Lemon cake, cheese cake and pear cake

Here are some more cakes I dug out from my old recipe book and adapted for some occasions, like my son and daughter in law visiting us (cheese cake), celebrating my daughter’s new job (lemon cake), or the saffron buns I made for Saint Lucia last December, according to the Swedish tradition.

Cheese cake with white and dark chocolate

You need: 200 g of digestive biscuits, 75 g of melted butter, 500 g of full fat cheese, 100 g of natural yogurt, 150 of caster sugar, 4 eggs, 200 g of white chocolate, 200 g of dark chocolate.

Grind the biscuits and add the melted butter. Line a round spring-form cake tin with baking paper and spread evenly the ground biscuits at the bottom.

Mix the cheese and the yogurt in a bowl, add the sugar and the eggs. Divide the mixture in two bowls and melt the dark and white chocolate separately microwaving them for two minutes. Add the chocolates to the two mixture separately so you have one with white chocolate and the other with dark chocolate. Pour the two mixture in the tin alternating white and dark. Bake for 45-50 minutes at 180° C.

Lemon cake

You need: 300 g of plain flour, 170 g of white caster sugar, 50 g of butter, 3 eggs, 2 tbsp of natural yogurt, the grated rind and the juice of one lemon, 1 and a half tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda; candied lemon peel sticks and100 g of white chocolate to decorate.

Grind the lemon rind with the sugar. In a bowl beat the butter and add the lemon rind and sugar mixture, add the yolk of the eggs and the lemon juice as well. Stiff the egg whites till firm and add it to the mixture together with the rest of the ingredients. Bake it in a greased round cake tin for 30-45 minutes at 180° C. When cool decorate it with lemon peel sticks and melted white chocolate, adding some drops of lemon juice in it.

You can have an ‘orange’ version of this cake using the rind of an orange and orange juice instead of the lemon, and orange peel sticks and dark chocolate to decorate.

Pear pie

For the dough you need: 250 g of self raising flour, 50 g of melted butter, 2 eggs, 100 g of sugar.

For the filling you need: 700 g of pears, 1 egg, 100 g of sugar, 300 g of double cream, 1 tsp of fennel seeds.

Prepare the dough mixing all the ingredients and let it rest for half an hour.

Peel and core the pears and cut them in cubes in a bowl. Add the cream, the egg, sugar and fennel seeds. Roll out half of the dough and line a greased pie tin, pour into it the pear mixture and cover it with the rest of the dough you have rolled out as well. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 180° C.

Saffron buns

You need: 500 g of strong flour, 100 g of golden caster sugar, 75 g of melted butter, 1 beaten egg and 1 more egg to glaze, half a tsp of salt, 5 g of saffron, dried yeast (7 g), 300 ml of lukewarm milk, and raisins to decorate.

Mix the flour with the sugar, the salt and the yeast, add the butter and the egg. Warm the milk and add the saffron; add it to the mixture and knead the dough (add some flour if necessary). Give them a round or an S-shape and decorate it with raisins. Set them on a greased oven tray and cover it with a film. Let it rest in a warm place for 2-3 hours. Finally, glaze the top with a beaten egg and bake for 30 minutes at 200° C.