Donating a chocolate cheesecake for a fundraiser.
Buuut... changing it up. TYPICALLY this would be a Chocolate - Orange cheesecake, this one we wanted to rep a more Oregon flavor so going with Chocolate Hazelnut.
Swapping out Grand Marnier for Frangelico was easy, but for the extract there is both a Hazelnut extract and a Hazelnut baking emulsion. Which one is better?
Wellll let me tell you!
4 oz. cream cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
4.5 teaspoons Dutch Processed cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoons Frangelico
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon extract or emulsion.
You wouldn't think that little, in a frosting application would make a difference. It DOES!
The extract frosting smelled stronger, the emulsion frosting tasted stronger. A warm, nutty, hazelnutty flavor. The extract version carried the hazelnut smell, but the flavor got buried under the chocolate.
Interesting comparing the liquids too... The extract was dark, like molasses. The emulsion was light, almost the color of vegetable oil.
Which makes it odd that the emulsion frosting (on the left) came out darker even though the emulsion was lighter.
So tonight, baking the cheesecake proper, then inviting the neighbors over for a taste test tomorrow. I haven't done this without orange flavoring before and wouldn't dream of fundraising on it without trying it first!
Then the final cheesecake will go in the oven Tuesday night so it can sit in the fridge all day Wednesday for donation and auction on Thursday.
Very interesting! I love these kind of side-by-side comparisons of similar ingredients.
As for these two, I'd imagine the emulsion with the better taste would probably be better for a cake-at-home scenario, but for a fundraiser, you might benefit from the "curb appeal" of the stronger smell. Maybe some mixture of both could capture all the benefits?
Well that's why I'm baking up a test cake tonight before doing the "real" cake. We'll see how it goes.
My expectation is that once it's properly refrigerated, the smell won't carry on either cake, so the taste is going to be where it's at! We'll see!