Heavenly Cake Bakers: Baby Lemon Cheesecakes

According to Lily, this last week has been Cheesecake Week at the bakery, everyone who comes in is fiending for cool creamy richness. Both of us are constantly bemused by these fleeting market trends--one week everyone wants whole wheat bread, the next they need cheesecake--but it's fun to watch them come and go. And luckily, this week's Heavenly Cake Bakers recipe was right in line with the trend--mini cheesecakes topped with lemon curd. Just the kind of creamy, impressive, twee creation that everyone wants. Too bad I ignored Rose's exhortation in the intro note and made only half the recipe. These flew off the shelf so fast that we might be making more of them very soon.

The cakes are easy, although there are a bunch of steps. Luckily, they're steps I like, such as making sponge cake and lemon curd.  The recipe starts with a small note indicating that one should begin by making the sponge. Several bakers missed the step, and then backtracked in surprise. I was lucky enough to catch it this time (although I've been forgetting everything right and left, so it was just luck, believe me), and whipped my egg whites, yolks, sugar, et al in style. I love sponge cake, and everything that didn't get cut out went straight into my mouth.

Once the sponge was made, I cut it into small circles (Lily came in while I was doing this with a jar lid and pointed out that she has a small box of round cutters in EVERY size. Jealous). Then the very simple cheesecake mix was mixed. It consists largely of sour cream, so it was whiter and creamier than any cheesecake I've ever made, causing one fellow baker to describe it as similar to the Jell-o mix variety. The cake mixture was poured over the biscuit rounds (in paper muffin cups in a regular muffin pan), and baked in a water bath for about 20 minutes.

I cooled the cakes for a day, and the next morning made lemon curd and poured it hot onto the cold cakes. I was a little low on curd (should've made the full recipe), but managed to make it come out even, and by dint of a small offset spatula, was able to peel off the wrappers and smooth the sides pretty successfully. And the last one was gone by 1:00 pm.

The success of the cheesecakes was a balm to my wounded baker's soul, as, owing to some poor flour purchasing on my part, the bread was an unmitigated disaster, with some of it refusing to rise at all and the rest lacking strength in the extreme. Most of it had to be written off. Walking by the store, I saw my most loyal customer, a bread loving Swiss fellow, looking awfully disappointed, and I hid. Next week it will all be better. And I already made the Palet D'or Gateau, so maybe I'll try my hand at some croissants.