Cheesecake, the classic of classics 🙂 However, in my country, it doesn’t really have any tradition. Especially older generations don’t really trust in a cake made of cheese. My grandmother was kind of the same. She used to bake amazing stuff (and I have a lot of recipes from her) but everything modern looked a bit “suspicious” to her. When she got sick, she stopped feeling like eating desserts; that was a big change because until that point she had a habit of “coffee and dessert” every afternoon.

One day I was going to visit her, and because I just had baked a cheesecake, I packed few pieces for her, just in case. She opened the box and tasted a bit. She liked it that much that she kept eating until she finished one piece, eating it straight from the box 😀 So this cake can do wonders! My grandmother fell in love with cheesecake and so did everybody else who tried it.

This time I decided to add some lime and combine it with blackberries. It worked so well together!

Here’s the recipe:

Lime cheesecake:

• 250g gluten free digestive biscuits (or similar)
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 spoon of cocoa (optional)
• 600g cream cheese
• 200g sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of corn flour (cornstarch)
• 1 lime

For the blackberry sauce:

• 2-3 cups blackberries
• sugar
• teaspoon of cornstarch

Before you start baking

• I recommend to bake the cake in water bath, same like the black beast cake. That means wrapping the cake form in aluminium foil and baking it in another baking dish filled with water. This is to prevent the cake from cracking. Another option is to just put a baking dish to the bottom of the oven, it will evaporate and create steamy environment. You can try what works better for you. Sometimes it’s alchemy and the cake cracks anyway… 🙂
• The cake needs some time to set in the fridge, so it’s better to prepare it the day before you want to eat it. I know all the waiting sucks, but in this case it’s really worth it 🙂

Let’s bake it!

1. First prepare the cake form. Grease it with butter and wrap it around outside with aluminium foil, in several layers, so the water cannot go through to the cake.
2. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
3. Melt butter. Put the biscuits into a food processor and mix them into small crumbles. Add the melted butter and mix together. I also like to add a spoon of cocoa, but that’s optional.
4. Press the mixture onto the bottom of the cake from.

5. Bake the crust about 10 minutes, take it out of the oven and let it cool.
6. Now the cheesecake part: Mix cream cheese, sour cream and sugar in a bowl and beat it with electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Zest the lime and squeeze the juice and add both to the mixture.
7. Add the cornstarch and incorporate it into the batter.
8. Add eggs gradually; make sure the egg is well blended before adding the next one.
9. Pour the mixture over the crust, move it a bit to make it flat and even.

10. Place the form in another baking dish and fill the dish with water halfway up the cake. Bake at 170°C for about 55 minutes. If you see the cake is raising too much or is about to crack, lower the temperature to 160°C. Turn the oven off when you see the cake is golden on the top but still a bit wobbly in the middle. Open the door of the oven, but leave the cake still there until it cools down a bit.
11. Remove the cake from the oven, be careful with the water. Remove the aluminium foil and let the cake cool down completely, ideally overnight.

12. When the cake is cold, it’s time for the blackberry sauce! Put fresh or frozen blackberries in a small saucepan, add sugar and warm it over low heat, stirring occasionally. The amount of sugar depends on you. Add one spoon first and then you can add more if you feel it’s not sweet enough. I had frozen blackberries I had picked in the forest last year, and some of them were a bit sour 🙂
13. The blackberries will start releasing the juice. Boil them a bit (about 2 minutes or until they are completely defrosted) and then transfer them into a food processor to blend them.
14. Pour the blended blackberries through a strainer to eliminate the seeds. Put the sauce back to the saucepan. Now it’s time to add the cornstarch: take one teaspoon of cornstarch and mix it with 2 tablespoons of water in a glass. Warm the sauce over low heat, add cornstarch mixture and bring to boil, whisking the sauce slowly. Boil shortly, 1 or 2 minutes and then remove from the heat.

15. The cornstarch will make the sauce thicken and it will also thicken a bit when it cools down, but it will still remain soft.
16. Spread the sauce over the top of the cake. You can also decorate it with some fresh berries.

Last step: eat it 🙂

More tips: Store the cake in the fridge, but leave it at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving.

BONUS story:

Me, straight after baking the cake: “The cake is too big, we will have to share with somebody.”

Also me (two days later, after not sharing with anybody, eating the last piece): “I wish the cake was bigger…”

Have you baked the cake? Let me know if you liked it!