Summer Cake with Strawberries, Lemon and Yogurt

In summer, waking up in the morning to warm sunshine and a blue sky feels so good. But it feels even better when you know that there's a freshly baked strawberry cake waiting for you to eat it for breakfast. Well, I must correct myself: not only for breakfast, but all day long. Seriously, this cake is perfect at any time. Serve it with a spoonful of lightly sweetened plain greek yogurt on top and there you go - the most delicious summer dessert of all time!

Strawberry Summer Cake

batter
150gm butter or margarine, at room temperature
150gm white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of ground nutmeg
a pinch of ground cinnamon
3 eggs
zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tsp)
280gm regular white flour
2 tsp baking powder
130gm plain yogurt or buttermilk

+ about 300gm of fresh fruits, cut in halves or pieces or slices - I was using 1 large nectarine cut in thin slices and about 20 large strawberries cut in halves. What kind of seasonal fruit you add totally depends on your taste. blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, pears, apricots, nectarines, kiwi, rhubarb - add anything you wish.

Preheat your oven to 200 C. Line a medium size round baking pan with baking paper but do not grease the sides of the pan. Place soft butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until fluffy for about a minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. In another bowl sift together flour and baking powder and sieve it over the wet mixture, quickly beating it in. The batter should be very dry and sticky. Now add the yogurt or buttermilk and quickly beat it in as well making sure that everything is well incorporated. Now the batter should be extremely fluffy, light and smooth. Put the batter into the lined baking pan spreading it evenly. Arrange all the pieces or slices of fruit on top of the batter and lightly press them in. Now prepare the crumble mixture...

crumbles

30gm butter or margarine, at room temperature

30gm sugar

50gm regular white flour

a pinch of salt

Combine the ingredients for the crumbles in a bowl and beat using a hand mixer on low speed for about 10 seconds, just until the mixture is lumpy and crumbly, and arrange the crumbles on top of the cake onto the fruits. Put everything in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes until done and nicely golden. Let it cool completely and then remove the cake from the baking pan. Enjoy ...

No-Yeast Plum Rolls

I admit it. Baking these plum rolls, I failed. Yes, they are very delicious and yes, they're full of fruity flavours but - they don't look nice. To be more exact, it was a complete mess. I know that the taste is much more important than the look but still, I wanted to have pretty and yummy plum rolls. No chance. Those were yummy but so not pretty. The sides of the rolls look smashed while the juice of the plums spread between the rolls while baking so it somehow looks like soaked. Horrible. But hey, you can't have everything in life, right?! Since they still tasted good after all I'll just have to make something up to bake beautiful and delicious plum rolls. And I've learned one thing from this, namely how to cover up something baked that turned out unpretty: Dust it with about a ton of icing sugar so that the whole mess is hidden under a thick layer of sugar and unrecognizable to anyone. That's it. You live and learn.

 

No-Yeast Plum Rolls

dough
150gm yogurt
50gm vegetable oil
100 - 150gm sugar (depends on whether you use sweetened or unsweetened yogurt)
1 tsp salt
1 egg
400gm flour

In a large bowl mix together yogurt, oil, sugar, salt and egg. Sieve over the flour and mix well. Knead the dough until it becomes very smooth and elastic. Roll out very thinly on a lightly floured surface or on a sheet of baking paper.

filling
2 cups plums, in very small pieces or slices
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp sugar

Preheat your oven to 175 C. Combine the ingredients for the filling and arrange on top of the rolled out dough. Roll in the dough together with the filling inside and cut in 12 equal pieces/small rolls. Line a medium size round baking pan with baking paper and place the small plum rolls in the baking pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 - 50 minutes until done. Let cool completely and dust with some icing sugar.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

Coming from a family of many different races and ethnicities I grew up learning a lot about the Kazakh, Greek, Russian, Armenian, German, Korean, Jewish and Ukrainian cuisine, to mention only a few. Korean glass noodle salad, Russian black bread, Armenian kefir and Kazakh syrup sweets - as a child, I had all of this together (Goodness, I'll never forget the good old days...) If you are also of a mixed family background you'll probably know what I'm talking about. But anyway, I'm straying from the subject, let's get back to the main story I wanted to talk about: yeasted apple pancakes. As a child, I ate a lot of pancakes. No matter if those were Russian or German or Greek pancakes, no matter if they were made with buttermilk, yeast or whole wheat flour, no matter if I added honey or jam or cream cheese on top - I've tried endlessly many different kinds of pancakes. And, honestly, I still haven't fallen out of love with pancakes. They're always great, no matter what. That's why I wanted to share an amazingly delicious pancake recipe with you which uses yeast for the batter, apple slices for the top and which is perfect for a warm, fruity and sweet breakfast meal. Trust me. These. Are. Simply. Good.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

250gm flour (I was using regular white flour, use whole wheat flour if you prefer to live on the healthy side of life)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tabsp sugar
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
250gm warm milk
3 Tabsp melted butter or margarine
3 eggs
2 apples, in thick slices
some butter for frying

In a large glass bowl, combine flour, salt and cinnamon and mix well. Slightly press in the top of the flour mixture using your fingers to make sort of a pit or deepening, in which you have to place the crumbled yeast, sugar, melted butter and milk. Gently stir, just until a bit combined and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast mixture on top of the dry mixture starts to get light and foamy. Add eggs and start beating the batter using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let sit at a very warm place for about 40 - 60 minutes until the batter has risen a little bit. Now make the pancakes: melt some butter in a frying pan at medium heat, drop about 2 - 3 tablespoons of batter in the pan and place one apple slice on top of the pancake. Fry on both sides at medium heat for about 3 minutes until golden brown. Continue until batter and apple slices are used up. 

Serve while still warm adding some liquid honey or maple syrup on top of the pancakes.

 

Carrot Cake #2

And here comes another attempt. Which - honestly - turned out as delicious as the first one (recipe here). I'll call this one 'my favorite fluffy carrot orange cake' and the other one 'my favorite moist carrot cinnamon cake'. Both oranges and cinnamon are excellent together with carrots and add that little something to a carrot cake. This time I was using a lot of freshly grated orange zest which gives the carrot cake not only a nicely fruity flavour but also a very intense orange color. And it's definitely 34510379582 x healthier to use natural products as food coloring than chemical substances, right?!

Extra Fluffy Carrot Orange Cake
makes two loaf cakes

2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 cups finely grated carrots
zest of 1 - 2 oranges (depends on how fruity you want your cake to be)

Line two medium size loaf pans with baking paper. Preheat your oven to 150 C. Place sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until extremely foamy and light, for approximately 3 - 4 minutes. Add oil, orange zest and carrots and gently fold it in. Sieve over the flour together with baking powder and quickly beat in just until incoporated. Fill the batter in the prepared loaf pans and bake for about 1 hour. Let cool for a few minutes and then remove the cakes from the pans. Let cool completely.

Optional: Dust with some icing sugar.

Red Wine Kugelhopf

A lightly pink color because of the red in the wine, a very fluffy consistency because of the alcool and an amazingly fruity flavour in the cake because of the fruity wine. I wouldn't advise you to eat this cake for breakfast (well, you could try, hehe...) but it's perfect as an afternoon tea cake. I think that a slice of this cake would be even more delicious if served together with a tablespoon of lightly sweetened whipped cream on top. I definitely have to keep that in mind the next time I bake this cake. So here comes the recipe for you to try it ...

Red Wine Kugelhopf (Eggless)

250gm regular white flour
15gm baking powder
100gm sugar (add more if you want a very sweet taste)
250ml red wine
6 Tabsp vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 175 C. Grease a kugelhopf baking pan with soft butter or margarine. In a large bowl combine the sugar, wine and oil and whisk well. Sieve over the flour together with baking powder and quickly whisk it in. Fill batter into prepared pan and bake for about 50 - 60 minutes until done. Let cool completely.

Optional: Dust with some icing sugar, if desired.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Cupcakes

Look at them, aren't they just lovely? Kind of childish and girly. They remind me of a kids party with a lot of baked stuff, colorful jellies and many sweets. But no. No kids. And no party. It was just me and some friends having mokka with some sweetnened condensed milk cupcakes. Originally, the recipe that I was using was meant to be for a pound cake.  Fabulous but so easy. The batter was very soft but at the same time very fluffy and spongy and went excellent together with the rich and heavy frosting. I'm definitely going to use this recipe again, probably trying a simple sweetened condensed milk pound cake next time.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Cupcakes
makes about 10 regular size cupcakes
cupcake recipe (slightly changed) taken from J's Kitchen

cupcakes
100gm soft butter or margarine
40gm sugar
2 eggs
120gm flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
200gm (1/2 can) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 10 regular size muffin moulds with paper cups or line a 20 x 20-cm cake pan with baking paper. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat in. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat well until incorporated. In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt, sieve over wet mixture and beat in quickly just until everything is combined. Pour into prepared muffin cups or baking pan. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes (or for about 40 minutes if you bake a cake) until nicely browned. Take out of the oven, remove from the pan and let cool completely.

frosting
250gm curd cheese or cream cheese
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl beat together the ingredients for the frosting using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated and the mixture is very fluffy. Frost the cupcakes.

Optional: Decorate with some jelly fruits if you want. Enjoy :)

Oatmeal Plum Streusel Breakfast Cake

When I know that in my kitchen there is some kind of fresh streusel cake that I plan to eat for breakfast I, actually, can never wait until breakfast. In some cases I can even predict that a cake like this will never see tomorrow. Because it's is so good. It's a perfect mixture between cooked oatmeal and a fruit salat combined in a cake with streusels on top. Not too sweet. Not too heavy. But too yummy. 

And another good thing about this cake is that you can add to it whatever you wish. You could add some spices like ground ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon to make the cake more cozy. Or you might even want to replace the plums with any fruits you like, depending on the season, like cherries, apricots or figs. It's up to you.

Oatmeal Plum Streusel Breakfast Cake

batter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk or water
2 cups flour (if you want the extremely healthy version of a breakfast cake, use whole wheat or whole spelt flour. I was using regular white spelt flour.)
2 cups oats
2 tsp baking powder
+ about 2 cups plums, in thin slices (I added frozen plum slices to the batter, but I think fresh plums would be perfectly fine too)

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a approximately 8 x 12 inch - baking pan with baking paper. Whisk together sugar, eggs and salt. Whisk in oil and milk. Add the dry ingredients and whisk well until you have a thick and moist mixture. Gently fold in about two thirds of the plums. Pour the batter in the lined pan and smooth the top. Arrange the remaining plums on the top. Now prepare the streusel mixture...

streusel
60gm sugar
60gm very soft or melted butter
100 - 150gm white flour (it depends on what consistency you want the streusels to have, I wanted them to be very crumbly, not soft, so I added much more flour)

Combine the ingredients for the streusels and make the mixture very crumbly using either a hand mixer on low speed or your fingers or a fork. Arrange the streusel mixture on top of the cake. Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for about 55 - 65 minutes until done and nicely browned. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely.

Simple Banana Yogurt Bread

It's quite weird but I absolutely hate bananas while I absolutely love banana cake. Well, I know that's not normal, but come one... we all have strange quirks we can't get rid of. Face it. I hate bananas. I love banana cake.
But a moist banana cake with some yogurt added to the batter is even better. Although I'm still not entirely sure why those kind of recipes are called 'banana bread' instead of simply 'banana cake', I don't mind at all as long as the so-called 'bread' is delicious. Just as the Spanish proverb tells us 'If there is no bread, cakes will do.'
 

Simple Banana Yogurt Bread

1 cup sugar
2 Tabsp butter
2 eggs
3 cups white flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 mashed bananas combined with 2 cups of yogurt or instead use 2 cups of bought banana yogurt (containing real bananas or banana flavour)

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line a loaf pan with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar together using a hand mixer on high speed until very fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in. Add the mashed bananas+yogurt or the banana yogurt and beat in as well. Sieve over flour, baking powder and salt and quickly beat in just until incorporated. Do not over beat. Pour the mixture into the lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 - 55 minutes until done and the top of the cake is golden brown. Let cool completely.

Optional: Sprinkle the top of the cake with some melted chocolate or dust the cake with some icing sugar.

Yogurt and Berry Muffins

Everytime I have left-over food in my kitchen I try to use it up as soon as possible (and that's only one of many extremely economical habits of mine ...) For that I immediately look for a suitable recipe and this, mostly, leads me directly to smittenkitchen. If you have the same passion of scanning and stalking cooking-baking blogs for yummy recipes, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In her most diversified blog Deborah shares a lot of ordinary and extraordinary recipes and each is followed by an amusing story and beautiful photography. That's where I got my yogurt and berry muffins recipe from. I was actually reading through her post of a lemon yogurt anything cake with the intention of baking a fresh yogurt loaf but then I thought 'why not use the same recipe for some lovely muffins?' - Yogurt makes your muffins soft and berries make them fruity, combine those ingredients with a lot of love and voilà - breakfast is ready.

Yogurt and Berry Muffins
recipe (slightly changed) from smittenkitchen

1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt (if you use sweetened yogurt, you might want to reduce the amount of sugar to about 1/2 cup)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1.5 cup redcurrants (or any other type of berries), fresh or frozen and thawed

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 12 muffins moulds with paper cups or one loaf pan with baking paper. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and oil. Sieve the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and whisk well just until incorporated, try not to overmix. Gently fold in the berries. (In Deb's recipe it says to mix the berries with another tablespoon of flour before adding them to the batter mixture, but I skipped this step because I don't mind the berries sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Do whatever you wish.) Fill the batter in the prepared muffin cups (or loaf pan) and bake for about 25 minutes (or 50 minutes for a loaf cake) until done. Let cool completely and dust with some icing sugar if desired.

Moist and Rich Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Let's just say: This cake is an excellent mixture between creamy and fruity. 

If you have been following the recipe posts on my blog (I know you have! right??!!) you have probably noticed that I don't care much about low-fat products. I've never enjoyed them and I rarely use them. Instead, I think that a healthy amount of fat in your food makes the meals even more delicious. So if it says in the recipe 'sour cream' definitely use real sour cream, if it says 'whipping cream 40%' use real whipping cream 40%, if it says 'butter' use real butter. Have you ever tried to make one dessert with low-fat buttermilk (1% fat) and another with usual heavy cream (50% - 60% fat) and then compared the taste of both with each other? Then you know, obviously, that you cannot make a nice dessert or a sweet cake without using fat. Impossible.

That's why this mouth-watering cake contains full-fat sour cream in the frosting and a looot of fresh vegetable oil in the cake layers. 

Bake it. 

Frost it. 

Decorate it. 

Enjoy a piece. 

And then another. 

Never worry about calories. 

If you have a really healthy lifestyle with a lot of exercising, you can enjoy as much baked stuff as you desire without falling sick or becoming overweight.

So here comes the recipe . . .

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

cake layers

3 eggs

zest of 2 large lemons 

16 Tabsp sugar

16 Tabsp vegetable oil

5 Tabsp cold water

16 Tabsp white flour

15gm baking powder

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line the bottom of two regular round baking pans with baking paper. Beat the eggs, sugar and lemon zest using a hand mixer on high speed until very light and foamy. Add oil and water, beat in quickly. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and sieve it over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly just until incorporated. Fill in the two lined baking pans and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes until nicely golden. Remove from the pans and let cool completely.

lemon glaze

juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

1 tsp sugar

Whisk together lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Brush the top of each cooled cake layer with the sweetened lemon juice. Let soak for a few minutes.

frosting

1000gm full-fat sour cream / crème fraîche

250gm white sugar

1 Tabsp corn starch

grated chocolate (optional)

Combine sour cream, sugar and corn starch in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until the mixture becomes very creamy and fluffy for about 2 - 3 minutes. Frost the two cake layers. (Sprinkle some grated chocolate on top, if desired.) Let cool and soak completely for a few hours or overnight. Enjoy :)

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

The combination of a nice buttery crust, a heavy chocolate cheesecake and a fruity apple cake is weird. I admit that. But still, it's really worth trying. If you are a passionate breakfast lover like me you're going to adore this cake. It's perfect for breakfast. 

Apple Chocolate Cheesecake

dough
5 Tabsp butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt
1 Tabsp sugar
1/4 cup water

Combine the ingredients for the base. Place on a floured surface and knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Roll it out. Line a medium size baking pan. Place the dough in the lined baking pan with the sides of the dough hanging out.

batter/filling
500gm curd cheese
2 eggs
100gm butter
150gm chocolate
2 Tabsp corn starch
5 Tabsp semolina
3 Tabsp cocoa powder
100gm sugar

+ 5 large baking apples, cut into slices or pieces
 
Preheat the oven to 200C. Melt together the butter and chocolate in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, curd cheese and sugar. Sift together the dry ingredients and sieve over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly until incorporated. 
Arrange half of the apple slices on the dough in the baking pan and spread about one half of the cheesecake mixture on top of the apples. Arrange the remaining apples on the cake mixture and spread the rest of the batter on the apples.
Fold back the sides of the dough. Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes until done and nicely browned. 
Dust with some icing sugar if you like.

 

 

 

 

Jewish Honey-Drizzled Syrup Cake

A soft buttery batter soaked in sweet honey syrup. What else do you need to be happy? Well, maybe a cup of strong hot mokka. 

Jewish Semolina Syrup Cake
recipe adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen (slightly changed recipe)

batter
120gm soft butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup milk
2 cups yellow semolina
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 175C. Line a  medium size round pan or a 20 x 30-cm baking pan with baking paper. Combine butter and sugar, cream using a hand mixer on high speed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add milk and lemon zest and beat on high speed just until incorporated.
Sift together semolina, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sieve over the wet mixture and mix well. Fill the batter in the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

honey syrup
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup. Combine the ingredients for the honey syrup in a sauce pan. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, then remove from heat. 
When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and slowly pour the hot honey syrup all over the cake using a spoon. Let soak and cool completely overnight.
Optional: Sprinkle with almonds if you like.

Wedding Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting

A few days ago my great-grandparents had their 65th wedding anniversary. Since this is a huge number of years and and amazing event, my whole big family was celebrating as if there was no tomorrow. Everyone in my family loves to talk loudly, to eat a lot, to sing out of tune and to hug each other like crazy. So, in short, I was having a great time. Not only because of my lovely family but also because of all our delicious traditional food. And I can say with pride that somewhere on the dessert table between about hundreds of other cakes, there were some beautiful little chocolate cupcakes with a pretty buttercream frosting made by me. And now they are requested and desired for every future celebration or family event. 
That's why you should definitely try them. The batter is extremely moist and soft while the buttercream is very fluffy and creamy. They're perfect for any special occasion. So here comes the recipe ...

Chocolate Cupcakes With Caramel Buttercream Frosting
(cupcake recipe taken from raspberricupcakes, I slightly changed the recipe)

cupcakes (makes about 12 medium size cupcakes)
95gm white flour
150gm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tabsp unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tabsp hot water
85gm melted butter
6 Tabsp buttermilk or low-fat yogurt
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 12 muffin pans with muffin paper cups. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine cocoa powder and hot water and stir until the mixture is a thick paste. (According to Steph, this step intensifies the chocolate flavour of the cupcakes. I think it definitely works. The cupcakes had a very strong and delicious chocolaty taste. So don't skip this process.) Beat together the chocolate paste, butter, buttermilk and the egg. Sieve over the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Fill the batter in the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes until done. Remove from the pan and let cool completely. 

buttercream
100gm butter, at room temperature
200gm cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar
2 Tabsp caramel syrup (or use any other kind of syrup you like)
3 tsp corn starch

Beat together butter and cream cheese. Sieve over corn starch and beat in quickly. Sieve over the icing sugar and continue beating for about 2 minutes until very smooth and well incorporated. Add the syrup and mix. The mixture should be very thick but smooth. Frost the 12 completely cooled cupcakes. (Optional: I decorated the frosted cakes with some dark chocolate roses. Use whatever you wish.)
Enjoy :)

It's Chai Time ~ Moist Banana Cake

Honestly, this cake needs no introduction. Everything important is mentioned in the title. The cake is amazingly moist. And it contains some yummy bananas. If you have some ripe bananas to use up and if you are a cake lover, try it. It will make you happy :)

Moist Banana Cake

layers
3 eggs
16Tabsp sugar
16Tabsp oil
7 medium size bananas, mashed
16Tabsp white flour
15gm baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of nutmeg
banana flavour (optional)

Preheat oven to 150C. Line 3 round baking pans with baking paper.
Beat the eggs and sugar using a hand mixer until very foamy and bubbly. Add mashed bananas and oil, beat in quickly. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Sieve over the wet mixture and beat again, just until incorporated. (Add banana flavour if desired.)
Fill the batter in the three prepared pans, place them in the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes until done and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

frosting
150gm butter, at room temperature
250ml heavy cream
500gm curd cheese
1.5c icing sugar

Beat heavy cream until stiff. Add soft butter and curd cheese and beat until very smooth and well combined. Sieve over icing sugar and beat in. (Add more icing sugar if you want the frosting to be very sweet.)
Take the cooled cake layers out of the baking pans and frost the cake.

topping
80gm dark chocolate
50ml heavy cream
some sliced almonds for sprinkling

Melt the chocolate together with heavy cream until you have a very smooth and liquid mixture. Fill the melted chocolate mixture in a piping bag and decorate the cake (or just sprinkle the top of the cake with the melted chocolate if you want your cake to look a little bit messy.) Arrange the sliced almonds on the sides of the cake. Place the cake in the fridge for a few hours until it's completely cooled.
Enjoy :) 

New York Cheesecake With Raspberry Topping

There are probably at least hundreds or thousands of recipes for NY Cheesecake. But this is the best one. Trust me. A nice buttery crust, a moist and heavy cheese filling and a very fruity and sweet raspberry topping. Honestly, I could have eaten the whole cake all by myself. 

New York Cheesecake with Raspberry Topping

crust
200gm ground biscuits or cookies or whatever you like
120gm butter, melted

Line a normal size round baking pan with baking paper and grease the sides.
Combine ground biscuits and the melted butter, mix well and press the mixture on the bottom of the pan. Place in the fridge while preparing the cream cheese mixture.

cheesecake
1kg curd cheese or cream cheese (or ricotta for the Italian version of the cheesecake)
1 cup sugar
3 Tabsp flour
4 eggs
100ml heavy cream
zest of 1-2 lemons (depends on how lemony and fruity you want your cheesecake to be)

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Beat curd cheese using a hand mixer until very smooth. Sieve over sugar and flour, beat until well combined. Quickly beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add cream and lemon zest and beat again just until everything is well incorporated and you have a smooth and heavy mixture.
Take the baking pan with the crust on the bottom out of the fridge. Pour the cheese mixture in and smooth the top.
Place the cake into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes at 180C. Then reduce the temperature to 150C and continue to bake for about 60 - 70 minutes until done.
The sides of the cake should be nicely browned but the middle part or the inside should still be a little bit wobbly and creamy.
Take out of the oven and let cool completely, then remove from the baking pan.

raspberry topping
1/3 cup orange juice
1 Tabsp corn starch
1 Tabsp sugar
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen and thawed)

Place orange juice, sugar and corn starch in a small sauce pan and whisk well to avoid lumps of the corn starch. Heat the mixture on high heat while continously stiring for about 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and carefully fold in the raspberries. Arrange on top of the cooled cheesecake. Keep the cake in fridge until completely cooled.
Enjoy :)