I Speak Mandarin! (Mandarin Orange Cheesecake)

I was going through some supplies when I found some canned Mandarin Oranges in my pantry. I remember having them at Chinese restaurants way back when and I've always love the interplay of sweet, acidic and slightly bitter aftertaste the fruit has. I grew up with a lot of Chinese friends and I will say that I can identify myself with them. 

I could have just opened the can and ate the segments but I thought I can make something out of it without so much fuzz. I'll bake some cheesecake! and I want it to have some Chinese connection. I have the mandarins! 

I didn't have graham crackers to make a crust.. but who needs graham when you have a flour-less chocolate sponge cake that was extra from a batch of chocolate mousse I made earlier. So I cut the sponge cake into circles that fit the silicon molds. Done. Perfect crust.

Next is the cheesecake batter.. hmmm.. maybe some twists on that too! First was replacing the lemon juice with clementine. Done. Having met someone with allergy to gluten, maybe I can make this Gluten-Free! Ah, simple step to make... just rid the recipe with that tablespoons of flour called in for the mixture. No fuzz. 

A few minutes later a fluffy, soufflé texture cheesecake came out.. 

Now to prepare the mandarin topping, I took some orange marmalade and mixed in the syrup from the mandarin oranges, thickened it a little bit and let it cool down. The delicate segments were then covered with the mirror glace and carefully placed on top of the cheesecake with whipped cream.

Done. Easy! Made my eyes chinky with a smile of satisfaction!