Last bank holiday weekend I decided to make a poppy seed cake and after long deliberation I decided on a cheesecake. But not everything went to plan: I had to adapt the recipe I had been planning to use midway through the preparation as the quark we bought from Sainsbury’s is a good deal more liquid than I am used to, it’s more like a thick pourable yoghurt. I also realised that I had no means of grinding the poppy seeds and I had to improvise once more. And my fan oven gave up its ghost just in time for the weekend, leaving me with the small regular oven which I hardly ever use. But you know what? Nothing was going to stop me from baking this poppy seed cheesecake and , all things considered, it turned out really well in the end, even if I say so myself!

And here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 185C, 160C if it is a fan oven.

Grease a 28cm baking form lightly and dust with flour.

For the dough:

• 250g flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
• 50g sugar
• 1 packet or 1 heaped tablespoon of vanilla sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 125g soft unsalted butter
• 1 egg

Knead all the ingredients into a soft dough and line the baking form with it. Pull it up along the sides so it is about 3 cm high.

And here are the ingredients for the filling:

• 125g poppy seeds
• 3 table spoons sugar
• Half a cup of milk

Bring to the boil in a pan and then whizz for a couple of minute in a food processor.

• 1000g quark (this recipe calls for the liquid kind of quark, see above. If you use a different kind of quark, don’t use as much vanilla pudding powder/cornflour)
• 200ml cream (whipping or single cream)
• 4 eggs
• 150 sugar
• 1 packet or 1 heaped tablespoon of vanilla sugar
• 3 packets of vanilla pudding powder(or about 120g cornflour, in which case you need more vanilla sugar)
• 1 shot of rum

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl and add the poppy mix.

Pour the mix into the baking form.

Bake for 45 minutes, then cover the top with aluminium foil to prevent it from going to dark and bake for another 15 minutes at a slightly higher temperature. Switch the oven off, open the door and leave the cake standing for another 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy!