Strawberry and Almond Cheesecake Sponge

I think probably to appreciate the sheer wonder that was my cake it's best to post the photo -

Stawberry and Almond Cheesecake Sponge. Note the dessert wine - underrated in my humble opinion.

There we go. Take in the cakey goodness. Also be sure to dwell on the artfully arranged chaos of my Bank Holiday Monday dinner party. This, my friends is a Strawberry and Almond Cheesecake Sponge courtesy of the June 2014 BBC Good Food Magazine. Sadly, the recipe isn't yet available online but if it does pop up, I'll try to remember to post the link. Suffice to say, this is a sponge cake with almonds and strawberries; so far, so good. And then... And then there is the addition of cheescakey swirls in the middle of the cake.

Now cake and I have a checkered history. Not the eating of. Oh no. But the cooking of has never been my especial forte. In particular, the boy will remind me, with regular glee, of the apocryphal grilling of the cheesecake, which occurred back in 2004 when I was trying to impress him with my culinary skills. I was living in Edinburgh at the time and hadn't worked out the exact specifics of the oven controls. As we sat opposite each other forking up dense blocks of slightly warmed cream cheese, we both pretended this was a successful dish. Clearly, at some point when he realised I was a shoe-in, he gave up the pretence and decided this was ripe ground for mockery. Admittedly, it really wasn't very good but the shame still burns to this day.

Therefore, it was with deserved trepidation that I made the decision to create cake for my friends for the Bank Holiday meal. Particularly as I was to be joined by T.V.'s Raj Bahra and was terrified the meal would not pass muster. Of course, me being me, I didn't go for a simple sponge. No no. I wanted to impress and had seen the tantalising front cover of BBC Good Food magazine displaying what looked like seriously good cake. (And also, let's not lie, more impressive than an everyday sponge - if you're going to cook all morning, you want the praise.)

Pretty close to mine right? 

Essentially, it's a sponge and then half way through the cake tin filling, spoon down the mixture and add sweetened cream cheese before hiding this gooey treasure with the rest of the cake mixture. My cheese mixture was a particularly worrying consistency and I was really worried that I was staring down the barrel of yet another cake related failure. Obviously, as I was dribbling the strange liquid of cheese, egg and sugar into the craters of cake mixture, that's when my friends turned up. What's that? They ask. Oh nothing as I try to surreptitiously cover up my suspicious looking cake and divert them with beer.

I talked it down. Naturellement. Secretly hoping for eventual triumph. I plied them with wine and slow roast lamb and ignored the fact my cake still wobbled after the required hour in the oven. We cracked open the dessert wine. Because that's who we are, people with dessert wine sitting around the house. And finally after much consultation with the boy, the cake was unveiled.

Triumph. I have beaten cake. Probably best to move onto something even more advanced next time.