Well it’s no secret that I truly enjoy my food and more than that, I absolutely love making it. It’s just something about the whole process of creating something from scratch, the satisfaction you feel and the mile long smile you see on people’s faces – its pure joy. Desserts have somehow always managed to hold more importance in my heart; whether it’s baking chocolate cakes when I’m bored, trying out every pastry in town or just enjoying my favorite bar of chocolate – I’m guilty of being partial towards the sweeter things in life. Of course my first post had to be a dessert then – Blueberry Cheesecake. Not only because it’s one of my all time favorite desserts, but also because I finally got around to making it on a really close person’s birthday.
This Blueberry Cheesecake is probably one of the best you’ll every have and you won’t even realize how fast it’s ready and how fast it’s polished off – it sounds long and lengthy, but it’s the easiest thing ever. The most important thing you’ll need while preparing this is patience, because it’s supposed to be prepared over a period of two whole days; so plan it accordingly. With this cake, you can expect the slight tanginess of the blueberries, the not so sweet but extremely creamy filling and the tad bit salty and crunchy base – together these elements weave magic in your mouth. And remember one thing; it always tastes better the next morning.
Things you’ll need:
- A 9 inch cake tin (I use the one with the expandable clamp – easier to take the cake out)
- Muslin Cloth
- Curd – 800 gms
- Amul Fresh Cream – 600 ml
- Amul Butter (Melted) – 3 tbsp + extra for greasing the tin
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Gelatin – 2 tbsp
- Icing Sugar – 1 Cup + 1 tbsp
- Mc Vitie’s Digestive Biscuits – 220 gms (1 big packet)
- Canned Blueberry Compote – 1 Cup
- Vanilla Essence – 1 tbsp
- Water – 3 tbsp
Steps we’ll be taking:
- Hang the curd in the muslin cloth overnight. This essentially gives you hung curd = cream cheese.
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease the pan with butter and keep aside.
- The next step would be to pulverize the entire pack of biscuits into a powder (not very fine). Once you have that, add the melted butter to the mixture and mix well – you should have a crumbly and lose mixture.
- Press the biscuits to the base of the cake tin to form the base. You can even it out using a spatula; just make sure it’s nice and even. Put the tin into the oven for around 10 minutes or until the biscuits become slightly brown and smell toasty, and then take it out and push it into the fridge.
- In a large bowl, beat the hung curd until it looks creamy. Add the sugar to it and beat until well combined.
- Next add the cream, ½ cup blueberry compote, lemon juice, vanilla and beat together to form a creamy batter (remember to taste and add more sugar or blueberry if you wish to).
- We need to now prepare the gelatin mixture. In a large steel bowl/pan, heat some water. In another smaller bowl, put the gelatin and about 4tbsp water – hold this bowl over the hot water and keep stirring until you get a slightly translucent smooth paste. Now leave this aside to cool.
- When the gelatin mixture is slightly cool, should take about 5-7 minutes, add it to the cream batter you had prepared earlier and give it one last beat till everything is mixed together.
- Take the cake tin out of the fridge and pour this mixture on top of the biscuit base. This now again needs to go back into the fridge to set over night.
- For the topping, you just have to spread the blueberry compote directly on top of the cake, covering all the edges. Please remember to add the topping only once the cake has set.
- The last thing to do would be to put it back in the fridge for a few more hours and let all the layers come together.
- Lastly, use a knife to loosen the edges and then wiggle out the cake. Your cake is ready to be served now, just cut out a piece and dig in.
Some important things to keep in mind:
- While hanging the curd over night, just make sure it’s not in a very hot/humid place and you’ll be fine.
- Keep squeezing the muslin cloth every now and then to drain out all the water.
- If you do not have an oven, you can just freeze the biscuit base directly.
- Be very patient! I cannot tell you how important it is to prepare each layer and let it set; otherwise you’re just going to end up with one gooey mess.
- While making the gelatin paste, don’t stop stirring as the gelatin solidifies into small blocks and it’s a pain to break it down into a paste.
- Don’t over beat, just enough at slow speed to combine all the ingredients together.
- Try experimenting, instead of a cake tin you can prepare this in individual glass jars for each of your guests – remember NOT to then put the glass jars in the oven, just the freezer.
More than me, my friends swear by this cake and I get hate mails if it’s not made every now and then. I really hope you enjoy it as much as they do; just follow the recipe and you’ll be fine. I would love to hear your feedback and thoughts on how you liked the recipe and answer any question that you may have. Happy Baking! 🙂
Warning: You might never stop receiving requests to make this over and over again.
