Lemon Baked Cheesecake

Eventually... a cheesecake!


This is my favourite cheesecake recipe in that it is simple in it's ingredients and very easy to make.  For the crust, i use the same recipe as for all my cheesecakes (refer: Grandmas Cheesecake Recipe). As for the rest of the recipe, here goes...


600 g cream cheese
250 ml sour cream
250 ml sugar
6 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lemon 


Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius.  Place the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and mix until smooth and creamy.  Add the eggs and beat until well combined.  Add the lemon to the mixture and pour into your crust-lined cake tin.  Bake for 1 hour.  Leave to cool.  Throw some berries or fruit over the cheesecake et voila!  Dessert fit for kings!

Still no cheesecake...

But, a delicious chocolate cake!!! 

I didn't even get a chance to take a picture before the cake was tucked into!

All in a week's work!

I know that i've been very quiet on my blog this while... i have a very good reason.  I had orders for four different occasional cakes for Saturday.  Needless to say, the seven days prior to that were long and exhausting. But, when all is said and done, very rewarding too.  Here are a few pics to show off all my hard work! 

René's 21st Cake: Carrot and pecan nut sponge with smooth cream cheese frosting.

The brief: Cerise pink, lime green and butterflies!
It was so much fun to make this cake - cheerful and frivolous!

Wedding cake: A tower of vanilla petits fours with white chocolate ganache.

Love is... Samantha & Roderick

 It was such a pleasure to walk into the reception venue for Samantha & Roderick's wedding.  I felt so privileged to be able to put my cake onto a ready-waiting cake stand surrounded by such tastefully and beautifully decorated tables.

Wedding Cake: Dark chocolate sponge with a rich dark chocolate ganache, surrounded by a white chocolate collar.

Tanya's 40th: Lime sponge with alternating layers of raspberry coulis and lemon curd.  Nice and light and refreshing!

The Brief: Lime green chocolate ganache with mustard yellow and plum purple butterflies.

I promise that we will get back to the cheesecakes soon:)

Grandma's Cheesecake Recipe

This is the lightest, 'healthiest' cheesecake recipe ever!  So easy to make too!  This recipe has been passed down through the generations, each generation making her own amendments as needed.  I too have tweaked a few things and thus made it my own to hand over to my daughter (God-willing) one day.

Base

150 g cake flour

3 g baking powder

65 g sugar

65 g butter

1 egg yolk

1 T milk

1.   Beat the butter until smooth.

2.   Add the egg yolk and sugar and, if necessary, a bit of milk.

3.   Add flour and baking powder.

Filling

375 ml milk

150 g flour

750 g cottage cheese

3 egg yolks

180 g sugar

Peel and juice of 1 lemon

4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

1.  Mix milk and flour.

2.  Add cottage cheese, egg yolks, sugar and lemon.

3.  Gently fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

4.  Bake at 180 ºC for 30 minutes, turn oven down to 160 ºC and bake for a further 30   minutes.

5.  Leave to cool in oven with the door open.

Because this cake is made with cottage cheese instead of the usual cream cheese, it is delightfully light and tangy.  The flour (also an unusual ingredient in a cheesecake filling) helps to stabilise the cottage cheese when baking.  Cottage cheese has a higher protein and water content and a lower fat content in comparison with cream cheese.  This is a very old recipe and it was used when wood-fire ovens were the only option.  Temperature control wasn't exact, so recipes that could withstand various temperatures for varying lengths of time were developed! Makes this a pretty much fool proof recipe to follow!

Happy Weekend :)

October = Cheesecake!!!

My favourite cake is cheesecake.  Firstly because it is so quick and easy to make, and secondly, because it is lighter and less sweet than most other cakes.  Thirdly, cheesecake is super-versatile.  So... i've decided that i am going to dedicate a whole month of blogging to my favourite dessert!  Today, we will start off with this fool-proof, versatile recipe:


Granadilla and White Chocolate Cheesecake

New website!!

Soooo exciting... we have finally launched our new website!!!
Please go check it out:
http://www.lepetitfour.co.za/
Any comments are welcome :)

Pink is my favourite colour!

Today, 1 October, is Breast Cancer Awareness Day here in South Africa. Two of my very special friends have lost their mothers to this awful disease. So, to celebrate these two awesome women as well as all the others around the world who have had to deal with one of life's ugliest illnesses, today's blog is all dressed in pink!  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, i hope that you will join me in raising a glass of pink bubbly in memory of all those beautiful women!!  

Here are some pretty in pink piccies for you to peruse :)