Cake 5 - Lemon and Ginger Cheesecake

This week's cake was brought to you all the way from my Mum's kitchen in the beautiful city that is Kuala Lumpur - which means my blog has now become international! Cue round of applause.

As a source of inspiration, I turned to the only cookery book which made the journey from their house in Chester, all the way across the 7 seas to their Malaysian Condo. This is none other than the ledgendary Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook published circa 1970. This cook book is the source of some fantasticly strange retro creations including Turkey in Aspic and Salmon Mousse, but would I find a dessert suitable for this tropical climate and cooking utensils available? After toying with the idea of a pineapple upsidedown cake, I instead turned to another well known source of inspiration.......the meal on the plane!

I was pleasantly surprised by the dessert on the aeroplane, which I think in the absence of a menu was a ginger cheesecake. It went some way in compensating for the sorry excuse for an omlette served at breakfast, the bread rolls the texture of tennis balls, and the air hostess who told me off for being noisy. I thought to myself as I ate the dessert out of its little plastic coffin at 30,000 feet, “I could do a version of this!”

After visiting the local grocery shop and selecting my ingredients, I set to work in my Mums 34 degree kitchen finding the utensils and lining an oval tin with a removable bottom. I then moved on to making the base. For this I had to turn ginger biscuits into crumbs and mix with butter on the hob. My Mum does not own a food processor, so I ended up putting the biscuits in an empty bread bag and battering them within an inch of their lives with a rolling pin. The result was acceptable, so after mixing with the melted butter, I set about pressing the crunchy ginger base in the cake tin.

For the topping, I mixed mascarpone cheese with grated lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar. I had selected another local cream cheese to mix with my expensive imported mascarpone, but upon tasting it realised that it contained more salt than you would find in haloumi! I was glad I tasted it before I mixed it in with the rest of the topping. The heat of the kitchen meant that the mixture went runny very quickly, and I was a bit worried that it wouldn't set.....but I poured it onto the now chilled base, refrigerated, and hoped for the best.

After a couple of hours by the pool the lemon and ginger cheesecake was ready. To my relief, it had set beautifully. I cut into slices and served to my Mum and Dad, and also the security guards who looked like they could do with a cake break. The lemon and ginger was so refreshing in the hot climate, and the crunch of the ginger biscuits worked really well against the smooth creaminess of the mascarpone. Mum suggested we put some tinned oranges on the side, which although I was not at all sure about definitely added something!

Now I am signing off and going to the seaside town of Kuantan, where I hope to get some ideas for next week's cake. I may try something Malaysian inspired......until next week.