Tuesday 31 July 2012

Happy National Cheesecake Day!

I've been kindly informed by my fair readers and friends that today is National Cheesecake Day! Well, it is in the US and it's one American import I'm happy to try and get us hooked on here in the UK.

Having only found about about this auspicious occasion an hour ago it's a bit late in the day to launch any proper celebrations this evening, but I've got July 30th 2013 in my diary already and you're all invited to my house for a slice.

So for today, check out www.allrecipes.co.uk for a myriad of recipes and get cooking. Or if that seems like too much effort, and the ready made versions in Tesco or Sainsburys look a bit droopy, remember I make them to order. So if you're hungry, email me at email_hannah@hotmail.com.

Or if you live nearer to a branch of The Cheesecake Factory than  SW17, I guess you could go there.






Monday 30 July 2012

Post-breakfast dessert

Yesterday I made my mum's Victoria Sponge, though with my super hot oven and lack of sponge-experience mine never come out as neat and even as hers. Tasted pretty good though, even without doubling the quality of butter-cream icing as I usually would. I used Stork margarine instead of butter in the sponge which made it  much fluffier and lighter. 

So having got up and had an early breakfast, brisk walk and an hour's work this morning, 9am felt like a good time to have my post-breakfast dessert. Or early Elevensies. 


Saturday 28 July 2012

I could totally take on Borough Market

Today I wandered through Borough Market and came across two stalls selling cheesecakes of the New York, Blueberry, Tiramisu and Baileys & Chocolate varieties. They looked edible, but I must confess I thought they didn't look as sexy or as tasty as mine. They were baked, so the bases looked soggy and they looked a touch tired even though they probably only came out of the oven last night.

So  there is, in fact, a gap in the Borough Market market!

A distant dream for now, but I reckon if I ever decided to take my 'business' seriously I could get something good going...

Saturday 21 July 2012

I just ate a lot of cheesecake

The peach and raspberry was a success! Had a lovely Moroccan dinner with friends and we finished off with the very fresh and fruity cheesecake I made this morning. (And half a white chocolate cheesecake that I'd defrosted.) I still reckon it could do with some gelatine to firm it up, and it's certainly not the easy-to-slice variety I'd be able to sell, but it was good enough that I had a second slab after I'd finished the washing up. The raspberry sauce I blitzed up at the end to drizzle on top was fantastically tart, and the whole thing was very fluffy considering it was made with cream cheese rather than ricotta. Freaking expensive with 500g of fresh raspberries altogether, but definitely worth it.

Here's my top shelf this morning....



....and the post dinner view, albeit a bit blurry








Wednesday 18 July 2012

Peach & Raspberry Cheesecake

This weekend I'm making a mango cheesecake for a cafe and a  blueberry one for my friend Jules' party, and so figured I should try something new for the friends who are coming for dinner on Saturday night. Most of my friends aren't fussy and are happy with anything large, round and containing butter, cream and sugar, but my friend's boyfriend is a Real Life Chef.  He's not a food snob (I don't think), but I still want to make something that doesn't come a side order of  "I just made it up, so if it's horrible tell me and I'll get you some Haagen Daz instead." 

Thus, when Good Food magazine caught my eye on the shelf of WHSmiths in a service station on the edge of Blackburn this weekend -  I only hang out in where the cool kids go, clearly - I realised I'd found a new recipe.

So: Peach Melba Cheesecake it will be. But I'm calling mine a Peach and Raspberry cheesecake because I don't know what a 'Melba' is. Not convinced mine will look this glorious, but I'll post some photos once it's done.


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Funniest Family Guy moment for a while

It's taken me about 7 years to get into Family Guy but I've finally succeeded. I've learnt to appreciate it's rampant lack of political correctness and every so often am rewarded with an episode that manages to touch on a tricky issue with some (only some, mind) sensitivity.

The episode I watched last night was all about freedom of religion and belief. Until now I thought the Life of Brian's 'Blessed are the cheese makers' and 'Give me your shoe!' scenes were the most insightful comedy moments about the astonishing capacity of Christians to judge and condemn each other's interpretations of faith, but now, 30 years later, there's a  new favourite to add to the list


Judging by some of the YouTube comments about this clip, the word irony seems to have sadly passed by a good number of viewers, but nevertheless this was my absolutely favourite moment.



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