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The very thought of mixing gin
with cream cheese made my stomach curdle and, had I actually gone ahead and
done it, would probably have made the cream cheese curdle too.
It was time for another Secret Cake Club, the theme being “Cocktails, mocktails, and your favourite tipple”.
My favourite tipple of the moment has to be a classic Negroni cocktail. My
problem was how to re-interpret this in cake form.
The classic Negroni (and I am sure that some purists will disagree
with my definition – it’s the kind of drink that brings out strong opinion as
to what constitutes ‘classic’) mixes equal parts of gin, bitters (usually
Campari) and red vermouth over ice and tops it with a twist of orange zest.
It’s a serious cocktail, a grown-up cocktail, to be consumed in a bar and
definitely not beside the pool. You can keep your sunshine and tiny umbrellas
and sweet blue creamy drinks – give me my underground bar in the wintertime,
put a Negroni in my hand and I will be quite content.
But a Negroni cake? I honestly
couldn’t see a Victoria sponge with bitter and vermouth cream-filling, or a trifle
with gin-soaked sponge. My favourite dessert is cheesecake and that’s when I
imagined (momentarily) throwing a block of Philadelphia and a cup of gin into a
blender but there are some places a baker just shouldn’t go and I think this was one
of them.
But I really, really wanted to
make a cheesecake.
That’s when the idea of
‘flipping’ the cocktail came to me. I work in Education and the concept of ‘flipping’ classrooms, processes etc. is very modish right now. The basic concept is that
you reverse the focus to achieve better results. So, rather than start with the
Negroni and garnish with orange, start with the orange and garnish with
Negroni. Baked orange cheesecake is wonderful. What could make it more wonderful?
A bittersweet Negroni jelly! So that’s what I did. I made the cheesecake over
the course of a day. It’s actually quite a user-friendly recipe and allows you
to do other things during the chilling and baking times. I had taken a trip to
my lovely friends at Gangemi’s Fine Wines and stocked up on the wherewithal for
Negroni (West Winds Sabre Gin, classic Campari and Dolin Vermouth). For the rest,
the local supermarket did the trick.
A couple of things to note:
I bought blood oranges because I love how they look and taste, but
regular oranges are fine.
The orange extract is optional – I wanted to make sure that the
cheesecake had an intense orange flavour. If you like yours more subtle, you
can omit it. Want a really alcoholic cake? Cointreau is your friend…
Clever tip from a friend, use a can of condensed milk instead of using
sugar and cream – it saves you one extra step and a lot of extra beating.
There is no need to have sugar in the Negroni jelly if you want to have
it more authentically bitter. My thinking was that the sugar would just tone
down the intensity a little and keep things safe for the Cake Club members.
To make orange twists keep their shape (and not untwist!), wrap around
a skewer or a chopstick and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.
The thing is, it was an
experiment and I had no idea if it was going to work or not. I was delighted
with the beautiful smooth appearance of the cheesecake when it emerged (without
a single crack!) from the oven, but a little less certain when it came time to
pour the jelly on. I settled for doing this last thing at night and then went
to bed, not knowing what I would wake up to in the morning. The hot jelly
mixture made the whole house smell like a distillery. My clothes and hair were
lightly misted with gin. It would not have been a good idea to go near any
naked flames.
In the morning, releasing the
cheesecake from the spring-form tin was a tense moment, but there it was. Dense
cheesecake with the Negroni jelly glowing sunset-orange in a perfect layer over
the top. I trimmed a little to try and was very pleased with the flavour
combination as well as the texture. The cake was sweet and creamy and so very,
very orangey. The biscuit base added crunch and the jelly –oh, the jelly! It
had all the Negroni characteristics that I was after – herbal, floral, bitter,
cold and refreshing with a little added sweetness to remind everyone that this
was dessert! All that remained was to place the orange twists on top and I was
ready to go.
 |
| A few air-bubbles in the jelly. Oh, well... |
The venue for Cake Club this month was Frisk Small Bar in Northbridge. They specialise in gin. They have 4 pages just for gin in their drinks menu. My cheesecake, with some West Winds Sabre in the mix, was in good company.
And talking of good company, we
had another huge turn-out for Cake Club and so many creative and intriguing
interpretations of the “Cocktail, mocktail, tipple” theme. There were tarts
with tequila, beef pies with red wine, mojito macarons, beer bread with Beersine beer cheese, mousse with whisky, and so much more.
It says a lot about the size and
enthusiasm of the Cake Club that we managed to drink an espresso bar out of
coffee. It’s true – they ran out. I saw a lot of coffee being bought, and even
more espresso martinis. As for me, I had a classic cocktail – I had, wait for
it… a Martinez. (Vermouth, gin, maraschino, and bitters)
Not a Negroni.
Shame on you for thinking I was that predictable!(I made a Negroni when I got home...)
'Flipped' Negroni Cheesecake
For the base:
1 packet plain biscuits (I used Arnott’s Milk Arrowroot)
200g melted butter
For the cheesecake:
2 x 250g packets Philadelphia cream cheese
1 x 395g can condensed milk
The zest from 4 oranges
The juice of 3 oranges
1 tssp orange extract (optional)
3 eggs
For the jelly topping:
1 cup water
1/3 cup caster sugar
3 leaves Titanium strength gelatine (soaked in cold water to soften) or
2 sachets of good gelatine crystals
1/3 cup gin
1/3 cup Campari
1/3 cup red Vermouth
Garnish:
Twists of orange zest
Crush the biscuits into crumbs in
a food processor (or pop in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with melted
butter until combined. Press into the base of a springform tin and put in the
fridge to chill.
Blend cream cheese, condensed
milk and orange zest until smooth. Slowly add the orange juice and orange
extract. When this mixture is completely blended, add the eggs and mix until
just combined. (Don’t over mix or your cheesecake will have cracks in it!). Pour
the mixture on top of the chilled base and bake in a 160C oven for 45 minutes
until just set. Leave to cool and then place in the fridge to chill.
In a pan, over a low heat, gently
warm the cup of water. Add the sugar and softened gelatine and stir until
completely dissolved. Remove water from heat and add gin, Campari and Vermouth.
Allow to cool for about 20 minutes then pour over cheesecake and return to the
fridge to allow to set for a couple of hours (or overnight).
Remove the cheesecake from the
spring-form tin and garnish with twists of orange zest.
