Banting friendly baked rainbow cheesecake recipe

Our training group, the Running Junkies, had our year end braai last night. We have quite a few runners in the group that either lives low carb or flirted with the concept. Usually, I am very quiet about my life choice of living low carb, but I am often surprised about how many people are living this way and also hearing about peoples experiences. We had "Banting Friendly" broccoli salad ("faux" potato salad) and I baked my own version of low carb cheesecake for dessert. For the fun of it I made it in rainbow colours - vanilla flavoured.

A photograph of the only slice left after last night's outing to show off the colours.

The recipe has developed from my own test kitchen and so far none of my variations have flopped. The only difference is the density and the fluffiness. This particular version is very light and baked cheesecake remains one of my favourite things. Like whiskers on kittens and rainbows :-)

So by popular demand - maybe that's a bit over the top, but by special request from one or two people in the running group, herewith my version of a low carb, most heavenly dessert, because it is holiday and I love cheesecake.

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 100 ml of almond flour
• 50 ml of desiccated coconut (a little extra for sprinkling on the wet crust is nice)
• 2-3 tbsp of chopped almonds or pecans (finely chopped - optional)
• Melted butter (about 1/3 cup or enough to make a "wet" paste)
• Optional: cinnamon and a little bit of sweetener

For the filling:

• 2 pkg cream cheese, room temperature (Philadelphia is my choice)
• 1/3 cup sweetener of choice - I use Suki or pure Xylitol NOTE: I also start with very little and then add the sweet stuff to taste. My taste buds are very sensitive to sweetness so I tend to be light on the "sugary" taste. My advice is that you taste it and add more or less as required.
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tub sour cream
• 1 tub heavy cream
• 1 tub full cream cottage cheese (smooth)
• 4 Large eggs
• 1 each of liquid food colors (blue, yellow, green, red)

Directions

1. Preheat oven 180°C. Before you get started with the crust, make sure your springform pan is water tight. Do this by carefully wrapping a few layers of foil on the outside of the pan, so water cannot get into the pan. Be careful not to rip the foil or water will get into your cake and ruin it!
2. Mix the dry ingredients for the  crust together (teaspoons of sweetener and cinnamon optional) together in a bowl. Then mix in butter with a soft spatula or your fingers. It is supposed to be very wet don't panic. 
3. Press the wet mixture into the prepared springform pan. It needs to be very thin and requires a bit of patience to get the entire surface covered in the soft stuff.  You can add the extra coconut to the surface to help you with the process, but in the end you should have an even, flat crust.
4. Bake the crust for 10 minutes on a low oven rack - it burns quickly keep and eye on it, it should start to brown. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool while you are preparing the filling mixture. Turn oven temperature down to 150°F.
5. To make filling, cut cream cheese into pieces and add to a mixing bowl - it is easier if the cream cheese is at room temperature - I sometimes spin it in the microwave a few seconds to soften. Whip until smooth, maybe 4 minutes. Then add sweetener, and continue to beat until smooth again, another 4-5 minutes. Next, add vanilla, salt, sour cream, cottage cheese and heavy cream; beat until smooth. Add in 1 egg at a time, beating briefly between each egg.
6. Once the mixture is well combined and very smooth, divide evenly into 6 dishes. Add food color to each dish to get the desired colors. (Red = drops of red, Orange = drops yellow + drops red, Yellow = drops yellow, Green = drops green, Blue = drops blue, Violet = drops red + drops blue). If you feel like a normal cheese cake skip this part and just go straight to pouring the entire batch of the tasty mixture into your pan. 
7. Pour colored mixtures into cooled crust. Start with red filling, and slowly pour it right in the center of the crust. Continue to build the rainbow by pouring the fillings directly in the center. This will create layers so that each slice has some of each color.
8. Place cheesecake into a baking dish on oven rack, and fill baking dish with boiling water about 2-2.5cm up the side of the springform pan.
9. Bake at 150°C in the water bath for 1 hour and 40 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes or until set but still jiggles slightly in the middle. If cheesecake begins to brown on top, cover loosely with foil during last 5 minutes of baking.
10. Turn off the oven, open the oven door a crack, and let the cake cool in the oven for 1 hour. The slow cooling will help it not crack. If you are in a hurry or it cracked already, just put it in the fridge directly from the oven. This usually helps it to set quickly.
11. You can loosely wrap the dish in foil so the foil isn't touching the top of the cake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. 
12. When ready to remove cake, run a clean narrow knife around the edge of the dish, remove the foil, unlock the spring, and carefully lift off the outer ring.

A cutting tip: use dental floss to pre-cut the cake before serving - you get a clean cut. That is if you don't have one of those fancy cake cutter wire thingy's. Note to self, buy one for myself ;-)

Enjoy!

Keep calm and eat low carb.