I have been looking for ideas for festive cake with the twist. I flipped through some Finnish magazines,  made internet search and find out that after leaving Finland six years ago there’s been hype in Finnish food magazines of glögg cheese cake with gingerbread crust. Yes I know,  most of you might think, what in the earth glögg is. It’s a popular and very traditional Finnish (Scandinavian) spiced winter drink. We enjoy it steaming hot when winter weather gives its best; cool and snow. Read about glögg in my other post via link here.

Traditionally glögg is ruby red, so my cake should be red, but I wanted to make a white cake specially to take White Christmas Challenge from Very Good Recipes, hence the white theme here. ……Look at the cake!
It’s in fact yellow, in celebration of golden sandy dunes in Dubai desert.

Let me tell about gelatin. It took me a good hour or more to read and understand the beauty of converting gelatin sheets to equal quantity of gelatin powder. After all, I don’t want yello cake. And what about secret or discovery of Davis Gelatin. Why it reads edible gelatin on package, is there also other kind of gelatin on sale in grocery shops?! It reads also clear and unflavored, what about that weird smell of this gelatin. It says halal, but honestly,  I almost quit making the cake because this odor. I am use to gelatin sheets which are odorless.

After several double checks, I came up with gelatin measures like this 1 tablespoon gelatin powder = 3 sheets. In case you might want to do your own research,  here’s the link.

If someone knows pure vegetarian gelatin sold in supermarket in Dubai, leave me a comment please. Above mentioned is from Spinney’s.

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White Chocolate and Gingerbread Cheesecake recipe

Base:
200 g Gingerbread cookies
75 g butter or margarine

Filling:
6 sheets of gelatin (= 2 table spoon of Davis Gelatin, New Zealand)
400 ml whipping cream
200 g white chocolate
400 g cream cheese like Philadelphia
50 ml water
200 g lingonberries or cranberries (optional)

Glaze:
3 sheets of gelatin (1 table spoon of Davis Gelatin)
350 ml of white glögg (Finnish spicy winter drink)

1. Cover 24 cm spring form pan with baking paper and wipe insides with oil or cover with fling foil, cake will come out smoothly after it’s settled.
2. Crush gingerbread cookies with spin roll or mixer. Smelt the butter and add to crushed cookies, pulse couple of times until mixed well. Press the cookie butter mixture on the bottom of cake pan
3. Whip the cream until soft peaks forms add some powder sugar.
4. Smelt the white chocolate over a hot-water bath
5. Mix white chocolate smelt with cream cheese and add to whipped cream and vanilla.
6. Boil the 50 ml water and add/sprinkle gelatin, mix well, make sure gelatin is all dissolved and add gelatin liquid to cream-cheese mixture. (I added it through fine strainer)
7. If you use berries, fold them into cream and cheese mixture last. Note berries have to be soft and juicy.
8. Pour over the cookie mix and let settle in fridge (abt. 3 hours)
9. Make the glaze: heat half of the juice/ glögg and add 1 table spoon of gelatin mix well and add rest of the juice/ glögg. Pour over the cheesecake which is already settled in fridge. Let stand in fridge until glaze is settled, about 1 hour.
10. Remove cake from spring form cake pan gently on to a serving plate and decorate with white chocolate chips

Note from baker: I have used cranberries, since the best option, lingon berry is not available here in Dubai.  Cranberries need to get some frost to get soft. Let them stand overnight in freezer and use them when thawed thoroughly. If  you use cranberries you might really need to use that optional sugar.

Wishing you a white white winter or sandy winter like we have here in Dubai!

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