When I can’t hike, I bake! A silly calf muscle strain put me out for the weekend and I immediately fell into my other love - baking!
We had planned to have friends over for a barbecue on Sunday evening but they cancelled earlier that morning. The planner that I am, I had already got all the ingredients to make a Baked Cheese Cake for dessert. I could not let it go to waste so I decided to use half the ingredients to make a smaller cake just for our family to enjoy.
I’m giving you the full recipe so don’t hold back and make sure to invite a few friends over to try it when you decided to pop it in the oven.
BAKED CHEESE CAKE WITH BLUEBERRY DRIZZLE
Ingredients
BASE:
1 ½ packets plain tea biscuits ( ours are called Tennis Biscuits or Marie Biscuits in South Africa)
2/3 cup melted margerine
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
CHEESE CAKE:
4 eggs
3 tubs Smooth plain cottage cheese
1 cup fresh cream
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
½ cup cake flour (plain flour)
Method
Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs. This can either be done by putting the biscuits in a zip lock bag and then crushing it with a rolling pin. OR!!! Use a blender to crush the biscuits in a few seconds. (I used the second option 🤪) and my chihuahuas kept howling with the sound of the blender and driving us crazy!!!!
Stir the melted Margerine and vanilla essence through the crushed biscuits until evenly spread and then pour the crumb into a greased dish or spring form pan. I like to use a glass dish because I can cover the left overs in the dish and it lasts and stores well! Push the crumbs down to form a firm base and then Refrigerate.
While the base chills, beat the eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy and they start to look creamy.
Whisk in the sugar a little at a time and keep whisking til dissolved.
Whisk in the lemon juice.
Whisk in the cake flour, cream and smooth cottage cheese.
You should now have a reasonably thick mixture that has already begun setting.
Baking
Preheat the oven to 180•C
Pour the mixture into the chilled base in the dish and place in the middle of the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes!! This is important!!!
Then decrease the temperature to 140 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.
This is also important
Then switch off the oven and leave the cake to cool for 30 minutes in the oven. The soft Center will set and this slow cooling helps to prevent the cheese cake from cracking. If your oven tends to be hotter then decrease the 140 degree time to 45-50 minutes.
Blueberry Drizzle
I had overcooked a batch of blueberry jam and stuck it in a jar until I figured out what to do with it.
I spooned some of the toffee-like blueberry jam into a bowl and added ½ cup water. I slowly heated the mixture in the microwave 30 seconds at a time until it had mixed well and started to boil again. I allowed it to boil stirring every 30 seconds until it again became a sticky syrup.
When the cake was just warm I couldn’t wait any longer and dished up a huge piece drizzled in Blueberry Syrup. It was absolutely delicious!!!!
Although I had made a half batch, the cake was beautiful and velvety smooth with the thick, rich blueberry syrup on top to add a pop of purple colour and a serious sugar hit!
You could use any jam that you enjoy as a topping - if it’s too thick you can recreate the more syrupy texture by adding a small dash of hot water and microwaving it as I did above. I’ve used guava syrup in the past which was absolutely amazing.
Here’s a picture of my mom’s recipe that I always use so that you can easily download it! My mom adds a sour cream sauce over the cake which helps to cut the sweetness so now you have two options for toppings (or both!)
Let me know if you like this recipe and especially if you’re going to give it a try! It’s a real family favourite.