Mango Cheese Cake - A Perfect Summer Dessert

I love cheese cakes... period!!!

I am not a sweet-person, but the slight tangy taste of cheese mixed with sweet and flavored with your preferred choice - makes me drool... literally! Successfully baking a cheese cake is my dream baking project and I am yet to achieve that. In my baking experience, till today, I've baked only one cheese cake and that came out pretty well though. I have few snaps of that chocolate cheese cake - will make another post with those. But this one, is not a baked one - I am sure it is the quickest and easiest way to prepare cheese cake at home - by using the ready-made cheese cake product.

Before going into details, I must admit that this one was completely prepared by my elder daughter. I have just guided her but she has done every part of it. Actually both of my daughters are very much interested in my baking projects - they are very much willing to help me, if required. However, I don't allow them much to spend their time on this, as they have enough chores to do for studies and other activities. But this dessert-making sessions can work as a stress-buster for them. So if you want your kids to have hands on experience in preparing desserts, then this is how you can turn them into a chef for a day. 

But as you know, I would always love to keep a personal touch in whatever I do. So here I suggested her some variation, so that it looks unique - not like the usual cheese cakes with the ready-made material. So, the ingredients we used were -

Pillsbury Strawberry Cheesecake mix - 1 pack. This pack has 3 items, one small pack of ground biscuit, which is for the base, one pack of cheesecake mix and one pack of strawberry topping. I did not use the strawberry topping pack, as I intended to make it a mango cheese cake. But to make it simple, you can use the strawberry topping. 

Weikfield Mango jello - 1 pack  (90 gram). Use 1/2 pack of it, to make a thin (1 inch) jello layer on top of the cheese cake. I made a mistake here - I had used the whole pack and the jello part was almost same as the cheese part. It would have been much better, if I could use 1/2 of the jello. You can use the remaining half in preparing regular jello shots.

Fresh ripe mango - 1. The mango I used was ripe but firm. So, it was easy to slice nicely. Don't take too soft mango, as it becomes more pulpy and destroy the neat look of the dessert.

On top of these ingredients, you will need butter and milk, as per the given recipe on the back of the pack. Follow the recipe religiously, to make the cheese cake. Prepare the biscuit base and refrigerate. Then prepare the cheese cake mix and pour on top of base and again allow it to set for couple of hours.

Step 1 - Prepare the base

Step 2 - Prepare the cheese cake mix

Step 3 - Pour on top of the base

While the cheese cake is sitting inside the refrigerator, prepare the mango jello. Again follow the packet instruction carefully to prepare it. Usually, you have to mix the jello powder or crystals with hot water. The water should reach its boiling point and then you keep it for couple of minutes, so that the temperature of water is little less than the boiling point. Next you add the jello powder and blend it well with the water. Once mixed, keep it in open air at room temperature for setting. 

Step 4 - Pour prepared mango jello

The jello starts to set in

When you can see that the jello has started to set in and the temperature has reduced to room temperature, then slowly pour it over the cheese cake to make a thin (around 1 inch) and even layer of the jello. Next, you put this back in the refrigerator and allow to set the whole thing for at least 12 hours. 

Before you serve, place fresh mango slices on top. You can also add fresh cherries to make it look more beautiful.

This time, happy no-baking....!!! :)