Say cheese

Friends are coming for lunch tomorrow.  As ever, the house needs cleaning from top to bottom, the dog needs walking and there just isn't enough time to do everything.  A risotto will be an easy lunch tomorrow; with warm bread rolls and a tomato salad it can be done in half an hour while chatting over a glass of wine.  Pudding is a different matter, so tonight I've made a lemon cheesecake from Annie Bell's Gorgeous Cakes. 

I absolutely love this book.  It is beautifully laid out with photos that really inspire without being intimidating.  There are sections of the book I will probably never use (much though I am looking forward to being an aunt, I really can't see a stage coming when I will ever want to decorate a celebration cake with anything other than simple icing.  Piping just isn't me) but even these are fun to flick through.

The other reason I love the book is that the recipes work.  They have that wonderful sunshine feel so alien to Shropshire in January - fresh mango and passionfruit rather than sultanas and dried apricots, a promise of the summer to come.  Almond meal and coconut feature regularly and you can almost taste the moist, fruity sponges just from reading the recipe.

The cheesecake is a lovely twist on a classic.  A retro Digestive base, plenty of lemon juice and zest in with the cheese, baked till it rises and starts to firm up.  Then my favourite bit - sour cream spread across the top before it returns to the oven.  There is nothing sickly about this cheesecake, and no slick fruit topping.  It gives a fresh, zingy, sharp mouthful and will be wonderful with raspberries piled up next to it.

Now all I have to worry about is keeping our dog away from their baby.