When you take a cheesecake to a party or playdate, you are guaranteed to bring home an empty pan. This guava cheesecake recipe will woo and wow your friends, especially when they find out your kids were your sous chefs!

I love cooking with my kids- especially when the dish is as kid-friendly as this guava cheesecake recipe. Kids are more likely to likely to try new foods if they were involved in the kitchen- and even picky eaters enjoy desserts!

Our friend, and favorite babysitter, Luiza offered to make this Romeo and Juliet guava cheesecake with us. Luiza says it is the perfect romantic dessert for Valentine’s Day- but can be enjoyed throughout the year. Introduce new flavor pairings like tropical guava and farm fresh cheese to your kids, and savor the combination of creamy and tangy and sweet.

The guava cheesecake recipe we followed is from the Flavors of Brazil site.

Kids’ Duties:

1. Gather the ingredients. You can either follow the following adapted recipe with fresh cheese from the Flavors of Brazil site, or use your favorite plain cheesecake recipe (most probably with cream cheese) with the fruit topping below.

Crust
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1.5 sticks of salted butter
the freshly grated lime peel of 1 lime

Filling
1 lb (500 gr) queijo minas or other fresh, white, farmer’s cheese, chopped
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 whole eggs or (equivalent) egg replacer
1 tsp. vanilla essence
the freshly grated lime peel of 1 lime

Topping
10 oz (300 gr) gioabada paste, chopped or cubed; we use Goya guava paste that we can get at our local supermarket
1/3 cup (80 ml) water

2. Mix the crust ingredients together with a fork and then their fingers. They should press the crust into a springform pan, making it go up the sides a bit.

3. Have the kids pour the cheesecake ingredients into the blender (make sure to taste the delicious sweetened, condensed milk and also the fresh cheese!). Bake for 30-40 minutes on 350 degrees, until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle.

4. Finally, mix the goiabada (guava paste), with the water while heating it to make the jelly glaze. Once it melts, let it cool before you pour it on the finished cheesecake. Then cool it completely in the refrigerator until it sets and is ready to eat!

While the cheesecake is cooling, locate Brazil on a map. Notice the equator, and guess the weather. Here’s a great post on the tropics and rainforests. Check out pictures of real guava- there are yellow and pink guavas, but you generally will find the paste made of the pink guavas. In the US we often find yellow guavas from Mexico in the supermarkets.

Enjoy your amazing guava cheesecake!!! We couldn’t even wait for dessert, and ate it as a pre-dinner snack:).