Photography Andy Arnfield
The recipe below is for a single layer cheesecake, but if you want to create the one in my picture, just double the ingredients and use an acetate cake collar to build up the second layer. As this is a no bake cheesecake it’s really easy to build by just giving each crust and cheese layer 1/2 hour in the fridge to firm up.
I made salted lemon curd in my Thermomix, the recipe is included in this post, but you can obviously use any other method you like, or even use store bought curds and add the salt
Ingredients – Makes one layer cake
200 g Plain digestive biscuits
125 g Butter, melted
500 g Spreadable Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp Lemon zest, plus extra to serve
Blitz biscuits in a food processor until they resemble coarse sand. Transfer to a bowl and add melted butter. Stir until combined. Spoon biscuit mixture into prepared cake tin and press evenly on base and sides. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 min to set
Beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon juice and zest with an electric mixer until smooth and pour over the biscuit base then return to fridge again for 30 mins to firm up. If you’re making the double layer cake as in the picture, this is where you would repeat this whole step, with the addition of an acetate cake collar from the start.
Once set make your salty lemon curd (recipe below) and once cooled pour over your finished cake. I like to put the cake in a trivet over some baking paper so the drips don’t go everywhere. Now as I do like a bit of fancy, make yourself some fluffy stiff peak meringue (recipe below) and decorate the top of your cake creating lots of high peaks, I like to do this with my fingers to get the height. Get your blow touch and toast the peaks until golden but be careful not to burn them, scatter with coconut flakes. For this recipe I caramelised some lemon slices to give the cake some wow factor!!! Now believe me this recipe will be sure to wow anyone, but don’t serve straight from the fridge, let it come to room temperature!!!! Get cooking and enjoy!!! ;0)
Themomix Salty Lemon Curd
INGREDIENTS
Zest of 2 lemons
2 eggs
2 extra egg yolks
165g caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, chilled
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
INSTRUCTIONS
Peel the 2 lemons with a peeler and place the zest into the Thermomix bowl.
Finely grate on Speed 10 for 10 seconds.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat until only a very fine zest remains.
Add the eggs, extra egg yolks, caster sugar, butter and lemon juice and salt and cook on Speed 5, 10 minutes, 80 degrees.
Check the lemon curd and if it’s still very runny, cook for a further 1-2 minutes on Speed 5, 90 degrees.
Pour lemon curd through a strainer (to remove any remaining zest) and into a sterilised jar.
This will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
