The Happy Home Cook: Cassava Cheesecake

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Cassava Cheesecake (Photo courtesy of Ferdinand Montoya)

Growing up we always had cassava cake, it was my mother’s go to dish. We have always had a take on my mum’s cassava cake at our pop ups, for me it is a fitting way to pay tribute to my mum and to how Sarap got started in the first place. Our cassava tart has been a firm favourite amongst our diners but as we’ve been holed up in our homes there was a desire for me to do something a little different and I had just happened to see a basque cheesecake on Instagram and thought why not marry the two? A few tests later, here we are.

Makes 1 x 20cm – 22cm Cake

Vegetarian & gluten free

Ingredients

450g/3 cups frozen grated cassava (defrosted)

340g/12 oz cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia brand)

140g/⅔ cup caster (superfine) sugar

397g/14 oz condensed milk

400ml/1 ⅔ cups coconut milk

2 medium eggs

You will also need 

Parchment paper

Springform round cake tin (20cm-22cm/8-8.5 in)

Large mixing bowl

Spatula or wooden spoon

Method

1.Preheat your oven to 220C/425F. 

2. Place the cream cheese and sugar into the large mixing bowl. Mix together with a spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth.

3. Add grated cassava into the mixing bowl and mix together until well-combined.

4. Add coconut milk into the mixing bowl and mix together until well-combined, then mix in condensed milk, followed by the eggs, one at a time. At this stage, the mixture should be quite runny, but should be well-combined so that it is one homogenous colour, i.e. no streaks of the different ingredients should be visible.

7. Cut a large piece of parchment paper, enough to cover the base and the side of the cake tin right up to the top. Scrunch up the parchment paper into a ball (this helps with lining the tin), then unravel it and place into the cake tin.

8. Take the cake mix and mix well one more time to ensure the cassava hasn’t settled to the bottom, then pour the entire mixture into the lined cake tin.

9. Place the cake tin on the middle rack of the oven and bake 35-40 mins. There should be a slight wobble at the center of the cake when you take it out of the oven.

10. Place the cake tin onto a rack and allow to cool for a minimum of 4 hours, ideally 6-8 hours. Allow to cool completely before releasing from tin and slicing.

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