Tag: cake recipe

Recipe for baked cheesecake with yogurt topping.

The last time I made a cheesecake was for my own 15th birthday party. Wow, that’s like 12 years ago but I still remember the party so vividly. I wore blue jeans, blue denim vest and a white top underneath the vest which I painstakingly selected for maximum presence. I was so fashionable. 1999 was a great year. I also weighed only 48 kilograms then.

Anyway, back to the cheesecake. It was not my best work, but I remember it being really tasty. It had like lemon glaze and all with sliced canned peaches on the base. I remember my Dad totally digging it.

Unfortunately, I’ve never baked any cheesecake since. Till last weekend that is. I was supposed to make a cheesecake for Father’s Day but I didn’t have enough cream cheese, so I promised my dad I’d bake him a cheesecake the next time I pop by, of which I did.

# -Baked cheesecake with yogurt topping.

Here’s the recipe of the baked cheesecake I made..

For the crust:

  • 250 grams of digestive biscuits, crushed
  • 100 grams of butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon of all spice

For the filling:

  • 500 grams of creamcheese, softened
  • 4 eggs
  • 160 grams of caster sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

For the topping:

  • 250 grams of yogurt, strained
  • 3 teaspoons of lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of caster sugar
  • ground nutmeg, for sprinkling

# – The first thing you have to do before making this cake is to strain the yogurt. This is to remove the liquid to get a thicker, creamier yogurt to work with. Wrap the yogurt with a teatowel or muslin and let it drain for at least 30 minutes. I hung mine over a bowl. Set aside while you continue with other tasks.

# – Now, blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor until fine. Or if you’re a vagrant like myself, stick them in a bag and pound the eff out of it.

# – Pour the finely crushed biscuit crumbs into a mixing bowl and add a teaspoon of allspice.

# – Throw in the softened butter. With your fingers, knead until butter is full incorporated into the crumbs and they feel moist.

# – Press the crumbs into an 8″ springform cake tin or cake tin with detachable bottom (greased and covered with parchment paper) to form the crust. Slowly build a wall around the base. Have some patience as this is the most time-consuming part.

# – Stick the tin into the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

# – In the meantime, beat the cream cheese in a mixing bowl until smooth.

# – Add the lemon juice, vanilla essence and sugar and beat till smooth.

# – Next, add the eggs one by one while slowly beating mixture until combined.

# – Take out the crust and pour the mixture in.

# – Stick it into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celcius and bake for 45 minutes.

# – 10 minutes before the cheesecake finishes baking, beat the strained yogurt, lemon juice and caster sugar until smooth and combined.

# – When the cake has finished baking, take it out and immediately spread the yogurt mixture over the top.

# – Sprinkle ground nutmeg all over the top.

# – Then stick it back in the oven for 7 minutes.

# – After that, leave the oven door slightly ajar and allow the cheesecake to cool down completely. And then, you stick it in the fridge for at least 2 hours to chill.

# – Baked cheesecake with yogurt topping, DONE!

# – Yummy.

The cake was surprisingly light and far from cloying. It’s delicious! I managed to make the crust reasonably thin so every mouthful was a nice balance of crunchy crust, yummy cream cheese filling and tangy yogurt topping.

Most importantly, my Dad loved it! :)

Now, to recreate that cheesecake with canned peaches base I made 12 years ago…

Individual sticky chocolate puddings.

This is one of few desserts that I made which the boyfriend happily said he would pay good money for the same thing outside. I was a little worried at first because the exterior of the pudding looked a bit dry, but thankfully it was far from dry.

It had a crispy exterior with an inside that was a combination of both spongy and sticky, not unlike a very good brownie. Yeap, the individual sticky chocolate puddings were delicious! The boyfriend loved his with vanilla ice cream and a drizzling of blackcurrant coulis while I had mine just with coulis.

# – Individual sticky chocolate pudding.

This is a deliciously rich dessert, perfect for chocolate lovers :D

The ingredients:

  • 12 tablespoons of flour, sifted
  • 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder, sifted
  • 60 grams of butter
  • 60 grams of dark chocolate (I used 60% cocoa)
  • 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs

To serve:

  • Any kind of berry coulis (which I cheated by melting blackcurrant jam with some water, hehe)
  • Vanilla ice cream

# – First of all, sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and set aside.

# – Now, set up a double boiler by boiling water in a pot and then suspend a larger bowl over it. Please don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. My setup looks a little different as I happen to have a small bowl with ears that suspend perfectly over the pot.

# – Now dump in the dark chocolates, granulated sugar and butter into the bowl.

# – Stir till everything’s melted and combined.

Otherwise, you can pop the bowl of chocolates, sugar and butter into microwave at HIGH for 2 minutes then stir till everything’s combined ;)

# – Beat one egg well and then pour it into the chocolate mixture while whisking it. You will notice that the mixture will start to thicken almost immediately. Turn off heat but keep whisking till you can no longer see traces of egg.

# – Now remove chocolate mixture from heat.

# – Pour it into the flour mixture.

# – Mix with a wooden spoon. I wouldn’t recommend using a whisk like I did here cause it’s sticky!

# – Beat the other egg and pour it into the mixture. Continue mixing…

# – Now grease up 3 ramekins with butter. My ramekins can fit up to 200ml in volume each and is 3.5 inches in diameter, pretty standard stuff. You can also use deep muffin tin.

# – Spoon the mixture into all 3 ramekins. Yes, this recipe serves 3.

# – Stick it into a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees celcius for 13 minutes.

# – They’ve risen!

# – Run a knife around the pudding to loosen it from the ramekin. Then leave the puddings to cool.

# – After they’re cool enough to handle with your hand, pop them out.

# – Serve with a berry coulis.

# – The tartness of the coulis goes really well with the rich, sticky chocolate pudding.

# – Or like my boyfriend, eat it with some good vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of coulis.

You don’t have to serve them immediately but try not to leave them out too long. You could set them aside for a while (but not in the fridge) and them warm it up in the microwave or a pre-heated oven for about a minute before serving.

As for the coulis, I just dissolved 2 tablespoons of blackcurrant jam with a few dashes of hot water. You can make coulis from scratch of course but I was well, lazy…..

Hope you like this recipe! :D