Love (Recipe : Strawberry Cheesecake)

On this day where love is celebrated around the world, let me give you some insight into an unconditional, immeasurable love….


John 3: 16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

To me this verse carried the very essence of God’s love, giving us His only Son….now if He had a few to spare…this wouldn’t be so impressive…right (Sarcasm)! Being a mom who suffers panic attacks when her three year old scrapes her knee, I feel quite capable of understanding the depth of this sacrifice. Having your son die in an accident is difficult, having your son die of a terminal disease is difficult, but sending your son to a sure torturous death that will result in him hanging by three nails from a tree and bleeding to death is really something else! If I had to allow that kind of suffering on my child, I’d definitely have to love the cause more than I loved her! In God’s case….that cause was YOU!

For those of you who have loving partners and family to share this special day, do remember that the Lord loves you more than you can imagine and is ecstatic to see your joy today!

For those of you who feel alone at this time where others seem to have more to celebrate and be thankful for, please remember that someone loved you soooooooo much, he bled to death so he could be sure you could spend eternity with him. Jesus fell in love with you even before your mother set eyes on you!

Those of you who know him as your Lord, don’t forget to send Jesus a Valentine’s day message today! And those who do not know Him as yet, please do take a few moments today to think about God’s love for you and allow him to touch your heart!

Happy Valentine’s day all!

Valentine’s day calls for something sweet so how about a dessert recipe today!

Strawberry Cheesecake

Cake:
Cream Cheese – 800gms
Sugar – 1 ½ cups
Full cream – ½ cup
Eggs – 4
Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Crust:

Digestive Biscuit – 1 pack
Melted butter – 2-3 tablespoons

Topping:

Strawberries – 10
Strawberry jam – 5 tablespoons
Strawberry jelly – 1 pack

Instructions:

1.Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C or 325 degrees F

2.Crumble the digestive biscuits as finely as possible and mix with melted butter in a bowl. Now flatten and spread this mixture onto a 9” springform pan evenly on the bottom and around the frame till an even crust is formed. Refrigerate this pan till the cake mixture is ready.

3.In a bowl mix all the ingredients listed for the cake with an electric beater and pour into the springform pan. Place the pan in a roasting pan with boiling water and into the oven. Bake for approximately 2 hours or till the cake feels firm to touch. Make sure there is sufficient water in the roasting pan while baking.

4.Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven, allow it to cool, then refrigerate overnight.

5.For the topping sauce, prepare the strawberry jelly as per instructions on the package and allow it to semi set. Heat the strawberry jelly in a saucepan and add sliced up strawberries into this, cool the mixture in the refrigerator overnight. Whip the semi set jelly into this mixture before serving over cake.

6.To serve, cut a slice of the cheese cake and pour a spoon of the topping over the slice and serve cold.