Let me begin by apologizing for the lack of a finished picture of the cake. It was so bloody delicious we didn’t even stop to take a picture before devouring it.
Sorry. But I will pre-warn you that this might be the best damn cheesecake you have ever tasted.
So…before you get into the nitty gritty of the cheesecake, you need to assemble all your ingredients:
Crust
1.25 cups of crushed honey grahams
90g butter or margarine (melted)
Filling
500g Cream Cheese
1/2 cup fine sugar
2 TBSP lemon juice
2 TSP grated lemon rind
1 TSP vanilla essence
300ml heavy whipping cream
1 TBSP gelatin
1/2 cup boiling water
Decoration
Whipped cream
Strawberries
Chocolate
So lets get our hands in there. Prep the cheesecake base first as this can then go in the fridge to harden up while you create the more healthy portion of the desert.
I use an 8″ springform tin but you can go slightly wider and get a smaller (in height) cheesecake – its really personal preference. Throw all your honey graham crackers in a ziplock bag, think of something that really grinds your gears and let loose with a mallet (or a fist, or something less violent).
Tip everything into a bowl and add the melted butter – mix together well. From here, you tip the butter/biscuit mixture into the springform pan and press it down evenly all over. Sometimes it helps to use a beer glass, but if you’re currently drinking out of it then try a flat bottom spatula or potato masher.
Next, try and get all the fiddly stuff prepped. Grate the lemon rind and then squeeze the lemon for the lemon juice. This is where the kitchen already starts to smell yummy.
Evacuate all additional bodies out of the kitchen (including animals), encourage them to leave with promises of used beaters and bowls. At this time its also wise to get the heavy cream whipped so that its ready to be used.
Boil the water for the gelatin (follow the directions on the packet for this)
Last piece of preparation! Make sure the gelatin is stirred really well and then sit it aside to cool for a bit before it gets added in to the mixture.
So now we get to start working on the actual cake.
Mmm…cream cheese. Shove it all in and marvel at how healthy it looks. Delicious.
This step involves tossing in the entire amount of cream cheese called for and beating with the electric mixer until it is softened. Don’t worry, it will climb up the beaters and look a LOT worse before it gets better 
Add in the sugar, lemon rind and vanilla essence and keep beating until it is well mixed.
Here is where the magic happens. Using a metal spoon, you need to fold in the heavy cream to the cream cheese/sugar mixture. Once this is well coated, pour in the gelatin solution and use the same metal spoon to fold that in.
Have your helper remove the cheesecake base from the fridge and get ready to finish this bad boy off.
The “batter” will mostly just pour into the cake tin at this point, but you can use a spatula to assist in getting all the goodness out of the mixing bowl and into the pan.
Using the same spatula, you just run it around the top of the pan to level out the cheesecake and give it that nice flat top.
Wa-lah! Another perfect cheesecake. The secret to this cheesecake is its “fridge time” – it’s always better to make this the night before and leave it to set in the fridge overnight. The longer its in the fridge, the more of the lemon zest that works its way throughout the cake and the more deliciousness you have to share. Or hoard.
And here is where the bowl sharing comes into play. If you are anything like my father, you can’t help but share the bowl even further…especially when it comes to the animals licking their noses.
Oh Lady Georgia.
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