Whilst neither of us is that interested in cakes and baking apart from bread (as you’ll probably have figured from this site), we do have a certain weakness for cheesecake. We first cooked this recipe for our 18th wedding anniversary as a celebration of our travels together in Japan, and a bit of a showstopper so we often make this the night before cooking for people. It is gluten free. Much lighter than its American/European counterparts, it’s fluffy and moussey, with a lovely gentle eggy, cheesey, lemony flavour. It doubles in size during the baking process – relying on the egg whites to give it volume and airiness. You then invert it, so the crust becomes the equivalent of the biscuit base. Once inverted, it’s the coating of cream cheese and lemon juice that shifts it from eggy to lemony creaminess, without it becoming heavy or too calorie laden. We prefer it served cool from the fridge, and it keeps for 2-3 days, not that it has lasted that long with us so far. You will need three large bowls (one of which conducts heat well), a 20cm spring-form baking dish, a larger baking tray that this will fit into, a skewer and greaseproof/parchment paper.

160g full fat cream cheese + extra for topping (see below)

20g butter

130mls milk (semi skimmed works fine)

1 tsp yuzu or lemon juice

Very finely grated zest of 1 lemon

35g gluten free flour

28g cornflour

Pinch of salt

½ tspn vanilla paste

4 medium eggs (separate the whites from the yolks)

85g caster sugar

Topping:-

120g full fat cream cheese

3 teaspoon yuzu or lemon juice (to taste)

Agave syrup to taste

• Heat the oven to 150 C. Line a 20cm diameter spring-form baking dish with parchment paper. Cover the outside with aluminum foil to prevent water from leaking into the cheesecake. This bit is very important.

• Boil a kettle. Put the cream cheese, butter, and milk into a heat conducting bowl, and place the boiling water in a medium saucepan pan over a medium heat. Stir until mixture dissolves. Turn off heat and set aside

• In another bowl beat the egg yolks, the teaspoon of yuzu/lemon, lemon zest and the vanilla paste until combined. Whisk in the warm milk mixture to the egg yolks. Then sift in the flour and corn flour. Mix gently

• In another large bowl, beat the egg white with pinch of salt. Gradually add the sugar and keep on whisking until you get a stiff, meringue-like peak. Pour the egg yolk and milk mixture around the side of the egg white, to prevent knocking out air from the egg white. Fold the egg white and egg yolk mixture very gently using a spatula. Boil a kettle.

• Pour the mixture in your spring-form baking dish. Tap it three times on a table to remove air holes

• Place the spring-form baking dish in a larger and deep baking tray. Pour hot water in the large baking tray so that it reaches half way up the spring-form baking dish. Bake for 1 hour and then switch off the oven and leave, with the oven door closed, for another 15 minutes. Then, finally open the door, test whether a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If it does, wedge a wooden spoon in the oven door to create a gap and leave in the oven for a final 15 minutes. If the skewer does not come out clean, allow a further 10 minutes with the door closed and repeat this process

• Remove from the oven and remove from the baking dish. Allow to cool on a wire rack, and then invert so that the darker top becomes the base (you can pop it in the fridge to speed up this process).

• Combine the topping cream cheese with a little of the lemon juice/yuzu and adjust sweetness to taste. It should be slightly on the sour side, as the cake is relatively sweet due to its meringue based structure. Spread topping thinly over the top and sides. It can be served immediately, or returned to the fridge overnight. Serve cool.