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Sweet Valentine Sakura Cheesecake

This NO BAKE Sweet Valentine Sakura Cake is just so pretty, made with real sakura blossoms. Delicious, light and lemony with beautiful sakura floral undertones. Looks as good as it tastes - a real Valentine’s Sweetheart Cake.  
Level of Difficulty: EASY!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Chilling Time4 hours
Total Time4 hours 30 minutes
Author: Kai

Ingredients

Biscuit Layer

  • 180 g digestive biscuits ~12 cookies
  • 80 g melted butter

Cream Cheese Layer

  • 250 g cream cheese
  • 50 g sugar
  • 1 ½ tbsp. lemon juice
  • 100 ml heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp gelatin powder
  • 100 ml boiling water
  • One packet of pickled sakura blossoms

Sake Jello

  • 1 ½ tbsp gelatin powder
  • 300 ml boiling water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp sake optional
  • Pink natural food coloring in 25ml water

Instructions

Biscuit Base

  • Blitz the digestive cookies in the food processor until fine. Pour the melted butter over the biscuit crumbs and mix well. Texture should be like fine sand.
  • Pour out the biscuit crumbs into a 8 inch heart shape springform pan and spread evenly as a base. Use a tablespoon and press down well especially around the sides, until the crumb base is tight and nicely compact. Freeze for 30min.

Sakura Blossoms

  • Soak the Sakura blossoms in drinking water for 15 minutes. Gently open up and rinse off the salt of the pickled blossoms.
  • Soak and rinse a second time for 10 minutes. Remove and dry the Sakura blossoms on clean kitchen towel and set aside.

Cream cheese layer

  • Dissolve 11/2 tbsp of gelatine in 100ml of boiling water and set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, whisk the softened cream cheese and sugar until it’s well combined. Add the sugar and gradually pour in the heavy cream, mixing on low until well combined.
  • Add in the cooled liquid gelatin in 2 parts and whisk on low until well mixed.
  • Switch to a spatula and mix by hand to remove air bubbles until the cream cheese mixture is nice and smooth.
  • Remove the biscuit base from the freezer and poke holes in it with a wooden skewer (this holds the cream cheese better). Layer in the cream cheese mixture evenly. Tap gently on the work table to remove any visible air bubbles. Freeze for 40 minutes for the cream cheese to lightly set.

Sake Jello

  • Dissolve 11/2 tbsp gelatin powder in 300ml boiling water. Stir well until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Add in the sugar, lemon juice, sake (optional) and some pink food coloring. Set aside to cool for 5 to 10 min if the liquid jello is too warm.
  • Gently layer in 1/3 of the liquid sake jello over the set cream cheese layer until the surface is fully covered. Decorate with the Sakura blossoms. Allow this jello layer to set for 10 minutes.
  • Once the Sakura blossoms have set in the jello, gently ladle in the remaining liquid sake jello. Remove any visible air bubbles with a small toothpick so that the jello surface will be nice and smooth.
  • Chill in the fridge for 4 hours. When it’s time to serve, carefully remove it from the springform pan and enjoy the beautiful Sweet Valentine Sakura cheesecake.

Video

Notes

  • Soak and rinse the Sakura blossoms well. These delicate cherry blossoms are preserved in salt and therefore typically eaten as a pickled side dish with Japanese rice or infused in hot water to make Sakura tea. 
  • When used in baking, note that the Sakura blossoms in its original pickled state will be a tad too salty - therefore the soak and rinse is important. The soak and rinse helps to reduce the amount of salt and allows the floral salty flavour to be more subtle in the cheesecake. A bit of salty with the sweet and creamy which works well.
  • Allow sufficient time for the Sakura blossoms to nicely set in the 1st layer of jello before pouring in the remaining jello. This is important as the flowers are very slight and will move and float about if they are not properly set. Allow a good 10-15 minutes for the setting.
  • Allow time for un-moulding if you are using a springform tin. The jello tends to attach itself to the springform after it has set. Remove the Sakura cheesecake from the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 15-20 minutes. Use a warm towel to wipe against the sides of the springform tin to gently nudge the jello to release itself from the sides, if required. Be patient and go slow. Otherwise the jello may crack or come apart if the springform is unclasped hastily.