Raspberry Cheesecake

Okay, so first of all:  I'm Sorry.  I know, I know.  These are the Worst Photos Ever.  But here's the thing.  I would like nothing better than to spend all my time making beautiful, photogenic desserts, and taking photos of them with various gorgeous props, from several angles, under ideal light conditions.  While sipping a glass of Dom Perignon, and laughing gaily at the incredibly witty remarks being made by the terribly efficient person who is cleaning my house.  For free.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I actually put the finishing touches on this cheesecake five minutes before leaving the house to take it to a friend's house for dinner, after having spent all afternoon at my daughter's friend's sixth birthday party, after having spent all morning making a stuffed elephant for said daughter's friend's present.  Yeah....  Gorgeous, well-thought-out photography is not something I often get a chance to do, especially for what I like to call "right-now" desserts.  Cookies I can keep for a few days until I have a chance to take a few snaps of them.  Cheesecakes not so much.

So anyway.  When The Hungry Australian announced the theme of this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop - "Berry Nice To Meet You!" - I was thrilled.  I love berries, and I especially love  raspberries.  Plus I'd been wanting to make a cheesecake for ages.  There are an awful lot of raspberry cheesecake recipes about, but strangely enough, I find that most of them are actually plain cheesecake recipes with a raspberry puree swirl.  And there's nothing at all wrong with that, but it just wasn't what I had envisioned.  I wanted my cheesecake to have a dark chocolate base, a contrasting pretty pink filling, and a sweet raspberry tang all the way through.  And it did!

Raspberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base
370g plain chocolate-flavoured biscuits (eg Chocolate Ripple)
120g butter, melted

Filling

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
3 teaspoons powdered gelatine
60mL water
500g cream cheese
1/3 cup caster sugar
300mL cream

Topping

1 cup extra raspberries
1 tsp icing sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp powdered gelatine

Modus Operandi

First, line a 20cm diameter springform cake tin with plastic wrap (this makes it easier to get out later).

To make the base:  Process the biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs.  Add the melted butter and blitz again briefly until combined.  Press the mixture onto the base and sides of the prepared tin, and refrigerate one hour.

To make the filling:  Heat the 2 cups of raspberries in a saucepan until they boil, then press them through a sieve to remove all the seeds.  Set aside.  Mix the gelatine into the water in a heatproof cup or bowl.  Stir over a small saucepan over simmering water until the gelatine has dissolved.  Let it cool for a minute or two and then stir in 3/4 cup of the raspberry puree.
Beat the cream cheese and caster sugar in an electric mixer until soft and smooth.  Beat in the cream, then stir in the raspberry mixture.  Pour filling into the crumb base and refrigerate overnight.

To make the topping:  Pick over your raspberries, and set the best ones aside (about half of them).  Heat the remaining raspberries with the icing sugar, then sieve them to remove the seeds.  Mix the water and gelatine as was done for the filling.  When dissolved, cool slightly and mix into the raspberry puree (you will probably only get about 1/4 cup).  Pile the photogenic raspberries onto the top of your cheesecake, and pour the gelatine-y puree over the top.  This step may be done just before serving (in which case the puree will behave a bit like a sauce), or ahead of time (in which case you will pop the cheesecake back in the fridge and the raspberry puree will set into a jelly.  This also "glues" the pretty raspberries to the top, which is useful if you are transporting it to someone's house for dessert).

To serve:  Simply open the springform tin, peel the plastic away, and lift/slide the cheesecake off the base onto a serving plate.


Be sure to check out everyone else's Berry Nice Desserts, too - just check out the links below!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

It's Australia Day! The Muffin has been wanting to make the next recipe in her ABC of Kids Cooking book, and it just happened to be "L is for Lamingtons," so we decided today was the day!


The origin of the lamington is hotly debated (particularly between Aussies and our friends from New Zealand!) - for several interesting versions of its origin, go here.

But no matter where the original lamington was created, and whether it was an accident or a burst of inspiration, Aussies have been happily munching on them for decades, and claiming them as our own.

They are super messy to make, but lots of fun!


To make your own lamingtons, you will need some sponge cake (traditional), or butter cake (increasingly showing up in recipe books). This is cut into cubes, and dipped into a thin chocolate icing before being dredged in coconut. The recipe I used today can be found on the Woman's Day website (they produced the cookbook).

Whether you are spending the day having a barbecue, watching the fireworks, or just eating yummy lamingtons and trying to keep cool, I hope you are doing so with friends and family.

Happy Australia Day!

Christmas Day (Gimme Some Sugar)...

Okay, so I didn't get a chance to do another post before Christmas - hands up who's shocked. Noone? No, I thought not. I swear, I left everything so late this year - Never Again. (or, you know, never again until next time...)

And I mean really late. Like, I started decorating my Christmas cake at 10pm on Christmas Eve. Luckily the design I had decided on was a simple one, so it was actually doable:

And then I forgot to take a photo of it before I stuck a knife in it. Sigh. Still cute though, right?

NB: The idea for the "North Pole" sign came from "the decorated cookie", although she used a lollipop stick with washi tape, whereas I used a candy cane with the curved part chopped off.

Other goodies we enjoyed on the day included a pavlova with lemon cream and cherry syrup, topped with fresh cherries and raspberries...

The idea for the pavlova's unusual shape was taken from my Donna Hay magazine, where it was called a "Christmas Wreath" pavlova (although hers had a totally different flavour profile).

And yes, it's a terrible photo - I'm sorry about that, but that's the trouble with not being able to take photos at night... (Although guess what? Thanks to my beloved husband, I Now Can!!! More on that later...)

My four year old daughter and I also decorated a gingerbread house this year:

I'm a bit ashamed to say it is an IKEA flat-pack model - but there is a reason for that! I was totally going to bake my own house to decorate with The Muffin. Then I saw that IKEA was having a decorating competition with their flat-pack version, so I thought I'd do two - an IKEA one by myself (in order to attempt to Win The Competition), and a "proper" one to decorate with The Muffin. So I bought one. Flash forward to a week before Christmas, the competition deadline had passed me by, I still hadn't finished my Christmas shopping, and I had four other desserts still to make for Christmas. So I devised a cunning Revised Plan: Bugger Having Two Gingerbread Houses, Stick With The Prefab.

Anyway, with the pressure suddenly turned off, The Muffin and I had such fun decorating this, and my mum joined in too. This side of the house (the front) is the most stylish, so I'm sure our little house wouldn't have won any awards! But that's not really the point, is it? The point is, I had fun with my little girl, and we both ate too many lollies. And what could be more Christmassy than that?

Hope you and yours had a fabulous Christmas, and that Santa was good to you (he certainly was to me!)

Thoughts On Winter

Winter is not my favourite season. I hate being cold.

But quite apart from that, I have noticed that in Winter (what with spending 90% of one's waking hours in jeans, and the rest in either black pants, or something similar), it is also a lot easier to let oneself Run To Seed.

Perhaps it is fortunate that I have a child to bring me back to reality occasionally...

Because when, at 10am, your four year old examines your legs and says "Mummy, why are you wearing stockings?", that's when you know it really is time to put down the piping bag, and go and wax your legs.

A great big cuppie, and a teeny tiny one...

For my birthday last week, I decided to use my Wilton's Giant Cupcake tin for the first time. I had also decided on a red and white colour scheme, so this is what I ended up with:



I'm not 100% happy with the finish on it - it was my first time using this tin, and I couldn't quite figure out how to extend the white icing down so it went under the red "cupcake liner" icing without creating a bump in the red icing. Yes, I could have made it thinner around the edges, I do realise that. But I made the ganache pretty thin on this cake, so I couldn't press too hard on the icing whilst it was on the cake, or it would have squished in. And frankly in the end I was all a bit "meh, whatever" by the time I got to that stage anyway, so a bump is what I got. I daresay this makes it Not The Most Professional Job Ever. But I figured it's my birthday cake, so I can do it however I want. Including Lazily.

I was however very happy with the swirly effect the top half of the tin gives the cake (which is why I didn't do the ganache very thick, because I didn't want to lose this effect).

I also made normal sized cupcakes in red liners with white swirled icing and a jaffa on the top of each, to mirror the look of the big one.

Anyway, with all the week's family birthdays over, we arrive at Sunday, and Mother's Day. I won't be seeing my mum this Mother's Day, as she's away on holiday, so today we are going to be having a lazy day watching Fantasia (which I got for my birthday, and which we will have to skip the scary bits of, as they would Freak The Muffin Right Out), and eating soft serve icecream from another one of my birthday presents - an awesome Cuisinart Soft Serve Icecream Maker!! Yummo. And all this after a huge breakfast cooked by my lovely Husband this morning - eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, croissants! Hmmm... maybe not the healthiest day ever... Who Cares. :o)

Oh, and the teeny tiny cupcake? That was my Mother's Day present:


Isn't it cute? Love! The necklace was from Diva (I know, 'cause I've admired them there). The little pillow was also part of my gift (it's a pincushion) - it was chosen by The Muffin from the Mothers Day stall they held at her school before the end of last term.

Hope all the mums are having a lovely day! What did your kids do for you this year?

'Tis The Season!

I can't believe it's only one-and-a-bit days until Christmas! The good news is, I actually think I'm all organised. For once. The tree is up, the presents are all wrapped, cards have been sent and received, and all the Christmas baking has been done. I'm even half way through preparing my contribution to the family party on Christmas night (dessert - did you guess?).

Who knows? We might even get that quiet, relaxing Christmas Eve I've been aiming for (and missing entirely) these last few years!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share this recipe with you. Nowadays it seems to me that every man and his dog make something that looks similar to these little "mini puddings". But as far as I can tell, most of those recipes involve either a) using leftover actual Christmas pudding/cake; or b) just decorating a plain chocolate truffle to look like a pudding. Both of which would be delicious, I'm sure, but they're just not the same thing as the ones I grew up with. This recipe gives a nod to Christmas pudding by its use of currants and brandy (and the decoration, obviously). But The Hero here is the chocolate/brandy combination. They are very chocolatey and yummy. And there's still time to give them a try!

Mini Pudding Truffles

190g currants
1/4 cup brandy
250g chocolate cake crumbs (this can be any old chocolate cake, it doesn't have to be fancy)
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/3 cup icing sugar
125g dark chocolate, melted
100g white chocolate Melts (maybe "bark" in America?? Whatever white chocolate product you'd use to coat something with, anyway)
2 tsp oil
180g extra white Melts (these ones need to be round - see picture)
4 - 5 spearmint leaf lollies
2 - 3 red glace cherries

The first thing to do is soak the currants in the brandy for At Least one hour (overnight is even better if you have time).
When the soaking time is up, crumble your chocolate cake into fine crumbs, then add icing sugar, dark chocolate, and the currants WITH their soaking liquid.

Mix together, and then roll the mixture into small balls and refrigerate for half an hour. Note: this is not the easiest mixture to roll, due to the currants, which spend most of their time pursuing freedom from chocolate captivity (one must ask oneself WHY?). I find it's more a case of squeezing them into balls, rather than rolling per se.

While the balls are chilling, get yourself a small sharp knife, and start cutting up your cherries and mint leaf lollies (you can also use green glace cherries or angelica, but personally I think the mint leaves taste better and are easier to cut). Cut them as you will, keeping in mind that they are supposed to end up looking vaguely like holly. Here is ours this year:

Very geometrical. Maybe a little bit too much so - maybe a more organic vibe would have been better, as per previous years. But triangles were easy. And hey, they're still cute.

Next, melt the 100g white chocolate Melts, and use a drop of this to "glue" one of your chocolate balls onto an intact white chocolate Melt (ie the "extra" 180g are for the bases). Repeat. Once your little "puddings" all have bases to sit on, they are ready for decorating.

Drizzle a little of the melted white chocolate Melts onto the top of each truffle, and add a piece of cherry and two pieces of mint leaf - voila! Holly! With this step you will need to work only two or three truffles at a time - because they are cold, you only have a limited window of opportunity until the white Melts solidify, at which point obviously your "holly" won't stick anymore.

I realise this probably sounds all very complicated. It isn't. My three year old did a sterling job of sticking the "holly" on (see above).

And that's it - all you have to do now is a taste test! I encourage you to give these a whirl - they really do taste good, but honestly? For me the best thing about them is they're so darn cute. And when they're on a plate with lots of brown things (cookies, other chocolate things, etc), they really do inject some Christmas spirit!

And I should mention that I did not create this recipe! It was cut out of a magazine of some sort many years ago by my grandmother. So I'd love to credit its creator, but unfortunately I don't know who he/she was...

Merry Christmas everyone - I hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season!

Happy Hallowe'en

So, we have gummi "horror mix" lollies for the guests, a bagful of marshmallow eyeballs for trick-or-treaters (yeah, just the one bag - not that many people celebrate The Spooky Season here. We'll probably have significant leftovers), and the Muffin is getting about in a witch hat.

It must be All Hallow's Eve.

Huzzah! Yet another excuse for baking!! The Muffin and I made these cute ghostie cupcakes - chocolate mud cake with an oozy strawberry filling (made by pureeing fresh strawberries and adding a little gelatine), chocolate frosting, and a sugarpaste spook (made with a cookie cutter).

They bleed in a very satisfactory manner when you bite them.

We also made fruit mince pies with little pumpkin faces on. See? Pumpkin faces = not Christmas food! Really!! (that's what I'm trying to tell myself, anyway...)

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Aarrr!

Aye, it be Talk Like A Pirate Day!
And if ye have nary an idea what I'm talkin' about, go immediately to the Talk Like A Pirate Day website an' have a look around - it be funnier'n an octopus down yer boss' pantaloons!
I've already shown ye me recipe fer Crow's Nest Cupcakes (scroll down to the previous post if ye missed it). They went down a treat wi' the small band o' buccaneers we spent the afternoon with - make some an' try 'em yerselves!

Until me next post, may yer sails be full, yer swag likewise, an' yer hull free o' barnacles!

And remember to spread the word - and the word is "Aarrr!"

These Cupcakes Not To Be Taken Internally...

...because they're jewellery!

I have for some time now been admiring (and wanting) various items of cupcake-themed jewellery on various websites. Unfortunately, whilst many of the actual items are reasonably priced, the postage charged by a lot of websites (when they're shipping to Australia) is a killer.

But I was thinking about it the other day, and I thought "you know, the ones you really like the best are the ones made out of polymer clay. Why not make them yourself?" So I did.

It was actually great fun - way easier to work with than sugarpaste! My daughter also loved playing with the clay - you can see her elephant and her "cake" to the right of mine.

For a first attempt, and considering I didn't have any proper pliers, I think my new earrings are not too bad! : ) Hmm.... homemade Christmas presents???