Mum's cheesecake

Mum's cheesecake

2 Nov 2026

My mum was famous for her cheesecake, a classic German kasekuchen, which she served with coffee on her elegant china. The recipe came from Mrs. Ortweiler, the German born mother-in-law of her best friend Millie. Mum eschewed a rolling pin and would press the pastry into the tin and would top the cake with a latttice that she'd hand rolled. Over time I changed the pastry recipe to one that could be rolled out. 

Looking back through the blog archives I last made this cheesecake for my Dad's birthday way back in 2012. At the time I noted how difficult it was finding the farm cheese needed to make the cake. I made this cheesecake with cream cheese many years ago and it was too runny and rose volcanically and ricotta just doesn't have the distinctive taste of farm cheese. Fast forward to 2026 and its now impossible to find farm cheese. I figured the best cheese to use would be Quark but I couldn't find any at the supermarket and the price at the fruit shop was exorbitant. I looked online, found a simple recipe for quark and made a batch to use in this recipe. I think a filling made with a mix of quark and well drained ricotta would also work well.

If you look closely at the recipe you'll note there isn't a set quantity of sugar in the filling. Farm cheese was often very bitter so you'd start with a 1/4 cup of sugar and keep adding the sugar to taste. I used 5 eggs in my filling and it was quite runny so next time I'd start with 4 and only add the extra egg if the mixture was too thick. I made the cheesecake in an 8 inch springform pan and had too much filling so I suggest you bake it in a 9 inch tin. With the excess filling I made a little cheesecake which I gave to my neighbours.

Here's the recipe for you which will make a 9-inch cheesecake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Mum's cheesecake

Pastry
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/35g almond meal 
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 
110g cold unsalted butter, diced 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
Cold water 

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and suffcient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge for 30 minutes.

This next step is optional. Roll out ⅓ of the pastry and line the base of a 9-inch springform tin. Cover the base with a square of greaseproof paper and clip the side of the tin around the base. Bake for 10 minutes before removing the paper.  Bake for another 5 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden. Allow the base to cool before lining the sides of the tin with the remaining pastry. Otherwise do what my Mum used to do and with your hands just press the pastry into the tin and up the sides. If you like you can use the leftovers to make a lattice top 

Filling

650g bulk dry cottage cheese or quark

4-5 eggs separated 
¼ cup - 3/4 cup caster sugar (add to taste)
1 tbs melted butter
1 tbl plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

200 ml cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the middle rack. In the bowl of a food processor, blend the cheese until smooth. Add a 1/4 cup sugar, melted butter, egg yolks, flour, vanilla extract and cream. Taste for sweetness and adjust as necessary. Pour the cheese mixture into a large bowl.

In a clean dry bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture then pour the cheese mixture into the pastry lined 9 inch tin. If desired, cover the cake with a pastry lattice and brush the lattice with melted butter or cream. Place the cheesecake on the preheated oven tray and bake for 1 hour. 

The cheesecake will still be a little jiggly in the centre and will have puffed and risen like a souffle but it will settle as it cools. Leave to cool completely before storing in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days. The cheesecake also freezes very well. The cheesecake is best eaten at room temperature so bring it from the fridge an hour or so before eating.

It might have been 14 years since I last had a slice of Mum's cheesecake but this quark version was pretty close to her's and judging by the size of the slice my brother cut, it was also family approved.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more