Friday, 9 January 2015

Quark Lemon Cake with a Creamy Ginger Filling












When Joyce from IE Produce in Takapuna gave me some Hohepa Quark to try out I set to and created a really easy  Quark Lemon Cake with a delicious filling for afternoon tea. The filling tastes rich and sweet but has far less calories than if I had filled it with cream


You will need some stem ginger balls preserved in a sugar syrup for this. You won't need many so there will be lots left over in the jar. In summer I like to mix some of them with their syrup into a bowlful of melon cubes and blueberries which makes a quick, cooling and easy dessert.








To make it :

Whisk together until smooth:





1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of Hohepa quark
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

The finely grated  rind of 1 lemon

Stir in 2 cups of self raising flour, Don't overmix

Scoop into a 20cm very lightly greased and baking paper lined springform pan

Bake at 180 degrees C for 40- 45 minutes



Fill with Quark and Ginger Cream



Quark Ginger Cream:

For this

Finely chop about 4 ginger balls

Mix into 150 gm of quark

add a little of the sweet ginger syrup
If wished can sharpen with some lemon juice or add some more sweetness with some honey






Hohepa describes their quark as:
Quark is a soft fresh white cheese, similar to cottage cheese but with a much finer texture and a lower fat content. Popular in central Europe for wide range of dishes, quark has a lower fat content than harder cheeses.  It is uniquely different than cottage cheese or cream cheese.  The fat content is around 14%.  The delicate flavour of quark makes very suitable for use in both sweet and savoury dishes — for example sandwiches, salads, pasta bakes, mousses and cheesecakes.