Ultimate Japanese Cheesecake

I can't remember what I was searching for when I stumbled upon this recipe... and created the ultimate japanese cheesecake with a rare raspberry cheesecake sandwiched between... "rare" as in like "rare" beef; uncooked cheesecake... :-)  Initially I thought, Wow... super special cake with a rare, hard to find recipe... bonus! But no... that was not the case! *haha*... OK recipe... 

The recipe for the japanese cheesecake is found here.

The original recipe for the rare cheesecake is found here but I have also included it below.

Ingredients:

• 100gm frozen raspberries (any berries can be used, try a mixed even...)
• 125gm Philadelphia lite cream cheese
• 100gm fresh cream or UHT lactose free cream
• 3 tbsp fresh lactose free milk
• 30gm sugar
• ¼ tbsp lemon juice
• # 2½ tsp gelatin
• # ¼ cup hot water

Directions (3 ramekins or thin layer in 8" pan):

1. Bring all ingredients except those marked with # to room temperature, then blend together using blender or food processor until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix together gelatin with hot water and stir until all gelatin is dissolved.
3. Pour gelatin mixture into (1), pulse the blender to mix.
4. Pour the mixture into ramekins or pan and chill in refridgerator until set.
   
   
   
   

   OR

   
   

   in cake version: I cut the japanese cheesecake into half, horizontally, then poured the blended rare cheesecake in & replaced the other half of the japanese cheesecake to form a sandwich pressing just gently so that the rare cheesecake spreads properly underneath...

   
   

   Enjoy!
   
   
   
   

Ultimate Japanese Cheesecake

French Apple/Pear Cake

This is the yummiest apple cake ever... & extremely easy & simple to make too... Loved it as I could hand beat everything so less washing up to do! *haha*

The recipe I used is by Dorie Greenspan but found it in this blog by David Lebovitz (one of my fav blogs too!).

Ingredients:
110g self-raising flour (or 3/4 plain flour mixed with 3/4 tsp baking powder)
pinch of salt
4 large apples (any variety)
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
100g sugar
3 tbsp dark rum (I just used Bunderburg Rum)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
115g reduced salt butter (melted & cooled to room temp)

Method:

Apples coated in batter

1. Preheat oven to 180C and adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven.

2. Heavily butter a 20-23cm cake pan (I used one of those with the holes in the centre)

3. Melt butter in microwave & set aside to cool.

4. Mix flour & salt together in a small bowl.

5. Peel & core apples, then dice to about 3cm pieces.

6. In a large bowl, beat eggs till foamy then whisk in sugar, then rum and vanilla. 

7. Whisk in half of the flour mixture, then gently stir in half of the melted butter. 

Baked and Cooled... Yum!

8. Stir in the remaining flour mixture then the rest of the butter.

9. Fold in the apple cubes until they are well coated with the batter & scrape them into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top a little with a spatula.

10. Bake cake for 50 mins to 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool for 5 mins then run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan and carefully remove the sides of the cake pan, making sure no apples are stuck to it.

Serving: Serve wedges of the cake just by itself or with some ice-cream.

Alternatives: Substitute apples for pears makes a real yum treat too... :-) My children want me to try a mango version, I have yet to do that, but will definitely let you know when I do if it works... :-)  Enjoy!

Pear Version (I think had more pears
maybe bigger pears used... *haha*)

French Apple/Pear Cake