Deluxe Cheese Cake

Cheese cake recipe is believed to have originated in ancient Greece but not the cream cheese type as we know of today. Historians believe that cheesecake was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. However, cheese making can be traced back as far as 2,000 B.C., anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to that period. Alan Davidson, author of the Oxford Companion to Food, wrote that, "cheesecake was mentioned in Marcus Porcius Cato's De re Rustica around 200 BCE and that Cato described making his cheese libum (cake) with results very similar to modern cheesecake."
     Today, baked cheese cake is considered the cream of the crop among all cake lovers. A good cheesecake should be moist and smooth without any hint of overbaking. Among the many cheese cake recipe that I have in my collection, this one in particular is my favourite for its richness is beyond compare. The addition of sour cream in this recipe also adds to the zestyness of this cake making it not so heavy on the digestion. Cheese cakes are a great treat for any occasion for it will not melt under the blazing sun nor will it loses its appeal in fact, a warm cheesecake may even be as good as a chilled one depending of course on what the weather is like but do not leave it outside for too long because as we know it,  cream cheese spoils very easily.

Below is a video showing you how to bake Deluxe Cheese Cake

Recipe
500 gm Cream Cheese
140 gm Icing Sugar
20 gm Cornflour
2 nos Whole Eggs
30 ml Milk
120 gm Sour Cream
1 nos Lemon Zest
1 nos Egg White
30 gm Sugar
200 gm Digestive Biscuit
80 gm Melted Butter

Method
Preparing The Crust
1) Crush the digestive biscuits using a meat tenderiser or food precessor.
2) Melt butter and pour into the crushed digestive biscuits. Mix Well.
3) Wrap around the sides of a 20cm (8") round cake ring with aluminium foil to prevent water from entering during baking (Water Bath).
4) Pour the digestive biscuit into the cake ring and compress it to make an even layer of base. 

Preparing Cheese Batter
1) Beat cream cheese, icing sugar, corn flour and lemon zest together at low to medium speed till soft and smooth. The best way of ensuring this is to leave the cream cheese to soften in room temperature a while before beginning.
2) Do not use high speed to beat as it will incorporate air into the batter and may cause cracks when baked.
3) Stop occasionally to scrape the sides of bowls and continue to beat till batter is free of lumps and smooth.
4) Add in eggs one by one and continue to beat till smooth.
5) Pour in milk slowly and followed by sour cream.
6) Make meringue by whisking egg white with sugar together till soft peak.
7) Fold meringue into the cheese batter using a rubber spatula.
8) Set aside 5 tbsp of batter and mix with 1 tsp of cocoa powder.
9) Pour the remaining batter into the pre prepared cake ring with the biscuit base.
10) Using a piping bag, pipe the cocoa batter horizontally across the cake. Use a skewer to drag and create patterns (refer to video) on the surface of cheese cake.
11) Place the cake in a deep baking pan and fill half the pan with water. (Bain Marie)
12) Bake in oven at 150C (300F) for 75 minutes. Depending on your oven, if your cheesecake starts to brown on top before 45 minutes, cover the top of cake with aluminium foil and continue to bake till 75 minuts is up. Serve chilled.

Recipe makes 1 X 20cm (8") Round Cake Ring Cheese Cakes