Passengers have been known to do all sorts of weird things while on flights. Cut their toenails. Give somebody a tattoo. Join the Mile High Club (OMG, there are SO MANY celebrities who say they’re in the Mile High Club LOL!).
So when a woman decided to make a cheesecake on her flight, was it really ALL that unusual?
Federica Rossi is an Italian food vlogger with about 101K followers on Instagram. Her videos are, of course, about food – either foods she’s made, foods she’s had in restaurants, foods she just wants to photograph, etc.
But right after Christmas, one of her videos had a twist. It was entitled “Make a cake with me on flight.” And oh yes she did!
Step-by-Step: Cheesecake at 35,000 Feet
The video is only about 35 seconds long. But it shows Rossi crunching up what looks like (maybe?) graham crackers, which she poured into a cheesecake pan. She then added butter and honey to the crumbs and mixed it all up to make a crust.
Next up was the cream cheese layer; she added some packets of sugar to a small container of a soft cheese. Once it was well blended, she piled it up on top of the graham cracker layer.
This was followed by smearing 2 small containers of preserves on the top.
After that, Rossi carefully removed the pan and Voila, instant cheesecake!
Here’s the full video:
Of course, she had plenty of feedback, much of which focused on the cleanliness (well, lack thereof) on a plane tray table. But Rossi said she was very careful with her hygiene both before and after.
“I cleaned before and especially after. It took me 15 minutes in silence. I didn’t leave even a crumb, and I ate the cake with my two friends who were next to me,” she replied to one of the comments.
Recipe Challenges: Why It Might Not Work
Frankly, as someone who has made a cheesecake or two in her time, her recipe, although easy enough to make on a plane, doesn’t seem like it would be really good as a final product:
- You’re never going to get a smooth crust by crunching up cookies; it’s going to have lots of small chunks
- Similarly, you’re going to want the cream cheese layer to be smooth. In a typical recipe, you’d be using powdered sugar or a food processor. Hand mixing soft cheese and packets is going to give you a crunchy filling.
Logistics: How Did She Get the Ingredients Onboard?
There was a question about how Rossi managed to get all those products onto the plane in the first place, in light of airlines’ rules about liquids. The actual liquids – honey and preserves – were in small containers that could’ve been packed in a quart sized (or 100ml) bag. The graham crackers and sugar would have been no problem. Which leaves the butter (if it was soft enough to spread) and cream cheese (or whatever sort of cheese it was).
Many people suggested she might’ve purchased them once she was on the airside of the airport. Part of me is thinking maybe she froze them so they’d be solid…but (A) although you can technically freeze soft cheeses, it’s generally not recommended because they come out grainy (although what’s one more “this cake isn’t going to be the greatest” in light of having small chunks of cookie in the crust and grains of sugar throughout the cheesecake layer?) and (B) it’d take quite some time for the cheese and butter to defrost.
Should she have done it?
As a way to make a decent cheesecake on an airplane? Meh.
As a way to get Insta views and social media to write about her? Apparently so.
But, of course, as the good blog says, Your Mileage May Vary.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
