This is one of those cheese desserts that as a cheese lover you are going to fall in love with it. Start by coating the sides of a cake pan with butter then line the bottom with parchment paper and cover the outside of the pan with a large piece of aluminium foil. In a bowl, bring room temperature cream cheese, sour cream, and butter and beat them using a whisk just until they are well combined.

You will then add two egg yolks one after the other while mixing the mixture thoroughly after each addition until it is well incorporated in the mixture then sift in cake flour to the mixture. This is light butter and you want to combine everything with a wire whisk until the flour is moistened then add the milk a little at a time while mixing until the batter is smooth.

Add vanilla extract and mix it in the sieved mixture in another bowl. For the meringue, lightly beat three chilled egg whites with a mixer until it starts to get whitish then add sugar in three steps and beat the egg whites for about 2 minutes. Do not overbeat the meringue, you just want to beat it until it reaches a stiff peak.

Add one-third of the meringue to the egg yolk mixture and mix it well then add another third and fold it in slowly until it is well mixed in so you do not break the structure. Finally, pour the mixture into the bowl with the remaining meringue and gently fold everything from the bottom until it is well mixed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pan in a deep tray with warm water.

Bake the cheesecake in 320 degrees preheated oven for 10 minutes then lower the temperature to 302 F(150 degrees C) and bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes. Check with a toothpick to see if the cake is baked before removing it from the oven then place the cake on cooling to cool completely then chill the cake in the fridge for 2 hours. Release the cake from the pan then slice and serve with apricot jam on top. Enjoy.

Ingredients;

  • 100g Cream Cheese (3.5 oz)
  • 30g Sour Cream (1.1 oz)
  • 20g butter, unsalted (0.7 oz)
  • 2 Egg Yolks
  • 20g Cake Flour (0.7 oz)
  • 100ml Milk (3.4 fl oz)
  • ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Egg Whites for the meringue
  • 40g Granulated Sugar (1.4 oz)

Top with;

  • Apricot Jam diluted with rum
  • Icing Sugar, optional
  • Grated Lemon Zest, optional

Use a 15cm/5.9” cake pan with a removable bottom.