Its been quite a while since we included a really good recipe for a weekend cake which is why we decided on this one. It’s luscious, decadent and as rich as all cheesecakes are supposed to be ………. but were cakes always made like this? When did we first start baking cakes and who was responsible? It’s commonly believed that the word cake comes from the Old Norse word, kaka, and that this word refers to a sweetened bread, baked with flour and sweetened with honey. I’m not so sure about that – I believe that the Greeks were the first people to bake a cake – which they called plakous (Greek for flat).

However, humans always had a penchance for sweet things – amongst remains found in Swiss Neolithic lake villages very basic cakes (made from crushed gains, moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone) were discoverd and considered to be the precursor of the cakes we know today. The ancient Egyptians, it seems though, were the first culture to show real skill in baking sweetened forms of bread when they developed the earliest complicated forms of this thing called cake. The cheesecakes of the Greeks and the early forms of Roman fruitcake (they only learnt how to make cheesecake from the Greeks later on in their civilization and called these placenta or libum) eventually evolved into the 14^th century cakes of which Chaucer fondly speaks – more particularly the huge 13 – 15 kg cakes made with flour, butter, cream, eggs, spices, currants and honey. Moulds, in the form of cake hoops or pans were used for forming cakes since about the 17th century and they were served sweet wine or tea. Nowadays we invent cakes as we go and most of us would be able to invent something when forced – so here’s a recipe with which to have fun in your kitchen this weekend.

COCOA-LIME CHEESECAKE IN A LIME AND CHAMPAGNE SAUCE

Ingredients

Sponge

• 110 g butter
• 110 g caster sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 110g cake flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼tsp ground ginger
• 1 lime, zest only
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp milk

Cheesecake

• 50 g dark  chocolate (75 % cocoa solids)
• 50 g ricotta cheese
• 150 g mascarpone cheese
• 30 gcaster sugar
• 1 lime, juice only

Sauce

• lime curd
• squeeze lemon
• lime zest
• a touch of champagne

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

• Put the softened butter and sugar in a food processor and process for 1 minute.
• Add the eggs, cocoa, sieved cake flour, baking powder, ground ginger, lime zest and vanilla extract – process for a further 2 minutes.
• Add the milk and process for another 2 minutes until the mixture has a soft dropping consistency.
• Pour the mixture into 2 x 9cm properly greased (use butter) ovenproof cake rings on the baking tray.
• Put carefully in the middle shelf of the oven and bake until springy to the touch for about 15-20 minutes.
• Check that a skewer comes out clean when the sponge is pierced.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes and remove from the rings.
• Leave on a wire rack.

Cheesecake

• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler of in a bowl over hot water.
• Put the ricotta in bowl and soften with a spatula, adding the mascarpone and sugar, beating again with a spatula.
• Add the lime juice and beat again.
• Add the melted chocolate and mix to incorporate into the cheese.
• Place in a freezer for 10 minutes only.
• The chocolate cooling down in the freezer will set the whole mixture.
• Take a hot spoon and run it through the chocolate cheesecake mixture to make a large curl and put it on top of the sponge.
• Mix a little lime curd with a squeeze of lemon, grated lime zest and a glug of champagne or wine.
• Drizzle this mixture around the sponge cheesecake.
• Serve.