Sarah's Raspberry Cheesecake

Having just posted my February bake - I've realised I should break away from baking with raspberries!

March's baking challenge called for a cheesecake. I must admit, I have a trusty lemon cheesecake recipe which I usually call upon - however I thought I'd make something I've not baked before - so I went for a baked cheesecake.

This recipe was from Rachel Allen, and I agree with the description on the BBC Food website - this was really light and fluffy. I used a bigger tin (23 cm) than the recipe called for (20 cm) but I just upped the recipe for the biscuit base and added 100g more crème fraiche and an extra egg.

Biscuit base
225g digestive biscuits
75g butter

Filling
500g ricotta
300g crème fraiche
175g caster sugar
4 eggs
zest and juice of a lemon
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g raspberries

 This was really quick and easy to make as it required no whisking of cream or egg whites for example. Mix all the ingredients together, and stir through half the raspberries. Pour on top of the biscuit base, and sprinkle the rest of the raspberries on top. Bake for 40 minutes at 180C and leave to cool before chilling in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

We had a few friends over for Sunday lunch who were worthy participants for the taste test. This is Chris with his first portion...

I was surprised I liked this so much as I normally prefer refrigerated cheesecakes to baked cheesecakes, but this was so light and airy I would be temped to make this again - although I might try using blueberries next time, just to add some variety to my 5-a day!