Mama Cakes initially sold a Polish-style cheesecake called sernik from home, which is a classic treat in Poland. While the popular American cheesecake is creamy and rich, sernik is lighter and has variations like no-bake.
The recipe came from a Polish man who is a friend of Chia’s brother. “It is his family recipe that is almost 100 years old,” Chia told 8days.sg. While the original recipe has a bread dough base, Liew adjusted it to be less labour-intensive so that she can cope with the workload as a mainly solo hawker.
Her version is oven-baked, with a crushed lemon wafer base instead of the usual shortcrust or graham cracker base. “Lemon wafers are more fragrant,” she noted. The cheesecake is topped with a chunky blueberry compote (the Polish also make sernik with a base like shortcrust, decorating the cheesecake with other toppings such as chocolate ganache, meringue, nuts or crumble).
Customers can order the eight-inch Polish cheesecake whole (S$50, yields 10 slices), or buy it by the slice, which comes plain with no blueberry topping (S$5.20 each). Do note that the sernik is only available on weekends for walk-ins (preorder in advance if you want it on other days, as Liew can only make a limited number of cheesecakes by herself).
Read More: IT analyst sets up hawker stall for mum to sell cakes and Hong Kong desserts
