Cake'n'Bake Wednesday: Ginger and White Chocolate Cheesecake

The club had decided to try not to repeat themes from the previous year, but we also decided that we couldn't NOT do Christmas in December, so we put a Secret Santa spin on it. Each member had to put a word or phrase which made them think of Christmas into a hat, and then the words were drawn out at random for another member to use as baking inspiration.

The word I drew out of the hat was "Ginger". Originally I was planning to bake a gingerbread house that we could assemble together at the meeting, but as I did the draw I knew that another member had gingerbread, so I decided to go for something a little bit different. A ginger and white chocolate cheesecake!

Ingredients:
200g gingernut biscuits
100g margarine
30g crystallised ginger, plus extra to decorate
150g white chocolate
300ml double cream
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
A little bronze lustre dust
Gold edible shimmer spray

Prep time: 20 minutes
Chill time: 3 hours (minimum)
Serves 8-10

1. Crush the gingernut biscuits into fine crumbs, either by putting in a blender, or by bashing with a rolling pin the old fashioned way.
2. Melt the margarine and mix into the biscuit crumbs. Pour the biscuit mixture into the cake tin you are using (I used a 7 inch springform pan) and press down with the back of a spoon to flatten. Pop the tin in the fridge to allow the biscuit base to set whilst you make the cheesecake filling.
3. Start by chopping the crystallised ginger into teeny tiny small pieces, and put these to one side. Melt the white chocolate - either in the microwave or in a bowl over hot water - and put this to one side to cool.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the double cream to soft peaks, then whisk in the cream cheese and icing sugar. Separate 250g (approximately 1/3) of the filling into a smaller bowl, and stir in the chopped ginger and bronze lustre dust. Put this to one side.
5. Whisk the cooled white chocolate into the remaining cheesecake mixture.
6. Remove the biscuit base from the fridge and start to layer the cheesecake fillings on top of this, making sure to level the top of the cheesecake between each layer. Start with half of the white chocolate filling, then all of the ginger filling, then the remaining white chocolate filling.  
7. Spray the top of the cheesecake with the gold shimmer spray, then place one or two pieces of ginger in the centre to decorate. Pop the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set before serving. (It's best to leave it overnight, if you can!)

Happy Thoughts
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Individual Bailey's Cheesecakes (and a very special birthday...)

This post is dedicated to my Mum. The lady who taught me how to bake (and so much more than that!!) The lady who loves Bailey's, and loves cheesecake. Today is my Mum's birthday, so this recipe is especially for her.

Mum and I, circa 1988

There's actually a funny story around this post... you see, although I now live in Cambridge, I grew up in Derby, and that's where my Mum still lives. I only get to go back to Derby 3 or 4 times a year, but Mum's a real opportunist, so whenever I'm back she puts me to work. This could be sewing felt onto jumpers for some festive fun, or adding glitter accents to figurines to make decorations for her Disney Christmas tree (yes, Mum has a Disney Christmas tree, in addition to her traditional Christmas tree. Well, what did you expect!?), but usually she puts me to work in the kitchen. And her favourite thing to get me working on is cheesecake.

So, there was one such weekend I was back in Derby, and I was tasked with making a Bailey's cheesecake for Mum to take into her office on her last day of work before starting a new job. So I set to work, giving just one condition: when Mum got to work the next day and put her cheesecake onto a serving plate there, she would take a photograph for me to use on the blog. She agreed, and an epic, 10-12 slice cheesecake filled with chocolate and Bailey's swirls was created. I quickly jotted down the ingredients and quantities that I'd used, and came back to Cambridge. A few days later, I text Mum to ask how the cheesecake went down, and if she could send me the photos. She replied to say it was really yummy, but she forgot to take a photo. Head, meet desk.

I could have just made another Bailey's cheesecake and taken a photo of that, but I'm strictly tee-total these days, and even when I did drink I didn't like Bailey's, so I couldn't justify making a cheesecake that wouldn't be eaten just to take a photo. I love my blog and my readers, really, I do, but that is a bit too much for me! So the recipe got put on the shelf until the opportunity next arose (i.e. I was next at Mum's house and she wanted another Bailey's cheesecake!!)

Anyway, getting back to the point... the opportunity next arose at Christmas. I couldn't make a whole Bailey's cheesecake as it wasn't completely family friendly. But, I'd recently ventured into the realms of individual desserts with my Individual Malty Malteser Cheesecakes, so I knew just what to do.

Individual Bailey's Cheesecakes!! OK, I think I've prattled on long enough now so just one last thing to say before I get on with the recipe:

Ingredients:
30g melted butter
6 digestive biscuits
60ml double cream
60g cream cheese
30g icing sugar
1tbsp baileys
Grated chocolate, to decorate

Prep time: 15 minutes
Chill time: at least 1 hour
Makes 2 individual Cheesecakes

1. Melt the butter in the microwave, then pop to one side to cool slightly.
2. Put the digestive biscuits into the blender, and whizz until they resemble fine crumbs. Tip the crushed biscuits into the melted margarine and stir until evenly coated. Split the biscuit mixture evenly between the two ramekins, and press down with the back of a spoon. Pop in the fridge to set whilst you prepare the filling.
3. Pour the cream into a small bowl and whisk until thick and pillowy. Add the cream cheese, icing sugar, and Baileys and whisk until all combined to a thick and creamy mixture. 
4. Spread half of the mixture over each biscuit base. Sprinkle a generous amount of grated chocolate over each cheesecake, then pop back in the fridge until ready to serve!

Happy Thoughts
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Mini Jammie Dodger Cheesecakes

I'm going to start by apologising about the photo here. I made this cheesecakes back in August 2012, and for some reason only have this one really bad photograph of them... ooops! I promise that they taste much better than they look!

Anyway, the story behind this recipe is that in July 2012 I went on a holiday park type holiday with my family. The 7 of us (plus pet dog) crammed ourselves into tiny caravan rooms for a week and had an absolute blast. We played bingo, and got to see Shane Ritchie Jr and Chico perform. I know, right!? Anyway, at the cafe on-site they had a big poster for Jammie Dodger Cheesecake, which, quite frankly, looked the bees knees. But it was constantly sold out, so we didn't get to try any. So, a few weeks later I had a free Sunday and decided to have a go at making my own, and here they are! These cheesecakes are very, very sweet, which is why they come in small portions :-)

Ingredients:
100g shortbread biscuits
50g butter, melted
100g creme fraiche
100g cream cheese
25g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla essence
50g strawberry jam
6 mini Jammie Dodgers

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 40-45 minutes
Makes 6 Cheesecakes

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and lightly grease a 6-hole muffin pan. I use a frylight spray as you get a nice, thin and even coverage :-)
2. Turn the biscuits into biscuit crumbs, either by whizzing in a blender, or by sticking them in a food bag and bashing them with a rolling pin. Once the biscuits are sufficiently crumbed, stir in the melted butter. Share this mixture evenly between the 6 holes of the muffin pan, and press down with the back of a spoon. Pop this in the fridge to set whilst you prepare your filling.
3. Tip the creme fraiche, cream cheese, caster sugar, egg and vanilla essence into a large bowl and whisk on a high speed until the combine to form a thick, creamy mixture.
4. Take the cheesecake bases from the fridge, and place a teaspoon of strawberry jam into the centre of each one. Spoon the cheesecake filling over the top of the jam and the biscuit base, filling each hole of the muffin try almost to the top. 
5. Gently place one of your mini-jammie dodgers on top of each cheesecake, then bake for 40-45 minutes until the filling is firm to touch but still jiggly and starting to brown.
6. Remove from the oven and allow the cheesecakes to cool in the pan before placing back in the fridge until ready to serve.

Happy Thoughts
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Cake'n'Bake Wednesday: Raspberry Yogurt "Cheese"cakes

January 2012 saw our lowest turn out at the Cake'n'Bake Club, mostly because people felt they had over-indulged at Christmas and needed some time off. So this year we decided to embrace the January cut-back/detox/eat-well mentality and have the theme be "Healthy New Year".

For the healthy theme, I decided to bake some mini-raspberry cheesecakes. These cheesecakes are low-fat, low-calorie, sugar-free, and cheese-free. Yep, no cheese. I shouldn't really call them cheesecakes, but "yogurt and tofu-cakes" just sounds a bit weird. Anyway, the recipe I started with was Chocolate Covered Katie's Greek Yogurt Cheesecake, but I made one or two tweaks along the way. (As a side note, I love Katie's blog - everything looks so yummy and is usually low-fat/sugar-free!) I baked my pretend-cheesecakes in a mini-muffin pan, firstly because I thought they would be easier to share this way, and secondly because I thought a bite-sized treat was more in-keeping with the month's theme! I did some very, very rough working out and found that each mini-cheesecake had 38 calories and 0.9g fat - not too shabby (although, it goes without saying that this will vary depending on the brands you use!) They didn't really taste like cheesecakes though, and if I'm honest I wouldn't make them again. They mostly tasted just like raspberry yogurt, but the stevia made them taste a little artificial. Still, it was fun to experiment and they didn't taste bad - they just didn't taste cheesecakey enough for me! :-)

Please note - you will need a blender for this recipe!

Prep time: 20-25 minutes
Cook time: 30-35 minutes
Chill: at least 2 hours, preferably overnight
Makes 24 mini-cheesecakes

Ingredients:
100g Almond Biscotti (my recipe for home-made almond biscotti is here)
5 tbsp almond milk
Punnet of raspberries
150g silken-firm tofu
350g low-fat natural Greek yogurt
5 tbsp stevia-extract sugar alternative
15g cornflour

1. Lightly grease a mini-muffin pan and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4.
2. Start by whizzing the biscotti in your blender until it's in fine crumbs. Add the almond milk, and whizz again until they combined to form a paste. Put 1tsp of the biscuit mixture into each muffin hole and press down with the back of the spoon. Pop this in the fridge whilst you prepare the "cheese" filling.
3. Count out 24 raspberries and put these to one side. Put the tofu into your blender and puree until smooth. Add the yogurt, the remaining raspberries, the stevia and the cornflour and blend until all have combined.
4. Spoon 2tsps of the yogurt/tofu mixture onto each biscuit base, then gently press one of the reserved raspberries on top of this. 
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until set and starting to brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before popping into the fridge to set overnight.
6. When ready to serve, carefully turn the cheesecakes out of the muffin pan. I'd recommend you try one before serving, just to make sure they are OK ;-)

Happy Thoughts
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Individual Malty Malteser Cheesecakes

I'd like to start by thanking Gu Puds for the inspiration (and ramekins) to make some individually portioned desserts. I love cheesecake, but the trouble is there are only two of us living in my house, so most of the time making a whole cheesecake is just too much. So, I decided to make use of some old Gu ramekins and make Alex and I each an individual cheesecake... yum!

On the day I made these, I couldn't decide whether I wanted cheesecake, or maltesers. So I decided to have both! This cheesecake is light, malty with a subtle chocolate flavour - in short, it taste just like a malteser cheesecake should! The recipe below is for two individual portions of malty malteser cheesecake.

Ingredients:
25g margarine
5 malted milk biscuits
37g packet maltesers
100ml double cream
50g cream cheese
drop of vanilla extract
10g icing sugar
1tbsp horlicks
1tbsp cocoa powder


Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 0
Makes two individual cheesecakes

1. Melt the margarine in the microwave, then pop to one side to cool slightly.
2. Put the malted milk biscuits into the blender, and whizz until they resemble fine crumbs. Tip the crushed biscuits into the melted margarine and stir until evenly coated. Split the biscuit mixture evenly between the two ramekins, and press down with the back of a spoon. Pop in the fridge to set whilst you prepare the filling.
3. Tip the maltesers into a bowl and crush into rough chunks with the back of a spoon. Place to one side for the time being. 
4. Pour 50ml of the cream into a small bowl and whisk until thick and pillowy. Add the cream cheese, vanilla extract and icing sugar, and whisk until all combined to a thick and creamy mixture. Stir in the crushed maltesers, then spread half of the mixture over each biscuit base. Pop them back in the fridge to set whilst you prepare the topping.
5. Pour the remaining 50ml cream into a bowl with the horlicks and cocoa powder. Whisk until the cream is thick and pillowy, and the horlicks has dissolved. Spread half of the cream on top of each cheesecake and pop back in the fridge until ready to serve!

Happy Thoughts
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Thank You, Dawson.

Disney Classic # 26 - Basil the Great Mouse Detective

I think my rationale for choosing to make a cheesecake for this movie is fairly obvious; Basil is a Mouse, and mice like cheese... Besides, it's nice to try different kinds of dessert rather than making a sponge cake each week. Plus I absolutely love cheesecake, and have gotten pretty good at making it over the years. You'll have to forgive my dodgy photos of this cake... for some reason I just couldn't get a good shot! We also didn't have the DVD case as I borrowed this from a friend who bought it round on USB, so I think once I own Basil on DVD I'll make another cheesecake and replace these photos.

I first came across this cheesecake recipe in school, when I did a project on incorporating more fruit into the diet for my GCSE Food Technology. Suffice it to say that was many years ago, (and my mini-apple cheesecakes did not go down so well...) but I've now perfected the recipe to produce a delicious lemon cheesecake. Unfortunately I no longer have the original hand out the recipe was given to me on, nor my own notes from my trials when using the recipe in the project. In fact, I generally just guestimate when I'm making cheesecake so I wasn't even sure on the measurements!! For the purpose of the blog, I weighed everything 1 used this time... I figured that would be more helpful than saying "a packet of biscuits" and "a bit of butter". ^_^
Prep time: 30 mins    Cook time: No cook but needs at least 2 hours to set     Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:
300g ginger biscuits
50g margarine
400ml double cream
400g cream cheese
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon curd

1. Line a loose based cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Break the biscuits into a food processor and blend until fine crumbs. Melt the margarine in a saucepan over a low heat, then mix this into the biscuit crumbs. Tip the crumb mixture into the lined cake tin, and press down firmly with the back of a spoon, until all of the crumbs are compressed and completely flat. Place this base into the fridge to set whilst you prepare the cheese filling.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the double cream to soft peak stage. Add the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon curd and continue to whisk until the ingredients are well combined.
4. Spoon the filling mixture onto the biscuit base and smooth the top. Place in the fridge to set for at least two hours - the longer the better though!
5. To serve, carefully remove the cheesecake from the cake tin and cut into slices. 

Next time it's Oliver and Company, and I'll be making a yummy ginger cake for our little ginger protagonist.

Happy Thoughts
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