Lekue - Cheesecake royale

For our most recent cake club meeting I thought I would make a cheesecake and as our theme was "A right royal do !", I decided on a marbled royale cheesecake and this was a great opportunity to utilise my Lekue ceramic / silicone baking mold, which seems especially suited to baking a cheesecake in. As I now baking gluten free I used a baked nut base as the crunchy cheesecake base instead of the usual biscuit mix. It worked pretty well but did suffer slightly from separating from the cheesecake top.

The Lekue mold performed very well and is a good addition to the keen bakers equipment cupboard, the mold was easy to use and the ceramic base made an attractive serving platter.

• To make the base use 
• 1 cup finely crushed almonds (I crushed flaked almonds by hand) 
• 1 cup almond meal 
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar 
• 5 tbsp butter softened 

Mix all ingredients together and press firmly in your tin or mold, bake in a preheated oven at 180c for about 15 minutes until golden, it will hardened on cooling.

For the cheesecake top

• 400g cream cheese (full fat) 
• 150g dark chocolate 
• 1 pot of creme fraiche 
• 85g caster sugar 
• 3 eggs 
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract 
• Grated white chocolate to serve

What you need to do

• Pre heat your oven to 160c 
• Melt the chocolate, I used the microwave in 30 sec blasts or alternatively using a bain marie 
• In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs and creme fraiche together until smooth. 
• Split the mixture in half and add the cooled melted chocolate to one half. 
• Now add alternative dollops of the two mixes to top the base , swirl together and level 
• Bake in the oven until just set, for me this was about 50 minutes, cool in the oven with door slightly a jar so the top doesn't crack. 
• Once cold, place in the fridge and serve with the grated white chocolate sprinkled on top.

Note :- The Lekue mold was kindly provided by Lekue for review and test purposes, all thoughts and opinions are my own as to the product.

Blackberry Crumble cheesecake

Currently we have loads of blackberries ready in the garden, we grow the thornless variety "loch ness" and its great, very reliable. We had friends from Spain visiting so I made this for dessert for our "tea". It was enjoyed by all, left overs went to work the next day and disappeared very quickly.

Ingredients

• 250g digestive biscuits
• 125g butter melted plus a little more to grease the cake tin
• 175g caster sugar
• 300g full fat soft cheese
• 2 eggs separated
• 250ml double cream
• 100g blackberries , halved
• vanilla paste
• Topping
• 100g plain flour
• 50g butter cold
• 50g demerara sugar
• 100g blackberries halved

You will need a deep springform cake tin

Method

Firstly pre heat the oven to 160c. Crush your digestive biscuits to a fine crum, I use a food processor and then add the melted butter, I use the microwave, pulse to mix and the form the base in your cake tin, press it down firmly. Now grease the rest of the tin with the reserved butter. Chill whilst you make the filling.

Whisk half of the caster sugar with the soft cheese, then add the vanilla paste and the egg yolk. Once well mixed add the double cream.

Now whisk the egg whites until at the stiff peak stage, now add your rest of your sugar in 2 stage, whisks well, until shiny and well peaked.. Now mix the meringue mixture to the cheese mixture, don't worry too much about loosing air in the mixture

Now spoon a layer of the cheese mixture on to your base and top with some blackberries, add more cheese mixture and more blackberries until you run out of mixture. Now place this in the oven to bake for approx 20 mins whilst you make the crumble topping.

To make the topping, rub the butter into the flour, once it resembles crumbs add the sugar and the blackberries. After the 20 mins have passed carefully top the cheesecake with the topping and bake for another 40 mins , don't be alarmed if it rises then sinks this is normal. Once golden on top remove to cool fully before springing the cake tin. Keep refrigerated.

Delicious !!!!!