Recipe: Lemon Curd Tofu and Soya Bean No-Bake Cheesecake

My children's birthdays are a few days apart. To encourage and teach them the concept of sharing, I made them one birthday cake and told them that they will have to share. They were more than happy to share. I was happy to see them sing "Happy Birthday" together, blow the candles together, and cut the cake together - all done with big smiles on their faces.

However I ended up making them several cakes in the run up to their birthdays. Each and everytime, they shared. (Btw their birthdays are not til September ;P)

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Both Baby C and Baby D love cheesecake, so I wanted to make them one for their birthday. I was attracted to the beautiful tofu cheesecake that Mich of Piece of Cake posted on her blog.

This is a no-bake cheesecake, hence you just need to put the ingredients together and chill it in the fridge. Using tofu makes it very light (but creamy and smooth) compared to using only cream cheese. Because the texture was so light, we managed 2 slices per person hence the whole cake was gone that evening itself.

I adapted the recipe slightly, and made a digestive biscuit base. If you prefer a thicker base, you just need to increase the number of biscuits. I topped the cake with fresh lemon curd (recipe here) - the tart lemon curd balanced the tofu-cheese layer well. Another topping that would work well would be strawberry coulis.

Lemon Curd Tofu and Soya Bean No-Bake Cheese Cake 
Recipe adapted from Piece of Cake
Preparation time:  1 - 1 1/2 hour
Makes 9" round cake (approx. 10 slices)

Ingredients
10 digestive biscuits, crushed
80g butter, melted

1. Place digestive biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush using a rolling pin, until fine. You can increase the number of biscuits to 15 pieces, if you want a thicker base.

2. In a mixing bowl, add the digestive biscuits and melted butter and mix until crumbs are evenly coated.

3. Pour the crumbs into a 9-inch loose bottomed tin and press firmly down (using the back of a spoon) into the base to create an even layer.

4. Chill in fridge for 1 hour to set.

Ingredients (A)
230g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
70g caster sugar
230g smooth silken tofu
50g sour cream or yoghurt (I used yogurt)
30g soya bean powder (I omitted this)

1. Using an electric whisk, beat the cream cheese and sugar on high speed for 3 minutes. Add in tofu, yoghurt and soya bean powder (if using) and beat on high speed for another 4 to 5 minutes, until you get a smooth filling.

Ingredients (B)
50g dairy whipping cream 50 g

1. Whip the dairy whipping cream until stiff and place in refrigerator until needed.

Ingredients (C)
100g soya bean milk
15g gelatine

1. Over a water bath, double boil the soya bean milk and gelatine until the gelatine is completely dissolved.

To assemble:
1. Combine Ingredients A, B and C in a large mixing bowl and mix well.

2. Pour the mixture onto the digestive base in the cake ring. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours or until the tofu cheese layer is set (I left it in the fridge overnight).

3. To unmould, heat the outer ring using a warm cloth or a hair dryer (I used the hair dryer and it unmoulded perfectly). Pipe the lemon curd onto the cake or spread a thin layer on top using a knife (recipe for lemon curd here). It is recommended to make the lemon curd few hours in advance and let it cool in the fridge before topping on the cake.

With one of his early birthday gifts ;)

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here. 

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The Cook Like a Star event will start on 1st September, the theme for September is MasterChef. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors) from any MasterChef websites or cookbooks (any countries) and blog hop with us for the whole month of September 2012.

Click here for more info. Get cooking people! ;)