Strawberry Cheesecake

I met a dutch friend for coffee and she suggested that I try making a no-bake cheesecake with kwark and digestive biscuits. I decided to use the season's last strawberries for my first attempt with the cheesecake. (It's possible to try the same recipe with mango, blueberries, apricots, lemon, etc.)

Kwark (Quark) is a creamy curd-like yogurt which is sold in tubs at every local supermarket in The Netherlands and Germany. Although it's easily available here I was wondering what people in India could use as a substitute. I believe the process for making kwark is quite similar to the process we follow for making chakka for shrikhand. 
As I looked on the internet for ideas I stumbled upon a website with some really nice recipes. Coincidentally  the author Deeba Rajpal is based in Delhi. She's been making cheesecakes with homemade kwark. I would definitely recommend Deeba's recipe for the cheesecake.

Here's the link to the recipe on her website - http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com/2010/05/no-bake-strawberry-quark-cheescake-and-a-hang-tags-giveaway.html


I've used ingredients in a different proportion than Deeba. I also have easy access to kwark in all the supermarkets here so I opted for the vanilla flavoured variety.

Vanilla kwark - 500 gms
Digestive biscuits - 300 gms
Low fat cream -250 gms

I have used 500 gms of Vanilla kwark and used 300 gms of digestive biscuits for my base as I like it thicker. You will also need more butter (I used low fat butter) so that the base binds well.

I bought a box-full of strawberries and use one half for decorating the cake and the other half to make strawberry coulis.

I made the strawberry coulis by cooking chopped strawberries, sugar and lemon juice together until I got the right consistency.

Hope you have as much fun making this cheesecake as I did. Happy Experimenting!!

The Perfect Carrot Cake!

We found the most awesome recipe for Carrot Cake on the internet and we baked it this weekend! The result was so good that we thought we have to share the link with you.

Here goes: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sams-famous-carrot-cake/detail.aspx

This recipe has a lot of ingredients but don't let that be a deterrent for you. We followed it to it T and the cake was just perrrrrrrrrfect!!! 

Aprikosen Kuchen

I must admit that as much as I love cooking, baking cakes has never really been my cuppa tea. I've always looked forward to birthdays in our family because it meant that my mother and sister would be busy planning and baking their next cake. Dropping by the kitchen to lick the cake batter off the bowl was more like my kinda thing to do.
Recently, ever since Harsh's birthday, I've suddenly felt inspired to start baking cakes. And I must tell you...it's very addictive!!
My first was a simple, microwave recipe for a  chocolate-walnut cake that I found on Sanjeev Kapoor's website. I then tried making his equally simple Zesty Lemon Cake. Happy with my efforts and the results I decided to try something else.
Just last weekend I'd bought a bagful of apricots at the farmer's market. I sometimes get carried away while buying fruit and end up buying a lot more that I can eat. Baking an Apricot Cake seemed like the perfect plan!!

I searched the internet and found a German recipe for the cake.

It's a great recipe but I've made a few changes to it.

Ingredients:


Softened butter - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Eggs - 3
Maida/Flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Soda Bicarbonate - 1 tsp
1/4 cup - beaten curds
Fresh Apricots (cut in half) - 8-10

Method:


Sieve together the maida, baking powder and soda bicarbonate and set aside.
In a separate bowl cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, a little at a time and mix. Now, add the curds. Mix/beat well.

Grease the cake tin lightly with butter. Transfer the batter in the cake tin and place the apricots on top (cut side facing down).
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 40 minutes.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream.