The London Train and a London Cheesecake

Tessa Hadley's The London Train was a perfect palate cleanser after the heaviness (in a good way) of Jacob de Zoet.  That is not to say that the book is light - it certainly isn't.  But it is simple in that the book is about the inner lives of two characters who are in their own ways facing a bit of a mid-life crisis.  The first part of the book is about Paul and the second half about Cora, and we don't learn the connection between these two until Cora's part of the book.  Both characters use the London train as a way to escape their lives - but they use it opposite directions.  Cora uses the train to travel from her home (and husband) in London to Cardiff, where she grew up in Wales.  Paul uses the train to escape his rural Wales home (and wife and children) to travel to London.  Both of these characters are lost, and the book explores how they work through this and try to get on with their lives.  It is a book filled with the small details of every day life, and through those details create a rich depiction of two people's struggle to be happy.    At some point in the book, one of the characters mentions cheesecake.  That dear reader, is all it took to inspire me to make this cheesecake - it really does not have much to do with the book!  Rather, I have wanted to make it for years - it is a recipe for "London Cheesecake" from Nigella Lawson's fabulous How to be a Domestic Goddess.  What you may not be able to tell from my photograph is that above the yellow rich cheesecake is a thin layer of pure white - it is that layer which earned this cake the label "London" - it is a layer of lightly sweetened sour cream.  Needless to say, the cake is heaven. 

Cora and Paul, the main characters of Tessa Hadley's The London Train at first appear to be perfectly normal middle class professionals who have their acts together.  They both are married, and while they don't necessarily seem blissfully happy, they are certainly muddling through.  But for both of them, they veer off track and find themselves struggling to find their balance and find some sort of happiness again.  The book starts with Paul, a middle aged poetry critic, on his second marriage, and living his wife and two young daughters in a the Wales countryside.  Paul is thrown off track by the death of his mother, who he was not estranged from but whom he neglected.  Soon after his mother's death Paul is thrown into drama when his teenage daughter from his first marriage - Pia, goes missing.  Paul finds her, pregnant and living with some seemingly shady Polish immigrants in London.  Paul had not been a good, or at least present, father to Pia, but after he finds her in London he leaves his family and moves in with her to keep an eye on her.  But that isn't really what he is doing there.  Really Paul is lost in his real life - he is sick of the country, sick of his wife and bored with his work.  He hides out in Pia's dingy apartment as a means of escape.  Paul is cad (he acknowledges several affairs with women other than his wife), and what do cad's do when they are lost and insecure? Make moves on inappropriate women.  Paul does this and then ends up having to leave London and go back to his home in Wales with his tale between is legs.  Right after he comes home, the novel switches narrative to Cora.  Cora is married to a high ranking civil servant and teaches in a troubled school in London.  When we meet her she is separated from her husband and living in her parents old house in Cardiff, Wales.  We don't know exactly why she left her husband Robert, but at first it appears to be somehow related to their problems having children.  She also clearly has a problem with how devoted he is (and distracted by) his work.  In Cardiff, Cora slows her life down a whole lot and becomes a part time librarian.  Her best friend (who is also her husband's brother) comes to visit but the two women cannot connect because Cora is in a bit of a daze - she cannot explain why she has left Robert and her life behind and why she prefers living her solitary and anonymous life in Wales.  Then Hadley reveals that a few years prior Cora had an affair with Paul, which started when they were both riding the train from London to Cardiff (Cora to try to sell her parents house and Paul to return home to his family).  The affair, and its inevitable bad end is what sends Cora off track and away from her husband.  Eventually she finds her way back to her life and while it is not apparent immediately, we assume as readers that she is happy.  The London Train is a realistic depiction of two normal people and the ways they mess up their own lives.  Hadley is an exceptional writer, who through her use of subtle details and dialogue creates two fully  realized characters in a recognizable modern world.  We probably have sat next to a Paul or Cora ourselves on a train, or perhaps in some ways we are them.


London Cheesecake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's The Domestic Goddess Cookbook
I have been eying this recipe for many years. The Domestic Goddess Cookbook is one of the best cookbooks I have for the purposes of flipping through them and lusting after the whimsical and indulgent recipes of Nigella Lawson.  Lawson is always portrayed in a bit of a hammy and stereotypical way in my opinion - buxom British beauty presents sexy, naughty recipes, blah, blah...  But I have always loved her cookbooks and found the recipes both aspirational and approachable at the same time.  This cheesecake intrigued me because of the thin white layer on top of it - it really did seem more sophisticated and "London" than the classic dense American cheesecake (which I admit I am not a big fan, you will never find me ordering the cheesecake for dessert).  This was a great simple recipe where the cheese really shines through, only helped in its starring duties with the flavors of lemon and vanilla. It is light rather than those dense bricks of cheese and sugar you get at the Cheesecake Factory (with the exception of their yummy Key Lime Cheesecake...) And the layer or sour cream on top does add a certain something. Make this when you want something simple and comforting but sophisticated too.  This is a grown up's cheesecake.

Ingredients
5 ounces graham crackers
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
20 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
for topping
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pulse the graham crackers in a food processor until they are crumbs.  
2. Add the unsalted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moist.
3. Pour the crumbs out into an 8 inch spring form pan and press the crumbs into the base of the pan so it forms a crust.  The crust should just be on the bottom and come up the sides just a little.
4. Put in the fridge to set.
5. Preheat the oven to 350.
6. Beat the cream cheese with the paddle attachment of a standing mixture until light and fluffy on low speed.
7. Add the sugar and beat until combined.
8. Add the eggs and egg yolks and continue to beat. 
9. Finally add the vanilla and lemon juice and beat until incorporated.
10. At this point, boil a kettle full of water as we will be cooking the cheesecake in a water bath.
11. Pour the cheese mixture into springform pan.
12. Wrap the pan along the outside with a double layer of tin foil.
13. Put the pan in a roasting pan and carefully pour the boiling water around it.
14. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 50 minutes until set in the middle.
15. Mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla.
16. Spread it on top of the baked cake and then continue to bake the cake for 10 more minutes.
17. Take out of the oven and cool on a rack until completely cool, about 30 minutes.
18. Put in the fridge to chill completely.  
19. Unmold the cake carefully when you are ready to serve.  Run a warm knife around the edge of the pan before loosening the spring form pan.