BAKED APRICOT CHEESE CAKE

This free Baked Apricot Cheese Cake is divine...So quick and easy to make!

Ingredients


Pastry:
250ml cake flour
2ml baking powder
45ml castor sugar
80g butter or margarine
5ml grated lemon rind
2ml vanilla essence
1 extra large egg yolk


Filling:
75g dried apricots, coarsely chopped
60ml orange juice
500g smooth cottage cheese
125ml fresh cream
180ml castor sugar
3 extra large eggs
5ml vanilla essence
5ml grated orange rind


Method


Pastry:

• Sift the flour and baking powder together into a mixing bowl and add the sugar.
• Rub in butter with your fingertips until crumbly.
• Add the lemon rind, vanilla essence and egg yolk and knead lightly on floured surface. 
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.
• Press the pastry into the base of a greased 23cm round pie dish or loose-bottomed tin. 
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for about 8 minutes. 
• Remove from the oven and cool.
• Reduce oven temperature to 160 °C.

Filling: 

• Soak the apricots in orange juice for about 20minutes. Drain. 
• Whisk the cottage cheese, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth. 
• Add the apricots and juice and pour filling into the pastry base.
• Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes. 
• Reduce oven to 140°C and bake for a further 15 minutes. 
• Leave cake in the switched off oven to cool.

Makes 1 large cake