Cold Days And A “False Cheese Cake”

Gone are the 2 warm days we recently enjoyed and after that it got pretty cold again, though “pretty” doesn’t really cut it. I mean it’s more like “lousy”. Night temps are below the freezing mark and today we barely made 40F and helped by a very cold wind it was plainly unpleasant to be outside. Sooooo…..the day was spent in the kitchen department preparing a couple of cakes for tomorrow’s birthday celebrations. My dear loving wife Bea is having her 61th birthday. I can’t believe we are in our 7th decade. Geez… Anyway, back to my occupation in the kitchen. Bea made one very delicious cake in the morning while my plan was a “False Cheese Cake”. It’s false because it’s made with pudding and yoghurt instead of cream cheese. Trouble is the recipe is a German and that shoulda told me that it wouldn’t be doable. Ok, I made a base with Graham Crumbs and that worked out as planned, because that part is actually AMERICAN. But then came the cream. The recipe spoke of making a vanilla pudding, then beating in 4 eggs (!) and adding 2 pounds (!!) of yoghurt. I had some plain yoghurt which I dutifully added to the mixture. The cream was then to be poured over the Graham Crumb base. I cut up a few strawberries and distributed them across the surface. The whole thing was then to be baked at 350F for 70 (!!!) minutes. Wow, that shoulda really warned me off. But I followed suit and away the cake went into the oven. After 60 minutes I tried with a knife and the blade came up messy. OK, another 10-15 minutes. Another try and it still came up messy. ALRIGHT….I give it another 30 minutes, but it’s still messy after that. HELL….what should I do? Bea pleaded for the cake asking for more time yet. OK- I allow for yet another 30 minutes. Meanwhile I take Molly out for a walk. When I am back the whole cream has risen to the top edge of my cake form. Hm…is that good or bad?  I try the knife again. It is still a little messy when I pull it out, but something is about to happen. The edges are getting some darker colour, so before my power bill goes through the roof, I shut off the oven, but leave the damn cake inside. Hopefully that will make the cream solidify. Otherwise we have a cream soup tomorrow! After staying in the cooling oven for another hour the cream has fallen down again…..but wondrous thing has happened, it has solidified. INCREDIBLE. I swear by all cake gods that I will never again follow a German recipe in Canada.