one to do again!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods