Birthday cake for the birthday boy! I felt like making a cheesecake, so I gave him a choice of three. He chose this one. Taken from the Australian Woman’s Weekly Cheesecakes cookbook (pg 30).

Recipe says to cook for 1 hour, however mine took 2 hours! After 1 hour it was moving around still, so I just kept baking it.
Other than that, it was delicious! Everyone loved it, thank goodness! I’m always a bit scared when I try a new recipe!
It was a bit weird as traditionally sticky date pudding is warm, but because it was a cheesecake it was cold. It tastes good with warm or cold caramel sauce, and is pretty hard to stuff up I think!

Sticky Date Cheesecake

2 cups (280g) seeded dried dates
3/4 cup (180ml) water
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
750g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
2 eggsCaramel Sauce
25g butter
1/3 cup (75g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) cream

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees / 140degrees fan-forced. Grease 24cm springform tin; line the base and side with baking paper. Place tin on oven tray (I didn’t do this)2. Combine dates, the water and soda in small saucepan; bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Cool mixture 5 minutes; blend or process until almost smooth.

3. Beat cheese and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Add spices, eggs and date mixture; beat until combined.

4. Pour mixture into tin; bake about 1 hour. Cool cheesecake in oven with door ajar.

5. Refrigerate cheesecake 3 hours or overnight.

6. Make caramel sauce; combine ingredients in a small saucepan; stir over low heat, until smooth. Bring to a boil; remove from heat.

7. Serve cheesecake drizzled with warm or cold sauce.

Serves 12