We’ve been enjoying local polytunnel-grown strawberries while we are waiting for ours to ripen. It’s a good idea to make the most of what’s in season, so apart from eating lots of them just as they are, or with yoghurt or ice-cream, I’ve also devised this Strawberry Cheesecake recipe. Unfortunately I didn't think of photographing it before it was devoured by family and friends. Perhaps I'll bake another one next week and photograph that one.

Tracy’s Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

You’ll need to make this the day before you want to eat it.

Ingredients:

50g organic butter

200g chocolate chip biscuits (crushed in a food processor or by hand)

2 cartons Devon Gold curd cheese

1 carton Cornish clotted cream

75g unrefined golden caster sugar

25g cornflour

3 free-range organic eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract with vanilla seeds

200g fresh strawberries, sliced

Preheat the oven to 170′C (gas mark 3). Grease and line with baking parchment a loose-bottomed 18cm diameter cake tin. To make the base, melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the crushed biscuits until they are well combined. Press the biscuit crumb mixture into the base of the cake tin. Leave to chill in the fridge while you get the cheesecake mixture ready.

Put the curd cheese and cream in a mixing bowl and mix well (I used a fork and really beat this together). Beat in the icing sugar and cornflour, and then add the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat it well until its smooth. Stir in the sliced strawberries and then pour the mixture onto the biscuit base.

Cook in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes (don’t let it get too brown). When it’s done, turn the oven off and leave the cake in it to cool for about 2 hours. When cool, transfer to the fridge to chill completely. When it’s chilled, you can carefully remove the cake from the tin and voila. Decorate with more sliced strawberries and dust with icing sugar.

As the strawberries lose their colour in cooking, it might be an idea to try this with raspberries or other berries for more colour.