July 30th has officially been labelled as National Cheesecake Day. Admittedly this is in America and as far as I am aware the day is not widely celebrated in Sweden, if at all. Those of you who know me well will know that I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with cheesecake. Those of you who do not know this should take a quick look at my first foray into the blogging world before reading the rest of this post.
http://cheesecaketuesday.blogspot.com
So to honour this great dessert on its own national day – whilst missing the company of my CT buddies: Rachael, Tracy, Aletta and Mieke greatly – I went off to see if Sweden could come up with the goods.
This in itself could pose a problem as Sweden actually has its own version of cheesecake which is usually called by its Swedish name, Ostkaka, to avoid confusion with its more well-known American counterpart. Ostkaka is made by introducing rennet to milk and allowing it to curdle forming a thick batter. This batter is then cooked and the finished cake is served warm with fruit and cream. Now as the Swedish ‘Day of Ostkaka’ is actually celebrated on November 14th (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostkaka) I will wait until that day to review the Swedes’ own version of cheesecake and focus on a more familiar version this time around.
And so it was that I eagerly headed into downtown Västerås with a somewhat sleepy Nicklas, who was not hugely happy at having to leave 30 minutes early for work, in tow in order to find something suitable. It didn’t take long. Within 10 minutes I left a small coffee shop in the Galleria mall happily clutching a delicious looking lemon cheesecake.
Despite getting a bit battered on the walk home, courtesy of a surprisingly strong wind, the cheesecake still looked pretty good. And so the testing began:
Consistency: The cake was an average mousselike, slightly gelatinous, manufactured, light and airy consistency. Mainly pleasant, although missing the homemade quality that makes a really good cheesecake so special.
Base: A standard digestive biscuit/butter combination. Not unpleasant but I find it a little boring after the array of bases on offer in Saigon. More crunch and imagination needed.
Presentation: A pleasant enough looking cake with a light coloured filling and a striking yellow layer of lemon on top.
Taste: I was very impressed by the strong tang of lemon that really complimented the light cheese filling. Definitely the strong point of the cheesecake.
Verdict: I enjoyed this cheesecake 7/10
All-in-all it was a very successful National Cheesecake Day. Except there was one problem… After eating the cheesecake, I realised that it was actually July 29th, not the 30th! Ooops!
Check back on November 14th for my review of traditional Swedish Ostkaka 🙂
Well done, Elaine! I’m ashamed to say I didn’t get any cheesecake! Isabella and I walked two miles to the supermarket to get some only to find that they didn’t have any. I’m sure it goes without saying that I was not impressed.
You can always make up for it with a huge slab of Goldmine or Big O when you get back to ‘Nam 🙂
Hmmm I just had some Ally’s N.Y. cheesecake at N.Y.D.C the other day. Brodard has some amazing cheesecake too.
Since the cost of living is extremely high in Sweden, I guess I’ll bake some by myself when I live there.
Natalie you should. Maybe you could ask NYDC for the recipe to ‘Goldmine’ before you leave – that is one amazing cheesecake!!