Almond Cheese Cake

This is one of the cheesecake which I have been eyeing for a long time but so many good bakes have taken precedence over this.  Anyway, I finally got down to this.
Haha.... I toasted too much almond flaks so in order not to waste it I sprinkled all the 50g of toasted almond flaks.

Recipe adapted from Ann

Biscuit crumbs for one 20cm/8 inch round spring-form cake tin

Grease the sides and base of the lined (bottom) cake tin

150g Marie biscuit (grind, not too fine)

135g Melted butter

Combine the marie biscuit and melted butter in a large bowl and stir to mix evenly, add melted butter to the biscuits and mix till combined, add more butter to it if biscuit crumbs are too dry.

• Press biscuit crumbs evenly at the bottom and about 2 1/2 inches up the sides of the cake tin and put in refrigerator for later use.
• Wrap cake tin with aluminium foil to prevent water from sipping in during the process of baking.

Cheese filling

50g Soft butter

40g Sugar

3 Egg yolks

3 Egg whites

40g Sugar

250g Cheese cream, at room temperature

50g Ground almond

25g Cake flour/Plain flour or Corn flour

200g Dark sweet cherries (pitted) or Blueberries

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract or almond flavor

Method:

• Beat cheese cream, butter, sugar and vanilla extract till light and smooth at medium speed.
• Add egg yolks one at a time till mixture combined then add flour and ground almond into it, mix well and transfer to a large bowl.
• Whisk egg whites and sugar till peak form and fold egg whites into cheese mixture with a rubber spatula.
• Pour cheese mixture evenly into prepared cake tin, gently drop dark sweet cherries or blueberries on cheese mixture and sprinkle some toasted almond flakes on top.
• Steam-bake in preheated oven at 170C for about 50 mins.
• Leave cheesecake to cool and put in the fridge for about 30 mins before removing cheesecake from the cake tin.
• Use scissors to trim the uneven biscuits crumbs at the sides.
• Mix 1 tbsp apricot gel and 1 tbsp hot water, mix well (add more hot water if mixture is too thick) together and brush on cheesecake.
• Chill cheesecake before serve.