Mascerpone Cheesecake with Mixed Berry Compote

Hellooo hello!!

I have just come back from a quick wonderful trip to Heidelberg and I sincerely am missing the good food I had there. Germany is famous for great sausages and schnitzels;what was a complete revelation  was a very Heidelberg specific speciality, Heidelberger Kurfürstenkugel – a sponge ball filled with nougat cream and covered in chocolate!!Ohhh so good!! It was also wonderful to meet a couple of friends after so many years. A night of beers , a very interesting speciality of white asparagus was completed by absolutely stunning cocktails at Cocktail Cafe Regie.

Right back to the recipe on hand, a friend was visiting a while back and I decided to make a cheesecake. I wanted something light, not super sweet like my favourite white chocolate cheesecake, something a little different so I decided to make this mascarpone cheesecake. The recipe is adapted from gracessweetlife.com. Very light and creamy, this is a perfect summer cheesecake. The topping can be inventive but I like a mix of berries to go with the lightness of the cheesecake. I make all my cheesecakes in bain-marie, and the steps are similar to this recipe.

For the base: 150 digestive biscuits + 75 g ginger nut biscuits (you can use all digestive biscuits, I just love adding some ginger nut biscuits to give it a crunch)+ 100g melted butter.

For the cheesecake filling:

600 g soft full-fat cheese
250 g mascarpone cheese
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
zest of one lemon
4 tbsp plain flour
175 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For mixed berry compote, I think this can be very variable depending on how much berries you want to use, how sweet you like it and can be customised by changing the amount of sugar or berries added. For this cheesecake, I used about 1 ½ to 2 cups of berries-a mix of raspberries and blueberries, 3/4^th cup of sugar, 2 tbsp butter , 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp cornstarch.

To make the berry compote- Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 4 minutes. Cool the compote and store it covered in the fridge. This can be stored for 3 days.

1. Pre heat the fan oven to 160 ˚C.
2.  I always make baked cheesecake in the water-bath so to do that I cover the outside of the spring form tin with a double layer of foil. Make sure there are no holes otherwise the water will seep in and the cheesecake will have a soggy bottom.
3. Crush the biscuits for the base in the food processor and take out into a bowl. Add the sugar and melted butter. Mix well and press this mixture into the base of a spring form tin spreading it along to 2/3 way up the sides as well.
4. Bake the biscuit base in the preheated oven for 10 minutes and then leave it out to cool.
5. Meanwhile make the filling. I used a hand mixer but you can do this by hand whisk as well. Beat the cream cheese for about 3 minutes till it is light and fluffy. Add the mascarpone cheese and flour and beat again for another minute.
6. Add the sugar and mix till incorporated evenly.
7. Add the egg and yolks one by one and mix it till the eggs are incorporated but do not over beat.
8. Add in the vanilla extract and the lemon zest.
9. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin which has already been lined with foil on the outside.
10. Using a deep roasting tray or a baking tray with a high edges, pull out the oven shelf, set the cheesecake tin and then pour boiling water in the roasting tin such that it comes up just half way up the cheesecake tin. Make sure it does not go over the foil lining –that is the whole point of the foil lining-to prevent water entering the spring form tin.
11. I also cover my cheesecake very lightly with a foil sheet to prevent the cheesecake from browning too much. Bake the cheesecake for 45-60 mins till the middle of the cheesecake still wobbles slightly. Take out the cheesecake and leave it to cool in its tin at room temperature. Once cooled, leave it to set in the fridge overnight.
12. Next day, run a knife along the side of the cheesecake and open the spring form tin and take the cheesecake out. Top it with the berry compote.

 

Black Forest Cake

Black forest cake always reminds me of birthdays when I was a kid, as this was one of the most common cakes in birthday parties and black forest pastries were one of my favourite as well. One of our friends recently decided to move back to her native Mauritius (so jealous of all the sun and warmth she is going to get while there seems no end to the winter in Scotland in sight!!)  and this being her favourite cake I decided to make this for her as a going away thing. The recipe and design for the cake is adapted from dessertsforbreakfast.com, her pictures are SO pretty and I absolutely loved the literal take on ‘black forest’, how very creative is that! Well it was about mid-night by the time I finished baking so my pictures were taken quite hurriedly and I could not really capture the effect due to lack of natural light.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

236 g caster sugar (1 cup)
236 g plain flour (1 cup)
236 g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, beaten lightly
¼ cup vegetable/sunflower oil
½ cup whole milk or semi-skimmed milk
½ cup boiling water

For cherry filling:

283 g dark cherries (about 1 can if using preserved cherries)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp kirsch/ brandy

For chocolate ganache:

85 g dark chocolate, chopped
70 ml whipping or double cream
1 tbsp butter

For cream filling:

1 cup mascarpone cheese
4 cups whipping cream
2/3 cup icing sugar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚ C (fan).
2. Mix sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.
3. In another bowl mix together the beaten egg, oil and milk.
4. Put the dry ingredients in the food processor and mix. Then put in the wet ingredients in as well and mix till even. Then pour in the boiling water and mix again till the mixture is smooth.
5. Divide the cake batter into 2 baking tins (I used 6 inch ones) and bake for about 35 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before assembling the cake.
   

   I cut off the dome of the cake to flatten out the top

6. For the cherry filling: Place the cherries in a saucepan with the sugar. Add cornflour to couple of tbsp of cherry juice from the can and make a paste. Add it to pan and bring the cherries to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in the kirsch and let the mixture cool.
7. For the chocolate ganache: Heat the cream and butter in a pan, till it is simmering and then pour it on the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and then slowly whip it to make the ganache smooth.
8. For the cream filling: Whip the cheese and cream in a bowl till the mixture forms soft peaks. Add the icing sugar and whip till it forms stiff peaks.

Now to assemble the cake: Take one of the cakes (they should have cooled down by now), layer it with half the chocolate ganache, top it with about 1/3^rd of the whipped cream and then add 2/3 of the cherry filling. Top with the other cake, now cover the whole cake with the rest of the chocolate ganache and whipped cream on the top and sides. Top up with the remaining cherry mix.

I made the decorations by melting chocolate and piping them on a parchment paper, cooling them and then just stuck them to the cake. You can decorate as you want, with chocolate shavings or curls as well.

The ingredient list and the steps involved might make this cake look a bit daunting but honestly this was such an easy cake to make, you just need to get the different components together. The only thing difficult was the number of bowls and pans and pots I had to use, such that I was running out of space in my kitchen!!

Enjoy!