BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE (ALMOST SYN FREE)

After the success with the half syn roulade, I decided to take the recipe one step further and make something else from it. I adore cheesecake and an idea was beginning to take shape..... The secret to the crunchy bottom lies in the buckwheat, which is syn free, unlike crushed up biscuits mixed with butter.

Serves 8 (or two very greedy people)

½ syn for the whole cake

generous ½ cup buckwheat

2 tbsp sweetener

1 tbsp ground ginger

½ tub quark

4 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp sweetener

500g tub fat free fromage frais

1 ½ tubs quark

1 cup sweetener

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 sachet gelatine*

400g fresh or frozen blueberries

* The cake was really quite soft, which was rather nice, but if I was serving it for a dinner party, I would probably use 2 sachets or 1½ in future as it started to droop fairly quickly.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm spring form cake tin by spraying it with Fry Light. Heat a frying pan to medium-high heat and dry toast the buckwheat until they start to brown, 3-5 minutes. Switch off the pan, add 2 tbsp sweetener, the ginger and ca 1 tbsp water to mix it all in. Stir until all the water has evaporated. Quickly line the bottom of the cake tin with the buckwheat and leave to cool.

Separate the eggs. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks with half of one of the tubs of quark, the baking powder and 4 tbsp sweetener. Carefully fold in to the egg whites. Pour mixture on top of the buckwheat in the tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin. Don't worry if the cake looks very high at this stage, it will settle down when it has cooled.

Using an electric whisk, beat together the fromage frais, the rest of the quark, ½ cup of sweetener and vanilla essence. Dissolve the contents of the gelatine in 120ml boiling water and beat well to ensure it is properly mixed. Allow to cool a little before gently mixing in to the fromage frais mixture. Spread the mixture over the cake and leave for at least two hours to set.

Finally top with blueberries, remove the sleeve and serve.

This is one of the best experiments I have done for a very long time, and I can see me making this often as Husband absolutely loved it too!