Raspberry cheesecake

The sun is out and spring is in full swing in Brussels. Now is the perfect time to start practising those summer desserts, and what is more appropriate for summer than fresh fruit on a light creamy cheesecake? 

I got this recipe from a Mary Berry recipe book. The cheesecake is so quick and easy to make, then just needs to be left in the fridge overnight to set.

Being in Belgium meant I had to play around with certain ingredients from Mary Berry's original recipe ... 

• Instead of using digestive biscuits and demerara sugar in the base, I used speculoos biscuits and brown sugar.

• Double cream by UK standards should apparently have a minimum milk fat percentage of 48%. The highest percentage I could find in my Brussels supermarket was 34% so the cream I used was not as thick as that which Mary Berry suggests.

• For the topping, Mary Berry suggested brushing 4 tbsp of redcurrant jelly (heated in a small saucepan until it has melted) over the fresh raspberries. Instead of this, I just blended a few of the raspberries and spooned this purée on top.

Below are the ingredients and method that I used.

 

Ingredients

For the base

175g speculoos biscuits

75g butter

40g brown sugar

For the cheesecake

225g soft cheese

25g caster sugar

150ml double cream

150ml Greek yoghurt

juice of 1½ lemons

For the topping

175g fresh raspberries

Instructions

Put the biscuits into a plastic bag and crush finely with a rolling pin.

Crushed speculoos biscuits

Melt the butter in a medium-sized pan. Once melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the biscuit crumbs and brown sugar. Press this mixture into the base of an 8 inch loose-based cake tin and then leave to set.

Cheesecake base

To make the cheesecake filling, measure the soft cheese and caster sugar into a large bowl (or food processor) and mix well to blend thoroughly. (I used my hand held whisk.) Add the cream and yoghurt and mix again. Gradually add the lemon juice little by little, whisking all the time. Turn the mixture into the tin over the biscuit base, level the surface and then place in the fridge overnight to chill.

Ready for the fridge!

When the cheesecake has had time to set in the fridge, run a knife around the edge (all the way down to the biscuit base) to loosen the cheesecake from the tin. Then push up the base or remove the sides of the tin and slide the cheesecake onto a serving plate.

Arrange the raspberries on top of the cheesecake. If you want to dress the raspberries up a bit, you can blend a few of the raspberries and then spoon this purée on top. I finished by dusting it with icing sugar.

Once decorated, leave to set. Serve chilled. Enjoy!

Decorated with raspberries

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”

Spiced apple cake with caramel drizzled on top

I completely agree with the title of this post - a great quote from 'The Portrait of a Lady' by Henry James. So when a friend recently suggested a catch up over tea and cake (she knows that if she suggests cake, I will offer to provide the said cake!), we invited a few friends to join us and it soon turned into 13 people for afternoon tea!

Alongside the multiple pots of English tea, I also made a lemon cake with lemon buttercream, a spiced apple cake drizzled with caramel, a homemade alternative to jammy dodgers, and flapjacks.

Cake leftovers were taken to work the next day and my colleagues are still demanding the recipe for the spiced apple cake, so I will publish that in a later blog post.

The jammy dodgers were sables (French butter biscuits) with good quality raspberry jam inside and a little vanilla sugar sprinkled on top. I used this BBC FOOD recipe. They were delicious !

Jammy Dodgers

My Mum is a great baker (and in fact a great chef in general). Growing up we were spoilt with freshly baked goods, and flapjacks are one of her specialities. A few years ago she passed me the recipe and I have had so much success with them - whether for afternoon teas or taking along to football matches as post-match sustenance. They are super easy to make so maybe I will share the recipe at some point ...

 

I ran out of time so the lemon cake was very simply decorated - lemon buttercream with citrus sugar sprinkled on top. Despite the presentation, it was still tasty.

Lemon cake with lemon buttercream