Cheese...and cake?.....Am I hearing you right?

This has got to be my all time favourite dessert and since I made my first one, no shop bought cheesecake has been good enough since. I've been a lot busier since starting this blog. Keeping my shopping bill down to a minimum, does incur a bit more effort in the kitchen, but who can moan when the end results are a raspberry ripple cheesecake. The only downside is you will become really popular all of a sudden, people will want to travel from miles to share it! I had to share this one with 6 family members. My hubby hates it and is very vocal to announce his disgust when people come for dinner. The recipe/method here is for a basic raspberry cheesecake. You can do anything you like to make it your own. Swap the digestives for chocolate biscuits, gingernuts or even oaty biscuits make a nice crunchy base. Add flavours to the filling, chocolate, vanilla, lemon curd...anything let your imagination run wild! The decorating is the best part, and it really isn't hard to make a cheesecake look pretty. It's a bit like putting make-up on Miss World, she's already stunning but with that extra help...wow! Yes, I just compared a cheesecake to Miss World. It really is that good.

For the base:

250g biscuits

100g butter

For the filling:

400g cream cheese

80g icing sugar 

200ml double cream

Grease a 23cm flan dish

In a food processor (or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin) place the biscuits and blitz/bash into crumbs

Melt the butter and mix with the sandy crumbs

Line the base of your greased dish with the buttery biscuitness (I sometimes get possessed by Nigella sorry..) and pack it down with a spoon until firm.

Place in the freezer while you make the filling to set.

                                                     
In a mixer (or a bowl with some elbow grease) Place all the filling ingredients and mix until combined and fluffy At this stage if you were adding something else to the filling put it in now

Now for the best part. Take the base out of the freezer and put the filling on top all that's left is to decorate.

Unfortunately when I did this part there were no kids around and I had to lick the bowl clean (the sacrifices I make)

After decorating mine, there were a few too many raspberries so I made a coulis (raspberry sauce)

Push the raspberries through a sieve and add some icing sugar to taste

I simply dropped some blobs on top of the cheesecake and used some to smear artistically on the plates, nobody actually cared about this and I was left somewhat disappointed....

            

Triple choc chip cookies

Don't you just love those cookies you get in the supermarkets. The ones in the paper bags, all gooey and chewy. They usually have a named sweet in them like Rolo or Smarties. Well I made some last night that tasted as good, if not better than those! They were a chocoholics dream. Triple chocolate cookies, verging on the consistency of a brownie in the middle and crispy on the outside, generously filled with chocolate chips. If you want to recreate the supermarket ones then replace the chocolate chips in the recipe for your chosen sweet, I can't wait to experiment! I'm going to try replacing the chocolate I used for chocolate orange for my next batch. Throw some nuts or oats in for a different texture, whatever you decide on let me know on my Facebook page How to be hard up and happy! I'd love to see your results.

150g plain flour sifted
100g chocolate melted (whichever you want)
200g chocolate chips or whatever chocolate sweets you want (from the fridge)
30g cocoa powder sifted
120g butter softened
75g brown sugar
50g white sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
Large egg beaten (from the fridge)

Preheat the oven to 170
In a bowl combine the flour, cocoa, salt and bicarbinate of soda
With a mixer if you have one (by hand is fine too it will give your arms a good workout!) cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy (or until your arm feels like it's going to drop off) then add the melted chocolate and mix again until combined
Beat in the cold egg and add the dry ingredients
Fold in first, so the flour mix doesn't go everywhere, then mix

Once mixed stir in the chocolate chips/ sweets you are using

Using an ice-cream scoop or a spoon if you don't have one, dollop large amounts onto a greaseproof lined tray

                                  

No need to shape them just dollop and bake for 18 minutes

They will seem undercooked but I promise you they're ready 

Leave to cool for 5 minutes, this is the hardest part, it takes real willpower after smelling the chocolate wafting through the house

All that's left is to enjoy them with an ice cold glass of milk, or ice-cream, or cream, or.....just enjoy them

Here's my son Chase enjoying his this morning

Yule love this log!

This one's for the unashamed chocoholics. How can you resist a light and spongy, cream and chocolate filled, chocolate log? Who needs a better excuse to rush and buy a load of fitness gear in January?! The time and effort that go into this are so worth it, no shop bought log will taste as good. You could go to town on the decorating it too if you're slightly artistic, or if like me you're just more realistic, stick some holly on it (for photographic purposes of course) and then whip it back off again and dig in!

To make the sponge

4 eggs

100g sugar

65g self-raising flour sifted

40g cocoa powder (I use Sainsburys own)

Place the eggs and sugar into a large bowl and mix until pale and frothy (use a mixer if you have one)

Sieve the cocoa powder and flour into the eggs and sugar mix and fold into the mixture taking care not to beat any of the air out

Line a large oven proof tray (I used my roasting tin) with greaseproof paper

Pour the mixture into the tin and spread into the corners 

Cook in a pre heated oven at 200 for 8-10 minutes until the mix is shrinking away from the sides

                          
See video for how to roll the log while still warm
                                
For the chocolate filling
200ml cream
200g plain chocolate

Melt the chocolate and cream together in a pan on a low/ medium heat until combined
Refridgerate until set
                           
Spread some of the chocolate mixture onto the sponge and if you like 150ml whipped cream on top

Roll back up again and cut a third of the cake at an angle and stand next to the rest of the log

Place the remainder of the chocolate into a piping bag with a star nozzle, or spread it on and make your own log design, you can't go wrong!

All that's left to do is get the kettle on and enjoy a slice!

Christmas bomb

Don't like Christmas pudding? Like rocky road? Try this for dessert on Christmas day. You can put what you want in it, it's entirely up to you. I had some mini marshmallows and bits of chocolate left from our hot chocolate bar the other week and my daughter gave me (not even begrudgingly) a couple of her mini Mars bars to throw in too. The last time I made this I made my own honeycomb (You-tube tutorial to follow soon!) but you could try fruit or nuts, anything at all. You start with plain old vanilla ice-cream, again, you could use a different flavour, and basically add to it what you want. I poured melted white chocolate over mine to look like white sauce on a Christmas pudding but you could use any chocolate and any swiss roll for that matter! But if you want to recreate mine here's what I used.

Chocolate swiss roll

3/4 litre vanilla ice-cream

Mini marshmallows

2 mini Mars bars sliced

50g white chocolate broken

50g milk chocolate broken

100g white chocolate melted for top

                                       

Slice the swiss roll into slices 1 cm thick and line a bowl with cling film 

                                     
Get a child (any will do) to bash up the chocolate into pieces (works even better if they're in a mood)                                      
Place the slices of swiss roll into the bowl
                                     
Place the ice-cream, marshmallows, chocolate and Mars pieces into a bowl (or mixer) and combine                                          
Scoop the ice-cream mix into the swiss roll lined bowl and tighten the cling film around the top
Place into the freezer preferably with a side plate on top with something weighing it down

After at least 2 hours turn it out onto a plate pour on the melted white chocolate, decorate and serve

A wow factor for any Christmas party!

High tea, low cost!

Who doesn't love a bit of afternoon tea?  From playing with tea sets as a child I've always loved a cup of tea and a slice of what you fancy.  The luxury of a Botham's cream cake or a Coopland's scone with a nice cup of tea (is there any other kind?) is perfect to keep you satisfied until tea-time. I've always had a soft spot for an eclair, lovely fluffy choux pastry covered in chocolate, that crunches as you bite, oozing with whipped cream! The thing is when everybody wants one in my house it can cost a fair bit.....unless of course you could make them? No, surely not I hear you say, otherwise everybody would do it? I'll let you in on a secret....you can! I will tell you how then you will never need to spend extra money on a cheeky treat, and before you start thinking it's too complicated or time consuming, it's really not I've knocked this batch up in half an hour. Somehow I don't think they will last that long....

55g butter
75g plain flour sifted
150ml water
Choclate for melting (I used Lidl's own brand milk chocolate)
175ml double cream whipped

In a pan on a medium heat melt the butter in the water until bubbling as shown above.

Take pan off the heat and really quickly tip in the flour and stir vigorously until it comes together as shown above.

Leaving the pan off the heat to cool for a couple of minutes, whisk two eggs. Add these to the pan gradually, beating with the wooden spoon until the mixture turns into a glossy paste.

Spoon the mixture onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. 

How much is up to you, if you use a small spoon you will have profiteroles, a large dollop gives you choux buns like I did, or you could use piping bag and make eclairs.

Place in a preheated oven at 200 for ten minutes, then turn up to 220 for a further 15 minutes, don't open the door until finished.

After they have cooled, slice them through the middle and you will be left with pockets perfect for filling with the cream.

You could mix the cream with lemon curd for a tangy kick, or even custard to make it go further.

When you have melted your chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water, just drizzle it over the buns and put in the fridge to set. Then all that's left to do is get the kettle on and enjoy!