I’m polishing off a thick slice of strawberry cheesecake, which I can only describe as baked to perfection and then topped with fresh, juicy strawberries. The texture is just right, creamy and cold, and the base tastes just like English toffee, while the slightly burnt crust is possibly one of the best parts about this cheesecake.

I keep reaching for more but another slice of chocolate truffle cheesecake glares at me. The truffle too, is rich and gives you an instant rush of dark chocolate blended perfectly into a dessert. Slowly, I give up, mostly because I’m stuffed to the brim, but I’m extremely satisfied at how perfectly executed these two desserts are.

When Dush Ratnayake baked a cheesecake for his friends one afternoon, he stumbled upon the thought that he could actually embark on a venture specializing in delicious and indulgent desserts, baked from scratch at home, using the freshest and best quality ingredients. He, along with younger brother Gayen started Bellissima Desserts recently, and it hasn’t even been a month old!

Bellissima, meaning ‘beautiful’ in Italian embodies all that is perfection in a dessert. Placing special focus on cheesecake, Dush currently bakes four varieties, which are the regular baked cheesecake, a strawberry cheesecake, chocolate truffle and a Jaffa, which involves chocolate and orange.

Chewy, chocolatey cookies are on the menu too, and come in two variants, which are the chocolate chip and double chocolate chip with cashew nuts. A rich chocolate biscuit pudding made with arrack is a dessert Dush describes as extremely delicious and a must try from Bellissima.

Dush also whips up a mean almond jelly, which is rather milky and doesn’t have an overpowering taste of almond essence.

Personally, I despise any sort of dessert with almonds or almond essence but I find that the almond jelly is rather good, and a welcome change from regular coloured, artificially flavoured jellies we tend to make at home.

He plans to introduce a new cheesecake every month, in addition to more variants of jelly.

For orders and more information, call on 0766103310 or visit Bellissima Desserts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BellissimaDesserts.

By Sarah Kellapatha