New shop specializes in real specialty personal-sized cheesecakes

Newton n The red and gold décor of My Little Gourmet Cheesecake was planned as an upscale look for a unique shop, owner Jim Frost explained. Frost did his own interior design, just as he created his own cheesecake recipes. He also created the gift bag in which he packs his tasty creations. Not that Frost is a long-time chef and baker. He has no formal training in the kitchen. While at County College of Morris, in year two of studying to be a nurse, he discovered a unique cheesecake taste: “One of my professors also had a wholesale cheesecake business on the side. He had a party after final exams, and of course, had cheesecake there as dessert. I was one of the last to leave, and took some of the leftovers home.” Frost actually left them in the car overnight. In the morning, his wife, Mary, brought them in. She tasted one and called him at work, saying “You have got to try these cheesecakes!” Frost recalled how they lived on cheesecake for the next three days. Frost decided to create a quality cheesecake and market it himself. The perfect recipe became his passion. A year and a half after the first taste, he started experimenting. His recipe came through trial and error, he said: “I knew what I wanted it to come out like, and it took about a year to perfect,” Once he had his perfect batter, he didn’t want to mess with it by adding flavors, so he decided to develop flavored crusts. He offers eight crust flavors to choose from: traditional cinnamon graham, Belgian chocolate chunks, maple white Belgian macadamia, mint Belgian chocolate layer, mocha cappuccino, triple chocolate indulgence, Belgian chocolate toffee macadamia and vanilla hazelnut. The “little gourmet cheesecakes” come in different “little” sizes. “A gourmet cheesecake can cost you upwards of $60. The personal size makes it affordable. Once the recipe was set, it was time to test it in the outside world. The Frosts took a table at the Hope Christmas Craft Market, and sold more than 400 cakes. That’s when Frost felt confident that he could open his cheesecake shop. As a resident of Hackettstown, Frost new the Newton area. “I liked the rural area, and I knew as long as the quality is there, the people would come,” said Frost. The shop is located on Clinton Street in Newton. Frost felt that selling only cheesecake wasn’t enough, but he didn’t want to open a full-service bakery. His next innovation was flavored biscuits and flavored butters to use with them. Some of the flavors are: Virginia ham and Swiss, deadly chocolate, roasted tomato parmesan, caramel apple cinnamon and maple cinnamon raisin. Each oversize biscuit comes with a selection of flavored butters: maple honey, lemon zest, chocolate vanilla hazelnut or strawberry or blueberry cream. My Little Gourmet Cheesecakes are also available wholesale for larger orders. “We can do bridal showers, weddings. We did 150 cakes for a church group’s function recently,” said Frost. They also do fundraisers, and recently did them for Stillwater and Sandyston schools. The store has been open for about a month, and though Frost admits he hasn’t done much in the way of advertising, word-of-mouth is bringing people in. “The response by the area residents has been very positive so far,” said Frost. For more information, visit the store on Clinton Street, or call 973-383-2929.