Cupcakes....

I had to make some cupcakes for my daughters end of year Brownie party tomorrow, so I used my Vanilla Fairy Cupcakes recipe, and then did the pale green icing with the confectioners sugar/water mixture and made it a little bit runny and then dipped the tops of the cupcakes in that, let it set and then used Martha's Basic Butter cream frosting tinted pink to decorate with my very basic piping set.

I think they are really cute. I'm no crash-hot piper, but today I had good luck with the whole thing. Usually I mess it up and then just end up having cupcakes with blobs on it.  I also used some little pearls to decorate the top of the piping.

Yesterday I ran the Race for the Cure in DC and then promptly forgot to tape the special CBS showed last night, and then today my friend Hannah, who ran in the race with me, said that I was on TV running!!!  I have search and search the Internet but the show is not posted anywhere, so Hannah kindly didn't delete the show, so I can go over and have a look. I'm sure I'll be horrified. It was a big day for me because that was the first time I have run since my calf injury, and I managed the whole 5K with no incident and a nice time of 29:20 mins. It was also really hot at 8:30 in the morning, so that also slowed me down a bit.

So today I made two Banana Cakes,  the cupcakes, a Warm Lentil Salad for lunches during the week, and then dinner, which was lemon and thyme chicken breasts with roasted potatoes and carrots and brocolli for the girls and peas for the boys!

Made from scratch Chocolate Pudding

Yesterday in the Local Living section of the Washington Post they had a great article about a new book called Real Food Has Curves, about weaning ourselves off processed foods. And they shared a recipe from the book,  made from scratch chocolate pudding.  I had a quick look at it and had all the ingredients, so I whipped it up before the school bus arrived in the afternoon and we had it for dessert last night. It makes 4 huge serving, but it could easily be 6 regular servings or 8 nice small ones.  I served it with a dollop of whipped cream and some raspberries. The kids loved it, I loved it, and Marc thought that it could be a little sweeter. I'm really into the more bitter chocolates at the moment, so I was happy with the outcome.

Ingredients:


2 large eggs
2 cups low-fat milk
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup flour, preferably unbleached
1 ounce unsweetened or baking chocolate, finely chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Have four 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups at hand.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until they are smooth and creamy, with no remaining floating bits of translucent egg white.

Combine the milk, brown sugar, cocoa powder, flour, chocolate, vanilla extract and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat; whisk until the chocolate melts and the mixture just begins to bubble. Cook for 30 seconds, whisking, while the mixture thickens considerably. Remove from the heat.
Whisk half of the warm chocolate mixture into the eggs in a slow, steady stream, until smooth and well incorporated. Then return the combined mixture to the remaining chocolate mixture in the saucepan and place over low heat. (If you're using an electric range, it may be helpful to have a second burner set on low.) Whisk constantly over low heat for 2 minutes, reaching into the edges of the pan and letting the pudding come to only the barest bubble. If the pudding starts to bubble, reduce the heat as needed or take the pan off the heat and keep whisking for a few seconds to cool it down. The consistency will be silky, with body.

Transfer to the individual ramekins or custard cups. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface to keep a skin from forming, if desired. Refrigerate for about 1 hour, or until well chilled and set.

Calories: 260,Total Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 5g , Cholesterol: 115mg, Sodium: 260mg, Total Carbohydrates: 36g , Dietary Fiber: 3g , Sugar: 18g ,Protein: 11g

New Books!

I got a couple of new books this week (thank you Catherine)and one of them is Crazy About Cupcakes. I haven't made anything from it yet, but I will. It has really good ideas for every single occasion you could possibly think of and some really fantastic cupcake flavours. So I promise to try something from there soon.


The other book I have is The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook: Recipes from the Classic Cookie to Mocha Chip Meringue Cake,and I did make something from there this weekend.


These are called Chocolate-chip Filled Melting Moments. The Melting Moment is actually an Australian cookie, and this recipe has a nice twist to it with the creamy choc chip middle. I actually put too many choc chips in my filling and the cookies didn't stick together as much as I would have liked. The recipe also says to use about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball for each cookie. These cookies really spread, so I would use about 1 teaspoon of dough, and you will get a much better sized cookie to make the cookie sandwiches.

Here is the recipe over at Erin Cooks. Judging by her photos she did a much better job than me getting the size right for the cookies.

ps. They were delicious.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Muffins

My latest thing before buying new recipe books that look good on Amazon, is to borrow them from my library. Luckily I have a fantastic local library, so I'm able to do this for almost any cookbook. I recently borrowed "More from Magnolia" Recipes from the World-Famous Bakery. I'm sort of disappointed with the book because there are hardly any pictures in it!! I have to have pictures!! More often than not that is what inspires me to make the dish or the cake or cookies. I think that's why I love Ina so much, she has photos of 99% of her recipes. I thought most of the the stuff was sort of ordinary, and without pictures to inspire me I didn't think I was going to make anything, until the Raspberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns caught my eye.

I thought they turned out well. The original recipe is for 9 large muffins, but I just made them in the size of regular muffins, because I know no one would eat a whole large muffin. The recipe made 2 dozen regular muffins.

1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8oz package cream cheese, softened
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

Confectioner's sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour 9 large muffin cups or 24 regular muffins. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Drop 3 small dollops (about a teaspoonful each) of raspberry preserves onto the top of each bun and, using the tip of a sharp knife, swirl the preserves into the batter, forming a decorative pattern.

Bake for 25-30 minutes (regular muffins - 22 mins), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the bun comes out clean.

Allow the buns to cool for about 30 minutes before sprinkling with confectioners sugar and serving.

I also think these would probably be delicious with a slight touch of lemon, and I'm going to add some next time I make them, to see how it turns out.

Meringue Sandwich Cookies with White Chocolate Raspberry Filling

My friend Lisa "Pierogie Fingers" came over today and we made these meringue cookies together.

We had a recipe that Lisa found on a blog and it looked great, but the first batch didn't turn out the way we anticipated and they were too "eggy", so we made up our own recipe for the meringue and they turned out much better. Lisa piped perfect little round of meringue and then it was my turn and all mine were the shape of Hershey Kisses, which isn't that good for cookie sandwiches, but they still taste good.

Lisa's perfect piping!

Recipe:

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream
4oz white chocolate
2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment,
whip the egg whites to a peak, gradually add the
sugar and keep whipping until the peaks are stiff.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds onto parchment paper baking sheets,or you could spoon them on if you are not that good with the piping bag, they will turn out just as well .

Bake for 15 minutes, then let sit out for while you mix up the filling.

Filling

Heat the cream until hot. Drop the chocolate and jam into the cream and stir until all are melted
and come together. Let cool until firm enough to pipe or spoon onto the meringue shells. I refrigerated mine to make it harden quicker and it's also easier to spread.

Rustic Apple Tart

I'm really on a roll this weekend. Along with the Lamingtons and the Sour Cream Choc Cake I also made a Rustic Apple Tart from the Everyday Food book.

It was really easy. The most time consuming part was peeling the apples.

Flour for work surface
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (thawed)
3 granny smith apples
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water for egg wash
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons apple jelly or apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 375F. On a lightly floured work surface roll out the pastry sheet (still folded to an 8 x 14 inch rectangle. Trim the edges with a sharp paring knife. Transfer to a baking sheet; place in the freezer. Peel, core and slice the apples 1/4 inch thick. Toss in a large bowl with the sugar.

Brush the pastry with the egg wash, avoiding the edges. Use a sharp paring knife to score a 3/4 inch border around the pastry(do not cut all the way through). Place the apples inside the border and dot with the butter. Bake until the pastry is golden and the apples are tender, 30 to 35 mins.

In the microwave or a small saucepan, heat the jelly with 1 tablespoon water until melted. Brush the apples with the glaze. Serve the tart warm or at room temperature, cutting into pieces with a serrated knife.

UPDATE: We ate it tonight with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I thought it turned out well - the apricot jam made it nice and sweet and sticky

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake....

....which also has sour cream chocolate icing. This is a cake from Nigella's Domestic Goddess, and I've made it a couple of times before with great success. It's actually two 8" rounds with the frosting in between as well as on the top and sides. I serve it with raspberries, which are quite magnificent at the moment.

Butter two 8-inch cake pans, and line with parchment or wax paper.

CAKE:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
3 tablespoons best cocoa
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

ICING:

3oz milk chocolate
3oz bittersweet chocolate
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 cups confections’ sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon hot water

Pre heat the oven to 350F.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Then using and electric mixer, add the butter. In a wide-mouthed measuring cup, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter in the prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes; when they’re ready the cakes should be starting to shrink back form the edges of the tins. Leave for 10 minutes n their pans on racks, then turn out to cool.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave, or in a bowl over hot water. Let cool a little, then stir in the sour cream, vanilla, and syrup. Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and a little hot water, blending until smooth. When you’ve got the texture right – thick enough to cover but supple enough to spread, adding more sugar or water as required – you can ice the cakes.

Cut four strips of baking parchment and make and outline of a square with them on a flat plate. Sit one layer on top of the paper pieces, spread with icing, sit the second layer on top and used the rest of the icing to cover the top and sides.

Mini Lamingtons

I've gone a bits nuts on the baking for Memorial Day weekend. Today I made Mini Lamingtons, and also a Sour Cream Chocolate Cake. I just love lamingtons, they are a taste of home for me. A very traditional Australian spongy cake, dipped in chocolate and then coconut. Messy to make, but worth it.

I found this recipe for the Mini Lamingtons in the cuisine section of the Sydney Morning Herald and I just converted it to imperial measurements and it worked really well.

1 stick soft butter, chopped
3/4 cup super fine sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1 3/4 cups shredded coconut **

For the icing
2 tablespoons soft butter
3 1/4 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tablespoons Dutch cocoa
5 ounces boiling water

Preheat oven to 350F.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in combined sifted flour and baking powder alternating with milk and stir until smooth. Spoon mixture into a greased and lined square tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Stand in tin for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and store for 1 day.

For the icing

Combine all ingredients with 5 ounces boiling water and mix until smooth. This mixture will be very runny.

Cut cake into approximately 1" squares and dip each one into icing, then into coconut.

Place lamingtons on a wire rack for 1-2 hours or until dry.

Makes about 45.

** I used dessicated coconut for this recipe, only because my mother had just brought me some over from Australia, but shredded will work just as well.

Tip: I use two forks to handle the cake squares and dip them in the chocolate and then the coconut. Let the chocolate drip off a bit before you put it in the coconut.

Retro Recipe Box - Orange Velvet Cake

I whipped up another one from the retro Recipe Box this afternoon. It's a Orange Velvet Cake. My mother assures me it's delicious and has been bugging me to make it (truth: asked me nicely once in an email)

It turned out really nicely. I thought the batter was a bit thick and strange when I made it, but it cooked up well.



This picture with the green icing is a bit off putting, but that's the 70's for you.

Here's the recipe:

6oz butter (stick and a half)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon orange juice (I just squeezed the juice of one orange and used that)
2 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder.

Cream butter with sugar and orange rind. Add eggs, one at a time, then orange juice; beat well. fold in sifted flour and baking powder alternately with the milk. Fill into buttered loaf pan, bake at 350F for 45 mins.

Allow to stand in pan 10 mins than turn out on to a cooling rack.

I put all the batter into one loaf pan,and it came nearly to the top and the cake rose up quite high, but you could get two cakes out of it, but they would not be as high.

Icing.

I made a chocolate icing for this cake, but the original recipe called for a butter icing made with 2oz of butter and then add confections sugar and beating until the right consistency for spreading. This is slightly vague for me, so I did the chocolate one this way:

1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 cup less 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons water

And then you could also do an orange flavoured glaze or lemon flavoured glaze:

1 cup confections sugar sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice or lemon juice.

We had the cake after dinner and it was a bit crumbly for my liking, but the flavour was excellent. Next time I'd probably put in a little bit more milk and a little more orange juice to moisten it up a bit.

Lemon Custard Cakes

I love anything with lemon, and I've been eyeing this recipe in the Everyday Food since I got the book, and this morning I was in the mood to whip a few up!!

They are so easy to make, and yum (I just ate one for morning tea!)

Unsalted butter at room temperature for custard cups
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
2-3 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup milk (I used skim)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350F. Set a kettle of water to boil. Butter six 6-ounce custard cups, and place m in a roasting pan or baking dish lined with a kitchen towel (I sprayed the cups with Pam and I didn't use the towel and everything was fine - I took the risk of the cups sliding in the baking dish)

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until the mixture is light; wish in the flour. Gradually whisk in the lemon zest and juice and whisk in the milk.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add to the lemon mixture; gently fold in with a whisk (the batter will be thin)

Divide the batter among the prepared cups. Place the pan in the oven and fill with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the puddings are puffed and lightly browned. 20-25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners sugar.

Note: If you don't have individual custard cups, bake the batter in an 8-inch square baking dish(or other shallow 2-quart baking dish) for 30-35 minutes.

Coconut Slice

As promised I made the Coconut Slice from the recipe box. I pretty much stuck to what was on the recipe card, and it turned out, but next time I would make a couple of drastic changes. I'm going give you the recipe as is (along with my little tweak) and then I'm going to give you the recipe for how you could do it next time. If anyone can improve on this - I'd love to hear about it!!

Original recipe:

1 cup coconut
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 oz butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/8 teaspoon salt.
6 oz dark chocolate (I actually used Bakers Semi-sweet)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Soak coconut with icing sugar and milk. Meanwhile, cream butter and brown sugar, add egg, beat well. Fold in sifted flour and salt. Spread mixture into greased pan (I used 8 x 10). Spread coconut filling over the top. Bake at 350 F for 25 mins. Let Cool completely.

When cooled, melt chocolate and vegetable oil together. Mix well. Let cool slightly and then spread the chocolate over the coconut and then refrigerate until the chocolate has completely hardened, then you can cut it into squares.

New recipe:

2 cups of coconut
2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar
1/4 cup of milk.
1 oz of butter
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup of self - rising flour
pinch of salt.
6oz dark chocolate (I actually used Bakers Semi-sweet)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil.

Same method as above.

So this is actually going to give a much thinner layer of the cakey base, more coconut and the same amount of chocolate, and I think will make it much more delicious than it already is!!

My husband thinks that I should have made it with a graham cracker crust. All Americans are obsessed with graham cracker crust and I don't think it's the answer for everything. The cakey base is what makes this slice quite unique.

Nana's Sponge Cake

I used my Nana's recipe to make this sponge. She was great at making sponge cake. She never learned to drive a car, but she could whip one of these up no problem.

I came across the recipe for the sponge when I was going through my mothers old recipe cards that she used to use all the time. The delights of entertaining in the 60's and 70's is a whole other post, which I will delight you with next!

So there it is! The simplest recipe in the world!

4 eggs

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of self rising flour

Grease and flour two 8" round pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the eggs on High until light and fluffy.(I also added 1 teaspoon of vanilla at this stage) I used the paddle attachment on my mixer and put it on speed 8 until air bubbles formed around the edges of egg mixture. Add the sugar gradually. Then fold in the flour. I put the mixer on speed 2 for this and it only took a few seconds to fold in the flour. Bake at 350F for 25 mins.

I used Trader Joe's Raspberry Preserves between the cake layers and whipped up some cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I sprinkled the top of the cake with confectioners sugar.

Meringue Piping Update.

It did not go well. I need some of these, some of these, one of these, and last but not least one of these to pipe it for me!!

I ended up just making circles of meringue with the back of a spoon, and they baked up just fine!!

Mini Pavlovas!

I made these little plates of heaven this weekend. Individual pavlovas (one of Australia's national dishes) topped with whipped cream, srawberries and raspberries, sitting on some raspberry sauce. I really should have described it as "a raft of meringue, floating in a lagoon of raspberry sauce, topped with an umberella of whipped cream". Hahahah. Back in the day, I was at a restaurant that described one of their desserts that way, except their lagoon was made of chocolate.

It's all dead easy. The pavl0vas are great because you can make them a few days ahead, and you really should because they take 2 hours to bake and then sit in the oven for another four hours as the oven cools down, so it's a good idea to make them first thing in the morning. The pavlovas also keep really well for a few days in an airtight container.

The recipes for the pavlovas and the raspberry sauce are both from Ina Garten's Barefoot In Paris.

6 extra large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 pints assorted berries (I used raspberries and strawberries)

For the Whipped Cream, I just whip up 1 cup of whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Preheat oven to 200 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchement paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachement, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and a large pnch of salt on medium speed until frothy. Add 1 cup of the sugar and raise the speed to high unti the egg whites form very stiff peaks. (I always add the sugar slowly). Whisk in the vanilla. Add the remaining 1/2cup of sugar into the meringue.

Ina uses a pastry bag and pipes her meringue onto the parchment paper. If you don't want to do that or you are totally incapable of getting stuff into a pastry bag like I am, you can just spoon the meringe into as round a shape as you can get it, or put it in a ziploc bag and snip off one of the corners and use that as a makeshift pastry bag. I used that method and it worked pretty well for me. It is supposed to be like a shell, with a hole in the middle for the cream. I can't get mine like that, so I just pile it all on top, and it still looks and tastes fine. You should be able to get about 8 mini pavolovas from this mixture.

Bake for 2 hours, or until the meringes are dry and crisp but not browned. Turn off the heat and allow the meringes to sit in the oven for 4 hours or overnight.

To serve: fill the meringe, or pile on top! whipped cream, berries, and sit the pavlova in the raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Sauce:

1 half-pint fresh raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 tablespoon framboise liqueur (I did not have this liqueur, and I didn't want to buy a whole bottle for this recipe, so I used vodka instead and it came out fine. You could probably not even use a liqueur, you'd never know the difference)

Place the raspberries, sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour the cooked raspberries, the jam and the famboise into the bowl of a food procesor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Chill.

Fruits of the Forest

I cannot tell a lie.

I did not make this pie.

But it is almost home made! It's from the fantastic Hepburn Orchards Bakery in Hancock, MD. They have 34 kinds of regular pie, 6 kinds of "no sugar added" pies (not sure I want those ones!) and 6 kinds of meringue and cream pies.

We have bought pies from them quite a few times over the past 10 years. This last weekend my husband took the kids to see his parents in Pennsylvania, and he kindly stopped on the way home in Hancock to get me this Fruits of the Forest pie. I love berry pies and desserts, even though I'm not a great pie lover in general.

Highly recommended if you are ever passing through Maryland on Rt 70!

Chocolate Cheesecake Torte

I also made a chocolate cheesecake to take to Mrs Names tailgate party. I took it straight from Domestic Goddess, with only a small alterations. And the reason I'm calling it a cheesecake torte is because it really fell in the refrigerator overnight and is not as tall as when it came out of the oven. However, who cares what it looks like really, it's totally delicious.

(those hands separating the egg are my husbands !!)
This recipe needs and 8" springform pan and the cheesecake is cooked in a waterbath.


1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 4 ounces of graham crackers*
1/4 cup very very soft or melted unsalted butter
18 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2-1 teaspoon lime juice (to taste)**
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted***

*I used the precrumbled Graham cracker crumbs, but I needed 1 cup of crumbs and 1 stick of butter to make the base.

**I used 1/2 teaspoon of lime juice

*** If you have never melted chocolate before in the microwave, you only need to have it in there for about 1 min 30 seconds, and then just keep stirring until it's all melted. That way the chocolate won't burn in the microwave. You might need to pop it back in a for a few more seconds to help it, but no more than that.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Process the crackers and butter together and press into the bottom of the pan, then stick the pan in the refrigerator until the filling is ready.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then mix in the sugar. Add the eggs and lime juice and beat until smooth and creamy. Gently fold in the melted chocolate. When I did this the mixture was cold and the chocolate started to harden up the minute it hit the cold mixture. It wasn't exactly a marble effect, which is what I think Nigella is going for, but it still turned out nicely.

Line the spring-form pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil on the outside, and then tear off another and repeat. Stand the pan in a roasting pan and fill up the spring-form pan with the mixture. Pour hot water into the roasting pan to come 3/4-1 inch up the side of the cake pan and then put it in the oven to cook for 1 hour.

When the cheesecake's ready it should have browned a bit on the edges and the center should be just set on top. remove the cake tin from the waterbath, and take off the foil. Sit the spring-form pan on a rack to cool, then refrigerate before unmolding and let it get back to room temperature.

My cheesecake did flatten out in the refrigerator, but still looked good.