Strawberry Cheesecake Trifile

As a New York transplant here to Florida, one thing I have really learned to appreciate in the land of sun is the Strawberry Festival. One in particular is the one held each year in Plant City, Florida. Somehow I stumbled acrossed it as I was trying to weave my way back home through some local state roads, It was a huge event ,with top name country and western singers and performers. Obviously the theme was "Strawberries Galore". Every where you turned somebody was slurping down something, Strawberry related . From frozen Strawberry Diaqaruis to Strawberry Shortcakes. Anything less than Strawberries, certainly didn't exist that day at the festival.
On a lesser scale, although a huge event for the county in which I live in, is a smaller version of the Strawberry Fest This one is held in Inverness ,Florida. This fest also draws a large crowd as well, considering its size. Once again everything strawberry and any vendor pushing something strawberry related was certainly raking in a sweet profit with the day's event. Now I have entertained a few with a layered strawberry desert that is considered good enough to start a strawberry revolution. I like to layer this desert in a wine glass, champagne glass, or just a plain old clear goblet drinking glass. Any glass you choose people will come out of the woodwork, as far away as Tijuana. Its a great desert, made with home made cheese cake and fresh strawberries saute with a little Grand Marnie and granulated sugar and then topped off with whip cream. If for some reason you need to do this in a flash , just go out and buy a pre made cheese cake and some cool whip and follow the assembly process in this article. Either way you put one of these layered Strawberry Trifle's in front of someone--and, You just made a friend!!!!

Ingredients (based on a yield of 8 in a wine glass )

First lets make the cheese cake

1) 1 1/2 cups fine grated graham cracker crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup melted butter then pressed into a 9 Inch pie pan

2) 1/12/ cream cheese softened, 1 cup sugar, 4 eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract , Blend cream cheese and sugar. whip in one egg at a time, add the vanilla and whip that in-- spoon mixture into graham cracker pie shell and bake at 350 degrees till the center is firm, take out of oven and let cook

3) For the top of the cheesecake: 3/4 pt of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract , 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract, blend all this together in a mixing bowl and spread evenly on top of the cooled cheesecake. Now bake the whole cheesecake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes -- The top should have some golden brown spots to it--Take out of oven -let cool then refrigerate.

For the Whip Cream

1) 3/4 quart of heavy cream

2) 3/4 cup of 10x powdered sugar

3) 2 Tablespoons of vanilla extract

2) 1/2 Tablespoon almond extract

Put your stainless steel mixing bowl in the freezer to get it real cold, Then add all your ingredients in the chilled mixing bowl mix. Slow whip at first with a wire whip and gradually bring your speed up to a fast fluent steady whip--till the cream starts to inhibit stiff peaks and holds up to a spoon full dropped on a plate--whip cream is what were looking for--Keep it chilled till your ready to plate it up

For the Strawberries

1) 3 1/2 pints of fresh cleaned strawberries, slice off top green stem -cut in half--(If real big quarter them)

2) 1 1/2 cups of sugar

3) 1/2 cup orange flavored grand Marnie

4) 1/2 cup melted butter

In a saute pan, add your melted butter on a semi medium flame till it becomes semi hot -add your strawberries sugar, toss well, when hot add your liquor and flame it over the stove burner. mix well and chill

Assembly

1) In a wine glass (or whatever glass you choose) I use champagne glasses only for a wedding--looks real nice pre-set on the table too

2) One layer of strawberries , followed by 1 small ice cream scoop of cheese cake w/ crust too. Then In a pastry bag with a fluted tip, pipe the whip cream , about 3/4 inch thick in a round swriling movement

3) Keep repeating the process till the glass becomes full-Try not to smudge the sides of the glass

4) One final pump of whip cream, drizzle any remaing sauce on top

5) Garnish with toasted almond slices, and a piece of mint sprig on top,

I usually slit one real nice Strawberry for each glass with the the stem intact, and wedge it on the rim of the glass for presentation purposes

I usually go to the Inverness , Florida Strawberry Festival-So if you ever make down around March,

Look for me Ill be the one with all the whip cream on my face