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Cheesecake is a regular feature of my birthday celebrations, which happen to coincide annually with Shavuot. I’m not generally a big fan of cheese, but when it comes to cheesecakes, I can get quite picky. My mum’s recipe — secretly shared with her mother and no other — makes the best birthday cake in town. Fluffy and lemony, its delicate surface adorns a crumbly shortbread base.

Some years ago, I struck up an argument with Tanya as to whose cheesecake recipe was better. With an ego that’s probably too big for my own good, I didn’t dare back down from my position.

Finally, some six years later, the Nothman jury is out after Tanya appeared at my place with a full-size yellow beast, nicely browned, with only one crack down the cheesy centre (we weren’t judging on style).

So the three of us (mum, Jeremy and I) stood around perplexed as this foreign creature was pulled from the fridge. Perplexed because it was in the fridge in the first place (ours doesn’t get refrigerated, and even if it did it would often not make it there due to popular demand). Jeremy was further confused to find that it wasn’t one of those fridge cheesecakes and had indeed been baked.

Mum was the first to comment on the recipe: while trying to cut it (and tearing through instead) she noted that the cake was quite dense, and described it as the type of cheesecake with “a lot higher fat content”. Jeremy, decidedly not a dietician, just mentioned the ingredient “cream” and considered this sufficient justification for the cake’s refrigeration.

In the end, all were more than happy to agree that it was a fantasitcally delectable cake, if a lot denser and sweeter (the caramel shortbread base helps) than what we were used to.

I do expect Tanya’s cake to disappear quickly. I still don’t stand down from my verdict, though. =)

We’re still waiting on a Nothman cake for the Gruenewald household… Hopefully it won’t take another 6 years.