Birthday cake

Alhamdulillah, managed to bake this classic cheesecake recently for my beloved birthdays. The oldest and the youngest in the family birthdays falls on the first week of february, just 3 days in between them. Modern cheesecakes normally uses blended biscuits as the pastry case.





Blueberry cheesecake

Ingredients

675g/ 3 cups of cream cheese
4 eggs, separated
150g/ 2/3 cup caster sugar
45ml/ 3tbsp cornflour
150ml/ 2/3 cup sour cream
finely grated rind & juice of 1/2 lemon
5 ml/ 1tsp vanilla essence

For the pastry:
225g/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
115g/ 1/2 cup butter, diced
15ml/ 1 tbsp caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 egg, beaten

Topping:
blueberry filling
grapes, halves
whipped cream

Method:

1. For the pastry:
Sift the flour & rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in sugar & lemon rind, then add beaten egg & mix to a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap & chill for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the pastry & use to line a 10 in loose-based flan tin (quiche pan). Chill for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 200'C. Prick the base of the chilled pastry case all over with a fork, fill it with crumpled foil & bake for 5 minutes. Remove foil & bake again for another 5 minutes.
Remove pastry case from oven & lower the oven temperature to 180'C.
4. Mix cheese, egg yolks & caster sugar together.
5. Blend the cornflour separately with a little of the sour cream, then add to the cheese mixture along with the remaining sour cream, lemon rind & juice, & vanilla.
Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
6. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, the fold into cheese mixture, one-third at a time. Pour the filling into the pastry case & bake for 1-1 1/4 hours or till golden & firm.
Switch of fthe oven & leave the door slightly ajar. Let the cheesecake cool down in the oven, the remove & chill for 2 hours.
7.Spread the blueberry filling on top of the cake and garnish with grapes & whip cream.

These are made with some leftover tartlet & mini shells which I had prepared earlier recently. My daughter wants to bring back to school after the chinese new year holidays but she ate a lot and managed to bring back some...