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....

            

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!

'Tis the season to be a wally

Advent day 11 it's getting closer!! I'm excited anyway....So yesterday our advent 'surprise' was to decorate the Christmas cookie tree together. Most of the advent surprises end with together as that's what it's all about. Getting us all together, even if it's just for ten minutes before my husband rushes off to work. The other night we sang Christmas songs together (good job our neighbours live away most of the time they may have thought a cat was getting strangled!) It was hilarious and my son Chase who's nearly two thought we had all gone mad, although he danced and screamed "Yay!!!" at the end, so we must have done well. Anyway, here's my cookie tree recipe, don't worry if you haven't got the star cutters they're £4.99 on-line from Lakeland or you could always try cutting freehand stars, or even different sized circles to stack. This recipe gives you enough dough for twenty large to small cookies.

600g sifted plain flour
300g butter
300g sugar
Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
Kg pack of ready roll icing (I got mine in Lidl)
Decorations (Again Lidl had some decent decorations, or the Pound shop)
Tbsp jam

In a bowl (or mixer if you have one) cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (as shown above)

Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and mix 

Add the flour gradually until a dough is formed divide into two balls, wrap in cling film and chill for an hour

                                                 

Roll out the dough to around 3-4mm thick and cut two of each size cookie re-rolling and cutting with the leftover scraps

Place cookies onto greaseproof lined baking trays and place in a pre heated oven at 180 for 12 minutes or until firm then place on a wire rack to cool

                            

Knead and roll out the icing until it's as thick as you like to top the cookies 

Cut two lots of each size for the icing too

Brush each cookie with some jam to stick the fondant icing in place

Let the children assemble the stack starting from the largest to the smallest (cookie not child)

                                               
We had loads of fun decorating the tree but not as much fun as we all had eating it      
                                               

Chris's teacake n butter pudding

As promised last night on my new Facebook page (shameless plug please do like, follow the link above!) here's my, okay it's not mine it's actually a lady called Chris from Marton court's, recipe for teacake n butter pudding. A different take on the old classic and very yummy. With it's spices and fruits already in the teacakes half the prep work is done for you. I really enjoyed my time talking with the people from Marton court and will be going back soon for more old school recipes and tips so watch this space. There are a few variations to this recipe you could try, marmalade spread on the teacakes, or chocolate chips scattered in between layers, have fun with it but most importantly let me know how you get on!

6 teacakes halved
2 tbsp sugar (white or brown)
3/4 pint milk
2 eggs beaten
Butter for spreading

In a greased ovenproof dish layer the halves spread with butter to line the bottom of the dish 

Sprinkle them with half of the sugar 

Layer again repeating the process but face the butter side down this time

Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on the top

In a jug mix the egg and milk

Pour over the teacakes and leave to stand for half an hour 

Preheat the oven to 200 and bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is crispy and the middle will be nice and gooey  

                               

                                 

Serve with custard or cream

Sticky toffee apple cake

I had a few of the apples left over that we had picked a few weeks back and they were just about past their best. There was not much point making a massive batch of chutney when only me and my dad like it and I couldn't be bothered peeling them for a crumble. Only one thing for it, my sticky toffee apple upside down cake! This is deliciously moist oozing with caramel sauce and if you want to be really naughty then a dollop of freshly whipped cream is the way to go! As you don't have to peel the apples it's a lazy, low cost, delicious pudding....just don't blame me for the calories.

For the caramel sauce you will need:

200g butter

200g sugar (I used brown but you can use white if you haven't got brown)

2 tbsp golden syrup

For the cake:

4-6 eating apples cored and chopped up 

125g butter

125g sugar

2 eggs

225g self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda

200ml milk

Place the sauce ingredients into a pan on a medium heat and stir until dissolved bring to the boil and simmer.

Place the apples into the sauce and turn to a low heat while you make your cake mix.

Grease a 24cm round cake tin and pre heat the oven to 180.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy in a bowl with a wooden spoon.

Adding the eggs one at a time mix them all together, (don't forget the apples keep giving them a stir so they don't catch.)

Sift the half of the flour and bicarb into the cake mix with the milk.

Fold it all together then add the rest of the flour.

Take the apples out of the pan with a slotted spoon, so you leave most of the sauce in the pan, and put them into the cake tin

Pour the batter on top of the apples and smooth over.

Place on a baking tray in case any syrup spills over and leave in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean of the sponge mix.

Leave to stand for just ten minutes (no longer) and turn out, holding a plate over the top and flipping over confidently and you should be left with this....

To serve heat up your sauce you can add some cream to the sauce if you like to make it more caramel like and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.