Not baking your cake and eating it

Pushpesh Pant

Poor Bourbon Queen Mary has been much maligned for advising those clamouring for bread to eat cake but who would rather not eat cake if one really could? The trouble is that baking is a demanding art an exact science and turning out a perfect cake isn’t easy. However, there are cakes that don’t need to be baked. Cheesecakes are those delightful concoctions that can be mastered relatively easily and can give immense satisfaction to family and friends. The topping may be changed as per taste, season and availability of ingredients. In our experience the impact is never less than stunning. Mildly sweet, light and refreshing, cheesecakes have an aura of healthy foods. Kill joys may insist that this is a figment of our imagination but we are more than happy to have our cheesecake and eat it too!

Strawberry cheesecake

Ingredients

Marie/Digestive biscuits 250g

Butter (unsalted, melted) 100g

Cream cheese 600g

Icing sugar 100g

Double cream 300g

Topping 

Strawberries (washed and halved) 250g

Icing sugar 25g