Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cheesecake Recipe

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Pastry Chef Claude Ben Simon of Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem reveals the recipe of the hotel’s cheesecake, based on the Famous Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cheesecake!

Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cheesecake

Pastry Chef Claude Ben Simon was born and raised in France, he came to Israel after studying in France and working with Pierre Hermes, and in other famous restaurants and chocolatiers in Paris and in Israel.

Pastry Chef Claude Ben Simon

Claude tells us that at Waldorf they keep innovating. He uses the best and newest ingredients. He tells us happily that budget is never an issue when he prepares his cakes. Being the chef of Jerusalem Waldorf Astoria has many challenges, the hotel serves many events every week, and hundreds of cakes are baked weekly. The other challenge is that the cakes must be strictly Kosher, and often non dairy (parve). He also made some changes in the cakes he serves, using less butter (quality oils instead) and less sugar. Here is some of the sweet stuff we tasted when we attended the baking workshop that Claude organized. It was soooo yummy!

The Rev Velvet Cheesecake is quite complicated to make. Claude changed the basic red velvet cake. Instead of cocoa powder, usually used in Red Velvet, he uses raspberry puree. It improves the color, and the taste! Instead fat of cream cheese, he uses lower fat cheese and sour cream. The result is so yummy – really addictive! I got the recipe from Claude and with some corrections I converted it to a home-cake size of 20X20. I did not try to bake it at home, so all complaints – to Claude please

Recipe

Cake Ingredients (530 grams)

85 gr eggs

105 gr Raspberry puree

140 gr sugar

110 gr white flour

5 gr baking powder

85 gr vegetable oil (such as pistachio or sunflower seed)

Edible red color

Cheese frosting (560 grams)

160 gr pastry cream

70 gr lowfat cheese (5% in Israel)

70 gr sour cream (15% in Israel)

50 gr powdered sugar

45 Gelatin mass

1 vanilla bean

170 gr whipped cream, whipped

Preparation

Cake preparation

Whip the eggs and sugar (left-top of following photo). Fold in gently the raspberry puree with a spatula (middle and right of following photo). Add the powders and oil alternatively, and mix gently. Add color (bottom of following photo).

Transfer to a baking tray (20×20) lined with parchment paper and greased. Bake in 170c (338f) for 30-40 minutes until the dough is fully baked and is flexible.

Preparing the batter

nice color and texture – the chefs are happy

Putting the batter in the pan

Cheese frosting preparation

Beat 2/3 of the pastry cream in an electric mixer with the cheeses, powdered sugar and vanilla seeds (left top of following photo).

Heat up 1/3 of the pastry cream and add warm Gelatin. Slowly add the mixture to the mixer with the other ingredients. Mix and fold in the whipped cream (bottom right of following photo).