Cheesecake! With raspberries from our garden no less! I was hoping this one I slightly fiddled with from Olive magazine would be a very dense cheesecake, but it wasn’t quite dense enough for my liking. Everyone else said it was perfectly dense thankyouverymuch and that the problem laid not with the cheesecake but with my insistence that it should be denser. It was very, very nice though. I inhaled more than one slice and even had a little weep when Alex ate the last sliver. I was so sure that he wouldn’t want it. If you can smell burning, that’s my martyrdom ablaze. No darling, really… you enjoy it.

I will tell you this though. I have a new favourite ever in the whole world alcoholic beverage. My heart truly belongs to Muscat de Beaumes de Venice, but there is a contender for the crown. A serious contender. Chambord. Black raspberry liqueur.
I can’t rave about this enough. It is the most intensely flavoured liqueur; it’s heady with fragrance and every single person I have forced to sniff the bottle has said ‘mmmmmmmmmmmm!’. I rarely let them taste it because it is so expensive, but a fingerdip usually has them reeling. I defy you not to run out and buy an orb-shaped, golden belted bottle should you be offered a sniff.
Anyway, I added a mere 1 tablespoon of Chambord to the cheesecake and it seriously propped up and enhanced the raspberry flavour; next time I might even add two. Scandalous.

No, what really is scandalous is that when I added the tablespoon to the cheesecake and flung the spoon to one side to be washed up, there was a microscopic film of it covering the spoon so I licked it clean. Better than necking it straight from the bottle, but barely.

Buy a bottle and rave about it with me would you? Please?

The usual base of digestive biscuits and melted butter. Yum.

Pressed into the base of an 8″ springform tin and baked for 5 minutes then cooled.

Blend the cream cheese and add a couple of tablespoons of flour and the sugar

then add the eggs

*clouds part to reveal the blazing sun, the sound of a heavenly chorus and a shaft of light falls upon the bottle of Chambord*

A tablespoon of the liqueur and some soured cream

Then add 100g of raspberries (grew them I did – grew them!)

Then pour it on top of the cooled base and bake in the oven for around 40 mins

Golden around the edges and a bit jiggly in the middle. The cheesecake too.

Cooled… and cracked. I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon – don’t need to spend all that money on travelling now, luckily.

Oooooh squidgy!

By this time, the family are telling me to hurry up and pass the slices round before they snap at me like a teased dog.

Very, very nice.

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Raspberry baked Cheesecake
(adapted from an ‘Olive’ magazine recipe)

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

8 digestive biscuits
50g melted unsalted butter

600g cream cheese
2 tbsp plain flour
175g caster sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
142ml pot soured cream
1-2 tbsp Chambord liqueur
100g raspberries

Preheat oven to GM 4/350F/180C
Base line an 8″/20cm springform tin.

Crush the biscuits and mix with the melted butter.
Press into the base of the tin – and just slightly upwards to create a tiny edge.
Bake for 5-10 mins until (more) golden, then remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add the flour and sugar. Combine.
Beat in the eggs.
Add the liqueur and soured cream. Combine.
Fold in the raspberries.

Bake for around 40 minutes. It should be golden around the edges and still a bit jiggly in the middle – not sloshing liquid – just jiggly.
Cool in the tin for 5 mins then carefully run a spatula around the edge. Leave in the tin to cool completely, then transfer the tin to the fridge.

Run the spatula around the edge again once chilled and ready to serve, then unspring the tin.
You can transfer it it to a plate still on the tin base, or have a go at removing it. I had very little problem getting it off the base – even managing to leave the parchment lining at the base behind, but don’t panic about it. FYI, I used a large fish slice and as I lifted it, could peel back the parchment base.
Having said that, at the first sign of doom, I wouldn’t have hesitated to lower it back on to the base.

Serve – with additional raspberries on each plate if you wish.

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