I’m not a master of baking, I like simple cakes and desserts that everyone could make themselves without feeling of disaster when it’s not going to look as on Instagram. Most probably it’s simply because I don’t have so much patience to spend hours on baking, mixing, waiting to cool down (hate it!) and decorating the cake that will finally end up being sliced and smashed with a spoon or fork. That’s why I admire so much these who can spend hours to bake, prepare layers and than patiently, with watch-making accuracy decorate with all these small beautiful details that someone will just eat. For me it’s a form of art and I would be sorry to just eat something that took someone hours of creative work. Because let’s be honest – these beautiful cakes that you see on Instagram or Pinterest it’s usually hours of sculpting. It’s like you would get a beautiful wooden sculpture, chop it and put to a fire to get yourself warm 😉

That’s why I like simple things, so you won’t find beautiful, art looking cakes on this blog. Although I find some charm in this simple cake forms, a bit rustic and imperfect.

This mascarpone cheesecake was on my mind for weeks or even months. I did it only once, and God knows why only once, because I remember that it was delicious. Velvety, creamy almost buttery and very light considering the amounts of fat it contains. Mascarpone is made with cream, not with milk, so it contains about 80% of fat. It’s like butter 🙂 Due to the high content of saturated fatty acids, is not a product that we should eat every day. It’s like Mary Berry said:

“Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.”

Mary Berry

That’s actually quite smart, because comparing to “freshly baked in store” sugar cookies I’ve been rumbling about in my previous posts, most probably you won’t be able to eat more than one slice of mascarpone cheesecake. It’s so fulfilling! Unfortunately I cannot say the same about sugar cookies and cheese crackers 😉

Oh and I have to mention about sweet dark cherries and chia that makes delicious topping. I was thinking how to thicken the sauce without using any kind of starch and chia seeds just popped into my head as an obvious answer. They worked like charm. They not only thicken the sauce but also added some interesting texture to it.

mascarpone cheesecake with chia & sweet cherry

INGREDIENTS:

• 600g mascarpone
• 4 medium eggs
• 4-5 tbsp xylitol or other sugar replacement
• 2 tsp madagascan vanilla extract
• 2 handfuls of cherries (I used frozen ones)
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• optionally: 1 tpsp of xylitor to add to cherries
• little bit of coconut oil or butter to grease the baking tray

DIRECTIONS

First prepare baking tray and heat the oven, so both will be ready when you need them. I placed piece of baking paper on the bottom of round baking tray and greased the sides with coconut oil.

Heat the oven to about 140-150°C. My oven is weird and very quickly burns the top of every cheesecake, so I had to lower the heat to 140°C. I also have only an option to bake with a fan, so fan always rise the temperature. If you have the same issue with your oven place a piece of baking paper or aluminium foil to prevent cheesecake from burning.

Beat the eggs with handheld mixer until fluffy. Start adding xylitol, spoon by spoon and keep beating until eggs will triple the volume and become creamy, fluffy and light in colour. Then start adding mascarpone. Do it in parts, the same as with sugar. Also add vanilla extract and mix until it combines. It will be quite liquid, but it’s fine, don’t worry about it.

Pour it to a baking tray and place in the oven. I place it in another baking tray in case it would leak and start dripping on the bottom of the oven. Bake for about 60 minutes. As always cheesecake will rise beautifully and then deflate quite a bit. But that’s how it always ends 😉

Let it cool down in the oven, open it just slightly so the temperature won’t drop suddenly. When it’s cooled take it out of the oven and let it cool down completely.

In the meantime prepare cherries. In a small saucepan heat 2-3 tablespoons of water and add cherries. Simmer until cherries defrost (or if you use fresh cherries until it starts boiling) and add about a tablespoon of chia seeds. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes on a small heat. Then switch off the heat and let chia suck all the liquid. If you like it more sweet than add some xylitol.

When cheesecake is completely cold transfer it from the baking tray on a plate or cake stand and place cherries and chia on top. Because cheesecake deflates more in the middle than on the edges it’s perfect to place cherry and chia topping.

Cheesecake is ready to be eaten. Store it in the fridge up to 2-3 days.