Very Berry Baking

There seems to be a bit of a baking thing going on with this blog at the moment, which has inspired me to keep it going. Those cupcakes from Stakaz have had my mind wandering and mouth watering for over a month now....

I have mentioned in an earlier post the absolutely divine berries you can get in
Scando during the summer. Well it is that time of the year, and we have been munching on strawberries that taste as sweet and luscious as any you can even imagine. I have also talked about 'fika' and the very best fikas are those where a bit of 'jordgubbkaka' (strawberry cake), is available and fresh. The first cake here is an attempt on the classic, the recipe given to me by my Swedish boss. Apparently this is a basic swedish kaka recipe and the strawberries can be substituted for any other berries fresh or frozen, and apple and pear as well.
(also sorry about the mls/gms mix up with this recipe, in sweden they use decilitres for all baking measurements so thought I would just stick to the very literal conversion with all ingredients)

Swedish Strawberry Cake

Ingredients
1 egg
150 mls sugar
125g butter (melted)
150ml flour
150-200 g strawberries

* Preheat oven at 200°C and grease form cake pan
* beat sugar and egg for 2 mins
* add melted butter and mix
* add flour and mix
* put batter in tin and drop berries over the top (they will sink a little)
* Bake for about 25 mins.

It is quite a thin little cake, but simple and sweet.

I am a bit of a cheesecake fan, but would you believe I have never in my life attempted to make one myself. This is the first. But these local strawberries were just begging to be used in combo with a tangy cheesy sweet delicacy.
The recipe used here is from http://www.momswhothink.com and chosen because of the fewest fiddly ingredients.

Strawberry Cheesecake


Ingredients:

1 cup digestive biccie crumbs
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 pkg. (200g. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. cornflour
About 300g fresh strawberries, (I'm not sure we had this amount left by the time they got to the topping, they were too good for little boys to resist sitting washed on the bench)


Directions:
* Preheat oven to 170°C
* Mix biccie crumbs, butter and sugar. Press firmly into bottom of pan.
* Bake 10 minutes, remove from oven and set aside.
* Raise oven temperature to 180°C.
* Beat 1/2 cup sugar, cream cheese, lemon juice and lemon peel with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.
* Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each egg is added just until blended. Pour into crust.
* Bake 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.
* Wash then drain strawberries, reserving liquid. In a medium saucepan add enough water to reserved liquid to measure 1/2 cup then mix in cornflour, blending well.
*Bring to boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Cool, then stir in the strawberries and spread evenly over cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.