Baked London Cheesecake

Baking is a really relaxing way to spend your day off and my absolute favourite thing to bake is a Nigella Lawson London Cheesecake. 

It's a layer of crumbed biscuit then cream cheese, topped with sour cream. Add some blueberry syrup and you've got yourself a pretty yummo way to spend your night off as well. 

I adapted this recipe from 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' and cut everything in half so as to make a little 18cm diameter cake. It's a cake for one. I also use a handy dessert ring I got from Target which expands so you can vary how big your cake will be. 

Ingredients

100g milk arrowroot biscuits (half a pack)

70g unsalted butter (room temp)

250g cream cheese (room temp)

65g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolks

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

300ml tub sour cream (room temp)

1/4 cup caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Pulverise the biscuits (I use a bowl and the end of a rolling pin) but you can use a food processor if you want to get all fancy about it. Add the butter and rub into the biscuits till they resemble breadcrumbs.

2. Line the bottom of your cake tin and press the biscuits down firmly with the bottom of a spoon, making sure to compact them right into the edges. Put the base in the fridge to set and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

3. Beat the cream cheese til it's as soft as creamed butter, then add the sugar and beat in again. Beat in the eggs and egg yolk, then the vanilla and then the lemon juice. Put an almost full kettle on to boil at this stage.

4. Pour the boiling water into a roasting dish so it comes up halfway around the cake tin and place this in the oven. This water bath is apparently supposed to make your cake velvety smooth and technically you're supposed to wrap the cake in foil and put it IN the bath but I can't be bothered and found this that technique very likely to give you third degree burns. Take out your cake tin with the breadcrumbs from the fridge and pour in your cream cheese mixture.

5. Place the whole thing in the oven next to your dish with water and bake for 30 minutes till it feels set when you lightly touch the surface, and it wobbles like a set jelly.

5. Whilst the cake is baking, beat together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Once the cake has set, pour the sour cream mix on top of the cake and bake for a further 10 minutes.

7. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool. Once it has cooled completely, leave it to set in the fridge for about 4-6 hours as it helps to make the cake more solid and the flavours meld together. Unmould and use a knife which has been run under hot water to cut and top with syrup and fresh berries or not (sometimes you just can't wait, I know the feeling).

Blueberry Syrup

1 cup frozen blueberries

2-3 tbsp caster sugar

1/4 cup water

Blend the blueberries with water and run the puree through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and skin bits. Pour the sieved puree into a small saucepan and stir in the sugar. Turn the heat up to medium and bring the liquid to a simmer while stirring constantly till the sugar has dissolved, then leave the liquid to simmer till the mixture has considerably thickened and become sticky and syrupy, and tastes like blueberry jam.