Vanilla Cheesecake

2012 will the past in a few more days. So for those of you having a New Years Eve party, this rich and creamy cheesecake will make a delight addition. It is very simple to make and ingredients are easily available. Although it takes an hour to bake in the oven, it takes only a few minutes to whip up all the ingredients so there is minimum stress. The star to this cheesecake is really the vanilla. So use the best vanilla pod you have. I used the vanilla pod my friend brought back from his Madagascar trip so I was lucky. Remember to store your quality vanilla pod in an air tight container cause the last thing you need is a dried out vanilla pod.

Little work for maximum pleasure. It melts in the mouth and tastes like vanilla heaven.

Vanilla Cheesecake

adapted from Foodbeam
serves 8 

Base Ingredients:

• 150g digestive biscuits
• 90g butter, melted
• 20g dark muscovado sugar

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 300g cream cheese
• 250g mascarpone
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Decorate:

• Raspberries
• Mint leaves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C . (Depending on the heat of your oven, never have it higher than 170°C)
2. Crush the digestive biscuits and mix in the melted butter and dark muscovado sugar until well combine.
3. Gently press the biscuits with the back of a spoon onto the lined 18cm cake tin.
4. Refrigerate the base.
5. Whisk the cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, eggs and vanilla pod until consistent.
6. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and bake in a bain-marie for an hour or until just set.
7. Allow to cool and chill in the fridge for at least four hours.
8. Run a hot spatula or knife round the edges of the cheesecake to remove from its tin.
9. To serve, cut and decorate the cheesecake with raspberries and mint leaves.

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Mango chocolate cream layer

Crushed digestive biscuits in individual pots

On my way home one friday evening, I decided to treat M and myself to some homemade dessert but was only willing to spend a minimal amount of time making it. So I came up with something really quick and easy during my zoned out journey in the tube. What can be easier than a non-baking dessert? The best thing about this dessert, it is very flexible! Swap the ingredients with anything you fancy. Instead of using fresh mango, swap it with orange or strawberry. If you do not like fresh fruits, use any jam you have. If that is not easy enough for you, you can even top it off with Rice Krispies or Coco Pops instead! Like I said, anything you fancy.

Chopping up the fleshy mango

MANGO CHOCOLATE CREAM LAYER RECIPE

Serves 2

• 150g digestive biscuit (crushed)


• 150g dark chocolate


• 50ml milk


• 300ml double cream


• 2 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 mango (diced)

Methods:

1. Give the digestive biscuits a quick blitz in the food processor or crush them with your hands.


2. Melt the dark chocolate in a bain marie. Take it off heat when chocolate is almost entirely melted. Stir gently until smooth. Add in the milk and combine well. Set aside to cool.


3. Whip up the double cream with vanilla extract until soft peak and fold in the melted chocolate.


4. Place the crushed digestive biscuits into little individual pots, tumbler glasses or ramekins, depending on how you would like to serve them.


5. Scoop the chocolate cream mixture into the pots that are filled with crushed digestive.


6. Finish off with diced mangos.

Tips:

• To save time, you can melt the chocolate in the microwave. It is a lot quicker.


• Also instead of using fresh fruits, there is always the option of using jam or marmalade.

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Date Night In : Chocolate Thyme Cake with Orange Cream

..... a continuity of the Date Night In post with the Beef Stew recipe

Have you had thyme hot chocolate? It is one of my recent favourites. It gives the hot chocolate a very lovely scent and a smoother texture in mouth that I like. It has a calming effect too. There is just an extra step and ingredient added in your usual making of hot chocolate. All you need to do is add a sprig of thyme while heating the milk, remove it and froth the milk. Put a few teaspoon of your favourite hot chocolate powder and add the heated milk into the mug and stir well. The froth is poured in after for a finer finish of smoothly frothed milk. Try this and let me know how you like it. If you do not have a milk frother, omit that step or buy one. I currently use the Bodum Latteo Milk Frother but my I am itching for the Aeroccino that heats and froth at the same time.

From the above experience of the perfect combination of chocolate and thyme, it gave me the idea of adding thyme to the chocolate cake.



CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH ORANGE CREAM RECIPE

adapted from Sweet Paul's Fallen Chocolate Cake

serves 8

Ingredients:

• 250g dark chocolate


• 225g butter


• 6 eggs, seperated


• 4 sprigs of lemon thyme


• 6 tbs sugar


• 250ml double cream


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 tbs caster sugar


• 1 orange

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.


2. Melt the chopped chocolate with the butter and lemon thyme in a bain marie or in the microwave.


3. Beat the yolks and sugar until pale. Mix in the chocolate.


4. Whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and gently fold into the chocolate mixture.


5. Pour the mixture into ramekins or into a 12 inch cake tin.


6. Bake for 12 minutes if using ramekin or 16-20 minutes if using cake tin.


7. The cake will rise and fall so don't panic.


8. While the cake is in the oven, zest half an orange and squeeze out juice from half an orange.


9. Use the remaining half of the orange for decoration of the cake. Cut them into small wedges.


10. Whip the double cream with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar until soft peak.


11. Combine orange juice and zest and mix well.


12. Scoop the whipped cream on top of the cake and decorate with the orange wedges.

Tips:

• The cake tastes much better when warm. So heat it up before serving and scoop a generous amount of orange cream onto it afterwards.

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