Simple Cheesecake

It was my mother in law's birthday and she wished for a cheesecake. Well, who'd say no to that? 

Instead of my usual 26cm pan, I used a 30cm one, so the cake was a bit larger and so were the amounts of everything.

First thing to do: the shell. All you need is:

300 g flour
75 g sugar
150 g butter
2 eggs
2 sachets vanilla sugar

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and knead into a dough. Refrigerate for half an hour. Grease and flour the pan. Roll half the dough into a circle of 30 cm and place into the pan. Out of the remaining half form sausages and place them on the edge of the dough circle. Press/pull them up, so that they become the shell for the cake. (Just look at the picture and you will know what I mean...) Some dough should remain, which you can roll out very thin. Then, cut out shapes to decorate your cake with. I used little flowers and petals.

While you prepare the filling, the shell should rest in the refrigerator.

What you need to prepare the filling:

1,5 kg curd cheese
100 g sugar
2 sachets vanilla sugar
6 eggs
2 sachets vanilla custard powder

First, cream the cheese until it forms an even mass. Then, add the sugars and mix until incorporated. Do likewise with the eggs, one by one.

Finally, stir in the custard powder. Make sure that it is well incorporated because it is this ingredient that gives the cheese mass the desired firmness. Decorate with the cut out shapes (The dough, you remember?)

Bake in the preheated oven on 170°C for about 45-55 minutes. The cake will still be a bit jiggly, when taken out of the oven. 

I pre-baked the cake for about 20 minutes before placing the decoration onto it, that is why it is so pale. So, next time, I will certainly decorate the cake directly.