Valentine Cheese Cake

1 cup (250 mL) ground Kamut crisp cereal
1 Tbsp (15 mL) butter
1 Tbsp (15 mL) honey
2 250-gram packages cream cheese
3/4 cup (188 mL) Rapadura sugar or other unrefined cane sugar
4 free-range eggs
1 lemon (juice and peel)
1 tsp (5 mL) pure vanilla extract
1 500-gram tub sour cream
3/4 cup (188 mL) Rapadura sugar or other unrefined cane sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

In blender, grind enough kamut cereal to make one cup. Mix with butter and honey. Line a nine inch springform pan with kitchen parchment paper and cover lined bottom with kamut mixture. Place in preheated oven and bake for five minutes. Remove from oven and let cool off slightly. If you don't own a springform, you may use a nine by 12 inch deep baking pan.

With electric handmixer or in mixing bowl, cream cheese and sugar. Separate eggs and put egg yolks in mixture one at a time. Mix thoroughly. Add lemon juice and lemon rind together with vanilla extract. Mix well. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into cheese cake mixture and pour over baked bottom. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Test cake by touching it slightly. If it feels dry and springs back from finger the cake is done. Remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.

Stir together sour cream, sugar and vanilla extract and pour over cake. Smooth top with spatula. Reduce heat to 350°F (180°C) and bake cake for another eight to 10 minutes. Let cool completely and place in refrigerator, still in springform. Cover with a lid or tin foil. The cake has to settle overnight or at least eight hours. It is best to bake cake in the evening and keep in the fridge overnight.

The next morning remove ring of springform pan and cut cake into a heart shape. Decorate with fruit like kiwi, peach halves or canned orange segments. You also may pipe whipping cream around edge of heart. Place cake on cake plate and refrigerate until serving time.

This cheese cake is my favorite cake. I have baked it so often that I can do it while sleeping. It is always a success!

Source: alive #208, February 2000