Boa Vista Cheesecake

This almost ended up as a Mystery Cheesecake hah..hah... But there is still a mystery as to when did I bake this? I honestly do not remember but I do remember enjoying sucking out the pulp of the remaining passionfruits because it was awesome.

When I saw this cheesecake in the book Favorite Cupcake and Cheesecakes, I thought it was rather pretty. The base is made using instant polenta, vanilla wafers and butter.

I am not familiar with polenta and I was not going to specially buy it for this cake. So I used err...err...what did I use? Tsk! Chances are I used digestive biscuits and butter.

Besides cream cheese, milk and eggs, the recipe called for glucose and chopped macadamia nuts for the filling. I love macadamia nuts but they are very costly. So I would rather eat macadamia nuts as they are instead of putting them into cakes.

For the topping, it was supposed to be pineapples, papaya and passionfruit pulp. I substituted the pineapples for mangoes.

Since I did not follow the recipe, but rather borrowed the idea, I shall share my own recipe for this cake. I can't say for sure what went into the filling, but I think I may have used my favorite recipe.

Boa Vista Cheesecake
Recipe source : Adapted from Favorite Cupcakes and Cheesecake (page 130)

For the base :
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 50g melted butter

For the filling :
- 500g cream cheese
- 200g castor sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence

For topping :
- papaya, cubed
- mangoes, cubed
- passionfruit pulp

Method :

For the base :
1. Preheat oven to 140C.
2. Butter an 8" round springform pan.
3. Crush digestive biscuits finely.
4. Pour the crushed biscuits into a bowl and add melted butter. Mix well until mixture looks like wet sand.
5. Pour mixture into the pan and press firmly to compact the base.
6. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside.

For the filling :
1. Beat cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add castor sugar and mix well.
3. Add eggs one by one and mix well.
4. Add vanilla essence and flour and mix well.
5. Lastly add whipping cream and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into springform pan.
7. Bake for about 50 mins at 140C.
8. The cake is done when the outer ring is firm but the middle is still wobbly.  After taking it out of the oven, run a spatula around the edge of the cake for easy removal later.  Cool the cake completely before chilling in the fridge overnight.
9. Before serving, top with passionfruit pulp, papaya and mangoes.