A Bon Voyage Cake

"All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go"........this song is true to TW only about an hour before she boards the Kimono Express. Tsk tsk, that woman. She's not the only one from the office who's leaving for a holiday. PP is going to some exotic destination too! Cow!

Anyway I thought it would be nice to fatten them up before they left. This is especially crucial for TW, because she doesn't fancy the oriental cuisine there. Gotta store some fat to burn over there eh woman :) This calls for cheesecake! 

I bookmarked a wonderful no bake cheesecake recipe from bakingbites quite some time ago and it has been out of sight until yesterday. The great thing about this recipe is, it only requires 8 ingredients. Fantastic!

Here's what you'll need;

the cast of characters

• 32 pcs of Keebler's Choc Mint Cookies (there are 36 cookies in a pack, just eat the extra 4! Btw, I found the cookies in Cold Storage, Summit)
• 2 tbsp (about 30g) softened butter (salted or unsalted is fine)
• 2 packs of cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup of castor sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 1/2 tsp of gelatine
• 2 tbsp hot water

You can check out how Nicole of bakingbites makes it here. This is how I went about it;

• Brush some butter on the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan. (I suppose you could just use a normal baking tin & layer it with foil.)
  
• Prepare cookie base. Use a blender to crush cookies in 2 batches. If you are using a food processor, whiz them all at once. (Or you can just put them in a durable zip lock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Work those arms baby!)
  
• Mix softened butter and crushed cookies with a fork. 

delicious pile of minty chocolate soil

• Pour mixture into the spring form pan and press firmly. (I used the back of a glass but it didn't work very well so I just got down and dirrrty....with my fingers of course.) Leave it in the fridge till you're done with the filling.
• Cut up creamcheese into cubes and put them in a mixing bowl. Add in sugar and vanilla essence, beat on low till creamy. Scrape sides of the mixing bowl to ensure everything's well combined.

i used a hand mixer

• In a small heat proof bowl, whisk together hot water & gelatine. If you still find lumps, put the bowl over a pot of boiling water and keep whisking till it's dissolved. Poor man's double boiler! (If you have a microwave, nuke it in 30-45 seconds intervals. But make sure that your bowl is microwave-safe.) Leave to cool for a bit.
• Switch on hand mixer and pour gelatine into the creamcheese mixture, followed by whipping cream. Beat on low till mixture is light and smooth.
• Remove cookie base from the fridge and pour in creamcheese filling. 

plop it in baby!

• Rap gently on the counter to distribute filling evenly around the pan. This will help to eliminate large air bubbles too. Mine had quite a few.
• You're almost there! Leave cheesecake to set in the fridge overnight.

take care TW & PP! 

( I tried to arrange choc chips to form the words at first but there wasn't enough space so I switched to chocolate syrup. I snipped off a tiny portion at the corner of a zip lock bag to pipe the words)

the cheesecake was rather soft, you might want to leave it in the freezer for a bit before cutting

I simply love the taste. The mint crust compliments the light and creamy filling perfectly. You should try it soon!