lemon

Kelly Clarkson has probably been chomping down on this. That’s why her fingers are so chubby.

You’re probably confused about the title. This is actually about a New York cheesecake. It is seen as one of the original flavours of cheesecake. Kelly Clarkson is, of course, the original American Idol. I probably could have come up with a better analogy if my brain decided to work, but I was watching American Idol at the time. Don’t judge me.

I made this flavoursome diddy for Mother’s Day (let me hear you all say “Awwww”.) We had an afternoon tea for my Gran, in which my Granddad was also invited and which my Mother got to enjoy too.

Ingredients

250g plain sweet biscuits, 125g butter melted.

Filling: 750g cream cheese softened, 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind, 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind, 1 cup (220g) caster sugar, 3 eggs, 3/4 cup (180g) sour cream, 1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice.

Instructions

1. Process biscuits until fine. Add butter, process until combined. Press mixture over base of 24cm springform tin. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.

3. Make filling by beating cheese, rinds and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then cream and juice.

4. Pour filling into tin; bake 1 1/4 hours. Turn oven off and leave to cool in oven.

5. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Tips

Make sure you pull the cream cheese out of the fridge about half and hour before you intend to beat it together with the other ingredients. By doing this it softens and makes it a lot easier to beat.

For the base I usually use 2 tablespoons of margarine and 2 tablespoons of apple purée instead of butter. The base tends to stick together a lot better instead of being crumbly and it is healthier than the multitudes of butter. Just say: I’m making your devilish desserts healthier one step at a time… Also, use light cream cheese (even better!) These changes do not make a difference in the taste, if you were wondering.

In cooling the cheesecake in the oven, I leave it in the hot oven (turned off) over night. So the oven and cheesecake cool down together. This makes it set a lot better and creates a more creamy texture. This type of cheesecake you really do need to make the day before you need it.

And, it was tasty tasty. Everyone enjoyed it. I got a thumbs-up from my brother-in-law. Win!

This has been sitting in my drafts for a while and obviously I’m going on a finishing spree of posts lately. Don’t be deceived by the cloud like appearance. These cupcakes are evil, pure evil because of the amount of sugar they have in them. They do taste amazing though. I devoured four by the end of the day.

Ingredients:

Coconut lemon curd cake: 125g butter, softened. 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind. 2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar. 2 eggs. 1/3 cup (80ml) milk. 3/4 cup (60g) desiccated coconut. 1 1/4 cups (185g) self-raising flour

Lemon curd: 4 egg yolks. 1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar. 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind. 1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice. 40g butter.

Coconut meringue: 4 egg whites. 1 cup (220g) caster sugar. 1 1/3 cups (95g) shredded coconut, chopped finely.

Instructions:

1. Make lemon curd. Combine ingredients in a small heatproof bowl over small saucepan of simmering water, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Cover tightly, refrigerate curd until cold.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Line 6-hole texas or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.

3. Beat butter, rind, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

4. Stir in milk and coconut, then sifted flour. Divide mixture among cases; smooth surface.

5. Bake large cakes about 25 minutes, small cakes about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool. Increase oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced.

6. Cut a 2cm deep hole in the centre of each cake, fill with curd; discard cake tops [WHY!?]

7. Make coconut meringue: Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form; gradually add sugar beating until sugar dissolves. Fold in coconut. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain tube.

8. Pip meringue on top of each cake; place cakes on oven tray.

9. Bake in hot oven 5 minutes or until meringue is browned lightly.

Tips:

The recipe calls for coconut in the cake and in the meringue, but I made it without. Partly because there was none in the cupboard when I decided to make them and partly because coconut is such a weird ingredient.

With meringue you literally need to beat the shit out of it, and then some more. This is usually where people go wrong – they don’t beat the egg whites enough. Just so happens, this was the first time I have EVER tried to make meringue and I think I did a pretty damn good job. Except for the fact that after a day you could see the sugar coming out in the meringue – a tell-tale sign I did not beat the egg whites enough. My mother said you can test if it is done by rubbing some meringue between your fingers (DIRTY) to feel if the sugar is dissolved. If you can still feel crystals, beat that shit some more. This she tells me after I’ve already baked them and eaten two. Oh well.

With piping the meringue onto the cupcakes you don’t necessarily have to pipe it. I don’t have a piping bag so instead used a knife to spread it on. Bit more messy, but it gets the job done.

Don’t just throw away the left overs. Why would you? It’s good eating. You can perhaps make a cake of sorts. Grab a baking dish, layer the cut out bits of cupcake on the bottom, spread with left-over lemon curd and then spread left-over meringue over that and bake until golden. Of course, you could just eat the left-overs without doing this, like I did. Nom nom nom. But be warned: I felt sick for hours and no amount of Coke Zero made me feel better. And trust me. YOU WILL HAVE LEFT-OVERS.