Botshabelo Mama’s classic Red Russian Cheesecake to show off to guests

The hard-working Mamas of the Clover Mama Afrika project have collaborated to create a brand new recipe book, Sweet Safari: A Clover Mama Afrika Taste Adventure, featuring 26 delicious ad sweet recipes straight from the Mama Afrikas’ kitchens. The cookbook is a celebration of the Clover Mama Afrika’s enjoyment of life and a showcase of their favourite sweet treats. Clover Mama Afrika is a sustainable Corporate Social Investment project that has been in existence since 2001

Mama Phomolo Raisa, from Botshabelo in the Free State, loves to bake and is passionate about sharing her baked goods with members of her community. Whether she is selling to her community or teaching them a new skill from the knowledge she has gained from attending the Clover Mama Afrika upskilling courses every year, she proudly bakes for those she cares about.

This year she is showing off her expertise in baking something sweet, the delicious and oh so popular and classic, Red Russian Cheesecake.

Red Russian Cheesecake

Serves 8

Ingredients

Pastry

500g cake flour

10ml baking powder

Pinch of salt

250ml sugar

250g Clover Springbok unsalted butter

3 large eggs, beaten

Filling

15ml gelatine

25ml cold water

40ml boiling water

2x 250g Mascarpone cheese

225ml Clover condensed milk

100ml lemon juice

250ml Clover Classic vanilla custard

Method

Pastry

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Sift dry ingredients together, add sugar and rub in butter with fingers. Add eggs and mix to form a soft dough.
3. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 8 parts.
5. Line 22cm cake tins with baking paper
6. Roll each piece of dough out thinly and press into cake tins.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Filling

1. Soften gelatine in the cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Dissolve in the boiling water and allow to cool.
3. Mix the mascarpone and condensed milk together and fold the gelatine into mixture.
4. Divide mixture into two.
5. Add the lemon juice to one half and the custard to the other.
6. Allow to rest in the refrigerator for ±20 minutes.
7. To assemble the cake, spread the lemon and custard fillings alternatively over the pastry rounds, ending with the lemon filling on top. Serve decorated with whipped cream and glazed lemon rind.

“What a pleasure it was to put together this recipe book with our Mama Afrikas! We work hard every year and refine our various skills together and learn new ones at our regular training courses, and it’s so rewarding to be able to come together and doing something that we can keep and show to others! We published recipe book with the sole purpose of giving something back to our hard working Mama Afrikas, so they are able to show off the work and dedication they have put into upskilling themselves over the years, while sharing their delicious recipes for others to enjoy,” says Prof Elain Volk, Clover Manager, Clover Mama Afrika Trust. 

About Mama Phomolo Raisa

Mama Phomolo has been working side-by-side with Mama Florence Nyakiso when they started Self-Help Project in 1995. She is no stranger to the values of Clover Mama Afrika and has dedicated her life to helping others along with her mother. Mama Florence retired in January 2018, and MamaPhomolo was the natural choice for her successor.

Mama Phomolo provide care, love, and nutrition to more than 250 children, who have nowhere else to go during the day. She has taken over the 11 different self-help projects. Mama Phomolo has been a Clover Mama Afrika skills training beneficiary for a number of years and is well equipped to provide skills training for the various projects. She is committed to helping others overcome their challenges and has dedicated her live to achieve this goal.

About Clover Mama Afrika

Clover Mama Afrika is a sustainable Corporate Social Investment project that has been in existence since 2001. Over the years the project has hosted 440 training sessions with more than 2313 beneficiaries. Teaching and guiding strong females (lovingly called ‘Mamas’ due to their standing in theirneighbourhoods) in communities all over the country, in order to build their skills and sustain and improve their own community projects. Only the most committed are enrolled and these include women looking after orphans, the elderly and those suffering from HIV/Aids.