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Of cheesecakes, fruits and chocolate



Some flavors go together so well that chefs should be fined for not pairing them more often. Take mango and chocolate; the reason you see one solitary cheesecake up there instead of six. But I digress. This story starts with daring bakers and cheesecakes. Towards the end of every month, there is an explosion of a single recipe in the blogsphere. Thousands of daring bakers make scary things like lasagne or flourless cakes. But in April, they made cheesecake.

I am not a daring baker, and don't have enough sense of adventure to be one. But cheesecake has been on my to-make wishlist for a long time. The daring bakers recipes usually make huge quantities, but Olga cut down the recipe and made her cheesecake in muffin tins. I scaled down the recipe to 1/3rd, brought out my 6 brioche cups and made plain cheesecake cupcakes.

Olga said her cheesecake sank and cracked so I didn't even start thinking of toppings. But my cheesecakes didn't rise, didn't sink, didn't crack and were perfect once chilled. Which is when I made ganache (1/4 cup each of cream and chocolate chips heated in the microwave until melted) and chopped some mango.

I decorated a cheesecake. Then I dipped a mango slice in ganache. It was flavorful. No, it was completely mindblowing. Much better than my earlier favorite of strawberries dipped in chocolate. Which is why the ganache and mango are eaten and the other five cheesecakes are still plain. Topping ideas, anyone?

This cheesecake is my third entry for Srivalli's Mithai Mela.
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Comments

lubnakarim06 said…
I feel like licking it right now................Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
May 2, 2009 at 4:01 PM
chef and her kitchen said…
Nice attempt simran...yummy cake....you can even top with smashed jam like blueberry or cherry jam(i saw somewhere in a show)
May 2, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Laura said…
That's beautiful--I am so impressed by people with the energy to deal with multiple smaller cheesecakes! I am not the biggest fruit person so I would go either citrus, like a lime curd, or chocolate or caramel. Oh wait, that last is what I did. :)
May 3, 2009 at 4:11 AM
CurryLeaf said…
Love it.I too had bookmarked these from a site.Love the toppings.Is this the start of a daring baker.Cheers.Individual cheesecake is a must try.
May 3, 2009 at 7:18 AM
Alka said…
Looks so cute dear...I personally don't like any cream icing on cakes,they tend to be too sweet for my taste,but this topping surely looks refreshingly different
May 3, 2009 at 5:46 PM
Parita said…
Individual cheesecake sounds too good..the pic looks grt
May 3, 2009 at 5:55 PM
rachel said…
am glad you made it.
May 3, 2009 at 6:29 PM
notyet100 said…
this looks so yum,..
May 3, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Olga said…
Hi!
I'm so glad you had better luck with your cheesecakes.

Don't be afraid to join daring bakers :) We would help and encourage you!!
May 4, 2009 at 2:52 AM
Sunshinemom said…
Superb! I love all that chocolate on top:) Came to say hi after a long gap:)
May 4, 2009 at 5:33 PM
proud2bindian.in said…
Thax for sharing. I really liked your blog!
May 4, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Pooh said…
you'll think me strange but some toppings i've liked are blackberry preservers (no sugar added) with a glaze of hardened caramel on top. :)
May 5, 2009 at 4:58 AM
Aparna Balasubramanian said…
Looks very good. Who says you aren't good enough to be a DB? You just did a challenge. ;)
May 7, 2009 at 4:34 PM
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