It’s a rule of thumb not to eat cheesecake like you used to years ago because, nowadays, even if you limit yourself to one slice you’ll be disappointed on the scales tomorrow. It’s okay — you can eat anything purple instead — beetroot, berries, aubergines, plums, even lavender (but not in ice cream) and that’s not too bad is it? All those antioxidants. It’s hardly a punishment.
Except, you still watch those videos on YouTube — some Italian-looking chap with tattooed muscles and tricky blue eyes, hammering down digestive biscuits for a base with a rolling pin like your mother’s, whisking together soft cheese, eggs and cream, adding lemon zest, then baking golden and when it’s cooled, crowning the cake with juicy halves of champagne gooseberries, all the while talking sotto voce in that deep accent, before he slides it slowly into a dish bordered with ecstatic dancing hens. It quivers when he cuts a slice, digs in a spoon and lifts it to his mouth. You can taste it, all that creaminess. Nearly.
Jude Higgins is a widely published flash fiction writer, whose collection Clearly Defined Clouds was published in 2024. She founded Bath Flash Fiction Award and is Director of Flash Fiction Festivals UK and the short short fiction press, Ad Hoc Fiction. judehiggins.com
I felt this one. SO good.
ReplyDeleteThis tasted almost as good as the heavy and really cheesy blackcurrant cheesecake I used to buy by weight at the deli in my university town, telling myself it was a substitute for lunch.
ReplyDelete