The ingredients for this easy lemon cheesecake are for a relatively small loose-bottomed tin, of 20cm diameter.

For the base:
60gr butter, melted
60gr sugar
150gr rich tea biscuits (or digestive, but the plainer the better)

For the cream (1st part):
450gr Philadelphia
230gr sugar
Juice of two lemons
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cream (2nd part):
450gr sour cream
60gr sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the base you know what to do: crumble the biscuits, add the melted butter and the sugar and mix. Grease the tin with butter and dust it with sugar, then pour the base in it. Gently press it and level it with a spoon and put it in the fridge. One more thing you should do is keeping about one third of the base aside and use it to cover the sides of the tin as well

Now prepare the first part of the cream for this simple lemon cheesecake recipe.
Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Work the Philadelphia cheese on its own with a fork, until softer and loose, then add sugar, lemon juice and the vanilla extract.
Take the base out of the fridge, pour the cream on top, and bake for 20 minutes.

In the meantime go on with the second part if the cream of this lemon cheesecake, by mixing the ingredients together. Take the tin out of the oven and – very gently as the crust of Philadelphia will be very hot and will break very easily – pour it on top. Bake for 20 more minutes. Once it has cooled completely, keep in the fridge for 24 hours before serving

And this is how to make lemon cheesecake and while you’re at it, don’t forget to check the strawberry cheesecake recipe from last time.

Here is what you will need.
For the base
240gr digestive biscuits
160gr butter
30gr cane sugar

For the topping
500gr Philadelphia (sorry but I won’t give you any alternative here, you have to use that and not other spread)
3 eggs
90gr sugar
100ml double cream
20gr corn starch
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the sauce
350gr strawberries
100gr sugar
½ glass of water
1 tbsp cherry liqueur (I used Italian Maraschino)

If you have a food mixer, dice the butter and break the biscuits and blend them. If you have to do it by hand, melt the butter in the microwave and crumble the biscuits with a pestle and mortar. Mix the two ingredients together and pour them loose-bottomed cake tin. Level it and press it with a spatula and put the cake in the fridge.
Now let’s go ahead with the strawberry topping for cheesecake
In a bow, whip the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract with an electric whip until it doubles in size.
Sieve the corn starch into the bowl (whip manually now), add the double cream and the Philadelphia (you may want to loosen it first, by stirring it in a separate bowl) and mix until amalgamated.
Preheat the oven at 170ºC. Pour the mix in the tin, level it and bake it for about 50 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the strawberry sauce for cheesecake

Dice the strawberries, put them in a pan with the sugar and water,  and cook on a low heat until it thickens. Set aside to cool and add the liqueur.

When the cake is ready, let it cool to room temperature and the pour the strawberry cheesecake topping and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving

And this is how to make strawberry cheesecake.

These are the ingredients you will need:
125ml milk
8 egg yolks
130gr sugar
500ml double cream
1 stick of vanilla

The ingredients are for six people, and you will need six ceramic (ovenproof) ramekins of about 150ml each.

First of all, for this creme brulee recipe easy, pre-heat the oven at 180ºC.
In a pan, pour the milk and cream. Score the vanilla pod, remove the seeds and add them to the liquid with the whole stick. Slowly, on a low heat, bring to boil.
In the meantime, mix the yolks and sugar in a bowl. Unlike the vast majority of the recipes, where you would have to whip until they’re pale and bubbly, here you will have to gently stir just enough to mix them. When the milk starts to boil, take it off the stove, remove the vanilla stick and slowly pour it on the yolk mix, stirring until it’s all amalgamated. Lastly, sieve the cream into the ramekins.

OK, this is where this vanilla creme brulee redcipe gets interesting. Take a rectangular, not-too shallow baking tray and fill it for 1/3 with hot water. Fill the creme brulee ramekins almost to the brim and place them in the tray (watch your fingertips!). Put the tin in the oven and cook for 50-60 minutes.
Congratulations, what you have just down is called bain-marie or water-bath.

When the crème is solid and golden on top, take the tin out, and use the grill function of the oven. Cover the surface of the ramekins with a thin layer of granulated sugar (if it’s compact enough on top, the sugar will remain on the surface) put it back in the oven and grill for a couple of minutes, until the sugar is caramelized. The most proper way would be to use a butan torch, but I guess you don’t have it at home, right? (me neither…). If you are preparing this crème brulee recipe in advance, keep is in the fridge and leave the grill thing as last.
Now is this the best creme brulee recipe or what?

I haven’t made many ricotta desserts before, I mean where this cheese is the main ingredient and now that I’ve tried this ricotta cake I knew I had been missing out.

For the short crust pastry
250gr flour, sifted
125 butter, cold and diced
Grated zest of one lemon
2 egg yolks
200gr icing sugar

For the filling:
Grated zest of one orange
1/s tsp cinnamon
Grated zest of one lemon
1 kg (yes, THAT much) ricotta cheese
40gr raisins
1 tsp vanilla extract
300gr sugar

Now I remember the reason why I don’t normally make these types of cakes: I hate making short crust pastry! But for this ricotta cake recipe  it’s worth the hassle so let’s get this part over with quickly.
Add the flour to a bowl with the butter. Rub them against each other with the tips of your fingers until crumbly, then add the rest of the ingredients and bring them together as quickly as possible (they say that if the butter melts very, very bad things will happen).

Now you should have about 500-600gr short crust pastry. Set aside 100gr and use the rest to line a loose bottomed cake tin (grease it with butter and dust it with flour first), both the bottom and the edges.

Put the tin in the fridge while you prepare the filling for ricotta cake recipe. If you want to work 1Kg of ricotta easily enough, I recommend using a food mixer, where you will put the ricotta, eggs, vanilla extract, orange zest, lemon, cinnamon and sugar. Let it go for a couple of minutes until you get a smooth cream.

Transfer the cream to a pan and bring to boil on a medium heat and let it simmer for a couple of minutes, then take off the stove and add the raisins (previously soaked in water and squeezed).
Now take the tin out of the fridge and get ready for the last part of this italian ricotta cake recipe.

Preheat the oven at 180ºC. Pour the ricotta cream in the pastry shell. With the remaining pastry make about 15 stripes and line them on top. Bake for about 60 minutes. Let it cool completely before serving.

And this the baked ricotta dessert for today (sorry for the small pic I must have messed with it while editing.

We’ll use shortcrust pastry these are the ingredients for the basic recipe.

500gr flour
200gr sugar
1 egg
350gr butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:
2 tbsp Nutella hazelnut spread
1 cup of instant coffee with ½ tbsp sugar
8 savoiardi biscuits

For the cover:
180gr mascarpone cheese
25gr icing sugar
1 tbsp coffee, lukewarm
2 egg yolks
60gr granulated sugar
2 tbsp rum
75gr double cream
Cocoa powder

Rub the softened butter and the flour with your fingertips, and then add the rest of the ingredients, knead just enough to bring the ingredients together. Lightly dust with flour, cover with cling-film and leave in the fridge for half an hour.
When it’s ready, pre-heat the oven at 180ºC. Stretch the pastry with a rolling pin and transfer it to a round pie tin of 23cm diameter and bake for 15 minutes, then let it cool completely.
Spread the base with the Nutella, dip the savoiardi in the coffee and use them to cover the base.
Mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar and a tbsp of coffee. Whip the yolks with the other sugar until pale then add them to the mascarpone and the rum. Lastly, whip the cream and add it to the rest.
Use the cream to cover the mascarpone and level it with a spatula.

Sprinkle some cocoa powder as in the piucture and there you go, your tiramisu torte is done.

So this time we’re going to cheat on our savoiardi biscuits (well, it wouldn’t be the first time anyway, remember the tiramisu sponge cake recipe?). But as some people say, if you have to cheat, do it right, or do it… twice (but this STRICTLY applies to cooking, ok?), so here you have not one but two tiramisu recipes with speculaas.

The first one is for six people, and will be served in indiviual cups.

The first tiramisu speculoos recipe is for all the low calories junkies out there (the rest of us can read on…). This recipe tiramisu has perhaps a less intense taste (Greek yogurt is not mascarpone after all) but believe me, it’s still fabulous, so there you go.

3 egg whites
1 egg yolk
½ cup of instant coffee, lukewarm
125gr Greek yogurt
60gr sugar
10-12 savoiardi biscuits, broken in half
4-5 speculoos, crumbled

Directions:
In a bowl, work the yolk with the sugar until pale, then add the yogurt and mix all with a wooden spoon.
In another bowl whip the whites until firm and put the two creams together.

And now… the layers. Cover the bottom of the dessert cups with cream then sprinkle some crumbled speculaas biscuits, dip the savoiardi in the coffee and add two halves. Start again with a second layer, which should be enough. Finish with speculoos crumbles and put in the fridge. Six hours will be enough (but overnight will be better) before serving.

And the second one is the real deal. In this case, as we use a higher proportion of speculoos, we’ll need less sugar than in the classic tiramisu recipe. Also, there are more whites than yolks, to make the cream lighter.

The ingredients here are for four individual cups:
250gr mascarpone
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 heaped tablespoon cane sugar
About 20 speculoos
One cup of instant coffee
Cocoa powder for dusting and dark chocolate flakes.

Loosen the mascarpone with a fork.
Mix 2 yolks with the sugar until pale, then add the mascarpone, and mix with a wooden spoon or a whip until you get a smooth cream.
Whip the whites until firm and gently add them to the cream.
Now you know the rest: quickly dip the speculoos in the lukewarm coffee, then add one layer of cream, and one of biscuits then dust with cocoa and cover with dark chocolate flakes.

Tiramisu Speculoos ladies and gentlemen.

Tiramisu Speculoos

Although I created a new category of mascarpone recipes for this post, in reality it’s a tiramisu in disguise, just a little quicker because you will skip the layer building phase.
Also, it adds pomegranate seeds, which are a pain in the neck to get out of the fruit,  but the will give a very sophisticated touch to this mascarpone recipes dessert.

250gr mascarpone
100gr pomegranate seeds
125gr sugar
4 eggs
50ml marsala
12 savoiardi biscuits
1 cup of lukewarm coffee, sweetened

Add the yolks and the sugar to a casserole, and beat them until you have a pale and fluffy cream. Put the casserole on a low heat and – stirring continuously – gently cook until it thickens, then add the liqueur and stir some more. Take off the stove and let it cool then add the mascarpone, one tbsp at the time and mix well.
Once it’s all incorporated, cover with cling film and let it rest while you go on with the second part of the recipe. Take six dessert cups and try to figure out how one savoiardi will fit in the bottom. Break them in two if necessary, you will need to place two biscuits in each cup. Quickly dip the savoiardi in the coffee, they will have to be damp but not too limp, then pour the mascarpone cream on top until all the cups are full. Put the cups in the fridge for a couple of hours and decorate with the pomegranate seeds right before serving this quick-but-delicious dessert mascarpone.

Now, here are the few ingredients you will need to prepare these lady finger cookies:

160gr flour, sifted
6 yolks and 4 whites
130gr sugar
1 sachet of vanillin
Granulated and icing sugar to decorate

Break the eggs, add the yolks to a bowl and four of the whites to another  (discard the other two). Add 100gr sugar and vanillin to the yolks and work them with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon. Mix until the sugar is diluted and the cream is pale and foamy.

Whip the whites until firm then add the remaining sugar, little at the time, until it’s perfectly amalgamated.
Now you’ll have to be gentle, as this is a crucial moment for this lady finger recipe. Using the wooden spoon, add the whites to the yolks, mixing with a bottom-up movement. Then add the flour one spoon at the time, and adding the next one only when completely absorbed with no lumps. Ideally, the mix you should get will be slightly inflated (it’s the air in the egg mixes, especially the whites), but firm ad the same time.
Preheat the oven at 180ºC, and line a baking tray with oven paper. Now, I didn’t mention it at the beginning, but another important element for this ladyfingers recipe is the pastry bag or sac-a-poche. The pipe should have a 1cm opening. Fill the bag with the ladyfinger cookies mix and line the tray with stripes of 10cm length each. Leave a good 4-5cm between one other, and bake for for 10-15 minutes.
Once they’re ready, let them cool on the oven paper, they will come off easily without breaking when cold.
Lady finger cookies can be easily stored in an airtight container for up to 15 days.

Ladyfingers were invented at the end of the Middle Ages (end of 15th century) at the court of Amadeus VI Duke of Savoy, a region that included partly France, partly Italy (savoiardi means from Savoia). They were created in occasion of the visit of the King of France, and now have become the most representative dessert recipe for the region of Piemonte.

Ingredients for this tiramisu cupcakes recipe:
400gr (14 oz)     butter, softened
600gr (1.3 lb) sugar
8 eggs
770gr (1.7 lb) all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
180ml (6 fl oz) espresso coffee
290ml (10 fl oz) milk
2 tbsp coffee powder
2 tbsp rum
150gr (5 oz) chocolate chips

Make the coffee with a moka (find the directions here in the easy tiramisu recipe). Preheat the oven 175ºC (fan off). In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for one minutes, then add the sugar and mix for three more minutes. Add the eggs, one at the time, and mix until it’s all amalgamated.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt and in a third bowl pout coffee and milk. Put together the dry and liquid ingredients into the bowl with the butter and egg alternating part of one bowl and part of another. Stir with a wooden spoon and lastly, add the coffee power and the chocolate chips.
Using a spoon or an ice-cream scoop, fill the cupcake liners up to ¾, then bake for 22-25 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test. Take out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature.

If you think it’s over, you’re wrong, it’s just the beginning, this is where this recipe for tiramisu cupcakes gets interesting. Get the following:

More espresso coffee
More milk
1 tbsp rum
1-2 tsp sugar

Make a moka for 1-2 people, then weigh the coffee and mix it with twice its weight of milk, and add the sugar and rum. Put it in a pan and bring to boil. With a kitchen brush, glaze the top of the cupcakes.

Now for the topping, the dark chocolate cream (this is what makes this one the best of my tiramisu cupcake recipes):

500gr (1.1 lb) dark chocolate, chopped
250gr (9 oz) double cream
1 tbsp coffee powder

Add the chocolate to a large bowl. Sieve the coffee into a pan and add the cream. Bring almost to the boil, making sure it forms no lumps. Stir until the chocolate is almost completely melted. Let it cool for half an hour, until it’s still warm but not completely solid, pour it on top of each tiramisu cupcake.

Oh and of course these are tiramisu cupcakes with mascarpone cream (else how could we call this a tiramisu recipe?)
500gr (1.1 lb) mascarpone
500gr (1.1 lb) white chocolate, chopped
200ml (6.7 fl oz) double cream
2 tbsp coffee powder

Add the chocolate to a bowl. Put the coffee powder and the cream together in a pan and bring almost to boil. Pour it on the chocolate and stir until melted. When it’s at room temperature add the mascarpone and mix with an electric whip. It will have to have a thick texture, so add more mascarpone if it’s too liquid or a little milk if too dense. Put it in a pastry bag and decorate the top of each cupcake.
And there you go, a very easy tiramisu cupcakes recipe.

Ingredients for four people.
400gr sponge
3 tsb orange flavoured liqueur
180gr sugar
50gr icing sugar
100ml marsala wine
15gr isinglass
5 egg yolks
1 tbsp flour
300ml cream
100ml white wine
50ml rum

Soften the isinglass in cold water. In the meantime, mix the yolks with 150gr of sugar until pale and fluffy and then add, mixing, flour, wine and Marsala. Add the mix to a pan and cook on a low heat for ten minutes. then take off the stove. Squeeze the isinglass and add it to the mix.
In a bowl work the butter with the icing sugar. Add the whipped cream and the remaining caster sugar. Also add the butter, and the rum.
Cut the sponge into slices wet them with orange liqueur and line a pumpkin-shaped mold (the one you would use for zuccotto).  Pour the cream on the sponge, then put it in the fridge. Transfer it to a serving dish, by turning it upside down.