I bloody love a cheesecake. It is, in my humble opinion, the king of cakes. Fight me. I shall die on this hill. So when one of our first followers on our Instagram page was Cheesequake, I mentally marked them down for a review for... Loyalty. Or something. Look, I just wanted cheesecake delivered to my door. Throw in a fat man in a hat and it's my version of Christmas.
Aaaaanyway. Cheesequake. As the name suggests, they do cheesecakes. Duh. Cheesequake are another COVID inspired venture - they started up in lockdown 1.0 to pursue their passion. Turns out COVID is good for something! They also give all leftovers food to The Dens, a local homeless hostel, another reason to eat cheesecake, if you needed one.
In terms of what is on offer, they do mini-quakes, which we tried, which are 7cm. They do a box of six for £12, £22 for 12 or £40 for 24. In the box of six, which we had, you can have three flavours, so two of each. They also do larger sizes, starting at £7.50 each for a 12cm cake. They deliver within a 10km radius of Hemel too so that's quite a good reach since they're all hand delivered.
Of the 11 flavours available we went for vanilla, biscoff, and white chocolate & raspberry to fill our box of six. It was a hard choice though as the whole menu looked incredible and alluring.
It must be said, it was hard to find the menu. There's no website, it's all done via Instagram and WhatsApp. The menu is on the highlights section of the Instagram, but it's hiding way out of site. You have to really have to hunt for it. Nor was it obvious about how the box is assembled. We didn't realise you only get three flavours for a box of six when we tried to order. (Cheesequake have mentioned a website is coming soon which can take orders so that should hopefully make things easier).
That said, when we figured out how to order, it was straightforward. Lucy and Stefan, the couple who run it, where really helpful, friendly and quick to get back to us. £12 includes delivery - and the cakes where hand delivered by Lucy.
The cakes are presented beautifully - and the best part is that all of the packing is recyclable. The only bit that isn't is the plastic cases in which the cheesecakes are in - and they are biodegradable. Even better! Cheesequake should be applauded for this. For a small business to embrace what is clearly a more expensive green packaging option is brave and deserving of praise. It also shows that green options don't mean you have to compromise on presentation.
They also have an excellent selection of vegan and GF options. Again, really impressive for a small cheesecake business, where the two main ingredients are milk and gluten based!
Onto the cakes themselves. It's worth noting these are no-bake cheesecakes. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the base would crumble without being baked - but I was really impressed by the (buttery biscuit) base. It was a good crumb, held together well, and was the perfect consistency.
I'll be honest, I wasn't enamoured with the vanilla. We picked the most neutral flavour so we could use it as a point of comparison (almost like always trying a margherita for pizza). It was slightly lacking in a tang from a cream cheese flavour, and instead was mostly dominated by a condensed milk sweetness. Having said that, it was still a perfect creamy, indulgent, soft and sweet pudding.
The Biscoff though, was banging (that's a technical term). The cream was really light and carried the salty, spiced flavour of the Biscoff really well. The cream cheese was topped with a light, smooth coating of Biscoff spread and even had a biccy jutting out the top. Winning!
The final one was a white chocolate and raspberry - which for me fell smack in the middle. It carried the flavours better than the vanilla, but again I found myself wishing for more cream cheese in the cream again. C really loved it though; it was her favourite. The sweet cheesecake and creamy white chocolate topping worked well with tart fresh and freeze dried raspberries. Zing!
These are really nice desserts; sweet and perfect for pretty much any time of the day, they are presented so professionally that each one is a work of art, and they are packaged beautifully too. The crumb is ace, and for a no-bake cheesecake the texture is spot on (like a posset type texture). These are such indulgent treats and I'm sure we'll be back for more!
Service:
Lucy and Stefan are so lovely and helpful. It's not easy to find the menu, and ordering via WhatsApp isn't great. But apparently that will change soon and once the order is placed the team at Cheesequake they look after you really well.
Value and price:
£12 (which includes delivery) for six handmade cheesecakes, is great value. Having beautiful cheesecakes in the fridge for less than the price for a cup of coffee per cake is pretty amazing.
Quality:
The cakes are lovingly made and tasty, even if they miss the lactic note of cheese in the tasting profile. The range of flavours is impressive too - we'll have to go back and try the ones that didn't make the cut!
Overall:
GOOD - These are really nice desserts: lovingly made with so much passion, great flavours, and with great packaging credentials. But they're cheesecakes and we have to judge them on their merits as cheesecakes, not desserts. With that in mind, the lack of cheese in the tasting profile is noteworthy. But they are still super tasty puddings and we would recommend you give them ago.