unsophisticated baked cheese cake

Some time ago a cheesecake appeared on the food blog Life is full of Goodies. I noticed the mouth-watering cake at 1st in Instagram … & of course I followed the recipe on the blog. I admit: the cheesecake looked so delicious and irresistible – I had to try it!

It looked so sleek & perfect, so simple & absolutely fabulous at the same time. There was no fussing around w/ elaborate decorations or icing or additional knick-knack: a cake for our modern minimalistic life – however, the taste, the structure, the flavors … (I learnt a lot about the softness & the delicate flavoring when nibbling my own version of this cheesecake.)

When comparing the masterclass w/ my humble approach … The top of my cheesecake wasn’t so even, but it didn’t crack. The filling was soft & fluffy – not runny … & definitely not collapsing. (Due to my oven it was somewhat browner at one side …)

I think that the recommendation to let the cake cool down to room temperature completely in the oven after the baking (w/ only opening the door of the oven for a small gap) is crucial for the consistency of the cake.

How to proceed?

I followed the recipe almost exactly, however, I had some changes. (Of course, because I always have to adapt something …)

The most important is that I didn’t use any egg liqueur for flavoring. As in the original recipe recommended I substituted cream for egg liqueur.

So – what about the flavor? I thought about it & opted for lemon – resulting in grating the zest of an organic lemon for the filling of the cake.

Also the size … I decided to bake the cheesecake in my small spring form (18 cm). Therefore I had to adjust the amounts of the ingredients. A rough calculation said that the capacity of a spring form (18 cm) is about slightly more than 50% of the capacity of a spring form (24 cm).

So far, so fine – let’s start.

1st step: preheat your oven to 160° C fan.

For the cake base you’ll need:

• all-purpose flour
• butter
• sugar
• a pinch of salt.

Roll up your sleeves & start kneading. When everything is a transformed in a smooth dough put it in the spring form. There is no need to oil the spring form.

Now try to press the dough into the spring form as evenly as possible. When done set aside. (At 1st I tried to roll out the dough, but it didn’t work out as I would have liked.)

What do we need for the filling?

In the big bowl:

• cream cheese
• mascarpone
• sour cream
• Greek yoghurt.

In the small bowl:

• flour
• sugar
• vanilla sugar.

… & furthermore:

• eggs
• cream
• an organic lemon.

Grate the zest of the lemon & add to the small bowl.

Start whisking everything in the big bowl incl. the cream, afterwards add the eggs, then the ingredients of the small bowl. I did it w/ an ordinary egg whip.

Then pour the mess into the spring form – but carefully! The cake base must not be drowned.

Transfer the spring form to the preheated oven (attention: it’s runny!) & bake it for 60 min at 160° C fan. The original recipe recommends to use a convection oven i. e. an oven w/ a fan.

I had some leftovers of the filling … I just grabbed 2 small oven-safe bowls & filled the rest of the filling into them. (I might also have used only 1 of them!) Let’s estimate that about 10-15% of the filling was too much … The oven-safe bowls marched also in the oven & we later had the baked filling together w/ some fruit as a dessert.

 What about reducing the amounts of the ingredients for the filling to match the spring form exactly?
I think you need to use about 10-15% less for each ingredient (except the lemon zest, the eggs – of course). My point at this approach is … I don’t like small leftovers cluttering my fridge!
(… & I definitely don’t use half an egg. Never.)

For the filling I used exactly 2 packets of cream cheese, 1 packet of mascarpone, ½ packet of sour cream … That’s fine. I was also happy w/ baking the leftovers of the filling in a oven-safe bowl for having an additional dessert.
At the end it’s up to you what you prefer.

Now: This is the cake after the oven session & the cooling down to room temperature in the oven for 3-4 h. The spring form is still active!

Only now you should open the spring form & take away the edge. Once having managed to remove the edge of the spring form just let the cake slide onto the cake plate. It won’t stick to the bottom of the spring form.

… now: There is thin crisp cake melting in your mouth & lots of soft, fluffy filling w/ a delicate hint of lemon.

It’s a sumptuous cake created by a minimal approach.

Enjoy!