Cheese cake

CHEESE CAKE

Traditionally it is always best to start anything with sweets. So my first recipe is Cheese Cake. One of the easiest of preparations and the children just love it. Once the basic cheese cake is made, let your imagination run wild as you can create many different toppings and looks. I picked up this recipe from my nephews wife Liza. She is a doctor by profession and mastered the art of conjuring up magical combinations with least efforts.

Method

First step is to make the crust. Powder the biscuit in a simple Kitchen mortar and pestle and hand. Avoid using a food processor. The biscuits will become a fine powder and that is not what is expected. The biscuits need to be crushed and not powdered. Mix the butter into the crushed biscuits. Easier way is to melt the butter and evenly pour over the crushed biscuits. Once the butter is finely mixed place the biscuit powder into a pie dish or any dish of your choice. Pat it evenly into the base. Do not use more butter as it will make the crust very hard. Heat the oven to 180^oC and place the dish with the biscuit crust for 5 minutes.

Take the curd and pour it into a muslin cloth preferably or one of the biggish cloth napkins and hang it for water to drain out. Apply light pressure to squeeze the water out. You could do this first as then by the time the crust is made the water would have drained out. Take a bowl and transfer the hung curd into it. With a small whipper start to beat the hung curd till it becomes cream consistency. Then add the cream and keep whisking. Magic, by now you would have created Crème Cheese. Add sugar and continue to whisk till the sugar mixes well into the cheese mix. You can increase the sugar if you so desire. Now add 3-4 generous table spoon of marmalade into the mix and continue whisking. Once the mix is ready add three table spoon of gelatin into lukewarm water mixing till it dissolves and then add to the cheese mix and whisk it a final time and pour over the biscuit crust and refrigerate cheese cake. Once the cheese sets the cake is ready.

Easy is it not but don’t leave it here. The fun starts now. If there kids around the house then I would after the cheese sets to pour a layer of jelly on the top. Now when you slice the cake there are three bright layers brown, white and yellow/ red. Children love Jelly and this combination is something they will really love. Modifications do not end here. You can pile the top with straw berries, blue berries or mangos. Another deviation is to add a little fresh orange juice into the cheese mix.

Once you get the cheese cake right let your imagination run wild. Happy Cooking and I forgot the key ingredient add at least five ladles of love into the mix.