James Martin Bakery - New York Style Baked Lemon Cheesecake Mix

I always call myself a food blogger, but I focus mainly on baking. I love the pretty desserts and the smell of freshly baked bread. Although I prefer my own recipes, I appreciate good instant mixes especially during the UK's hottest days. The weather is fantastic but definitely not when you have a hot oven switched on to 180 degree Celsius in the kitchen! Those days were so hot that chocolates has started to melt in the house, and that doesn't happen often in the UK!

With instant mixes, you can still have freshly baked goodies, but you spend the least time in the kitchen. The bread mixes I've tried from James Martin's Bakery were really fresh like the freshly bought ones from a good bakery, and we really enjoyed them. So when I've received his cake mixes to try, I was having fairly high expectations.

I'll be trying the cupcake mix when Abby is available, as I'm sure she'd want to try making these herself.

I made the New York Style Bakes Lemon Cheesecake with a bit of Abby's help and I must say that I'm impressed! I have mentioned before that I love baked cheesecakes (although without the cookie base) but I found them troublesome to make because of the hot water bath you put the cake in, before putting it in the oven. James Martin Bakery's cheesecake doesn't require a hot water bath, yet it is still smooth and creamy. It is a bit on the thick and rich side, so I think it can easily serve five to six people, and it goes really well with a good cup of tea.

I made it with the cookie base for review purpose and it tasted like freshly baked Crumble topping. I still prefer baked cheesecakes without the cookie base though, so I ate them separately. The cheesecake smelled gorgeous and lemony, but it also tasted a touch too sour for me. Hubby wasn't bothered about the sourness and thought it was nice. I would love it if they sell the plain version and I'll be their long term customer! It's really good for when I have baked cheesecake cravings but can't be bothered with the work!

The mix has provided almost everything including a disposable baking mould, you just need melted butter, cream cheese and milk.

Mix the melted butter with the crumbs, press them down in the mould and chill. I forgot to chill but it came out fine.

Mix the cheese and milk until soft and creamy, add the cheesecake mix and beat for 2 minutes.

Left: Abby mixing the cheesecake powder with the cream cheese before we use electric whisk to cream it. This ensure that the
powder won't fly everywhere before they get a chance to mix into the cheese

Pour into mould and bake, without a hot water bath!

The cake raised up quite high, but after cooling down it shrank back to normal.

You can buy the cake mix for only £1.79 (sale price, usually £1.99) from Tesco. For a cake that can serve 4-6 people and you only need a tub of cream cheese, a dash of milk and melted butter on top for a freshly baked cheesecake, it really is not a bad price at all!

Disclosure: I was sent 2 cake mixes to review and this is one of them; all opinions are honest and my own