Mary Berry’s Lemon Cheesecake on a Ginger Crust- Guest Post by Hannah Wood :-) [HOW TO MAKE]

 

Date:

Background: Any shift Hannah and I work together usually has a period of time dedicated to chatting about pudding, baking, Mary Berry or Paul Hollywood (The Silver Fox). So whenever Hannah tells me about a delicious pudding/cake/dessert she has made, I always ask her if she would like to write a guest blog post! And I must admit, I really really want to eat this cheesecake!!

What: Lemon Cheesecake on a Ginger Crust

Ingredients:

• 100 grams Gingernut Biscuits
• 50 grams Butter melted
• 500 grams Mascarpone Cheese
• 325 grams Lemon Curd
• 1 Lemon juice
• Blueberries fresh for decorating
• Raspberries fresh for decorating

Method:

1. Grease and base line with parchment a 20cm loose bottom cake tin.
2. Crush biscuits and Mix with the butter in a bowl, then press into the base of the tin (but not up the sides)
3. Put the mascarpone, lemon curd, and lemon juice in a bowl and beat with a spatula until smooth.
4. Spoon on to the biscuit base and level the top.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours to firm up. To serve, remove the cheesecake from the tin, peel off the baking parchement, and arrange on a platter. Decorate with the fruit and dust with icing sugar.

What was Good: It's incredibly easy to make and tastes amazing

What was Bad: I would definitely use more biscuits because I like a thicker base

Would I Make It Again: Definitely make again!

Waffle-O-Meter:

Return of the Nando’s-Carrot-Cake, Owls and Pie In the Garden

 

May time was a good month for pudding, my loyal pudding followers. I have made practically no pudding as of late. Laziness is probably the most likely excuse for this. *Hangs head*

BUT, I have eaten some pretty snazzy pudding related items this month! For example, Return of the Nando’s Carrot Cake, Tea-for-two-which-could-actually-feed-about-four-people and Pie in the Garden!

Some of the Midwives made another trip to our Portugese Hunting Ground that is Nando’s in the sort of start of May. For some nice food, bevvys (non-alcoholic for the drivers) and CAKE. With the usual very courteous and friendly service from our Nando’s waitress (seen posing with my carrot cake right here) Hint: Charlotte is not the waitress. Plus she had Toffee Cheesecake, apparently that was pretty fit as well… Maybe next time I will gather the courage to try a different pudding from the Chicken-Experts, BUT CARROT CAKE IS TOO AMAZING. You will have noticed this theme through out my blog this past year. It is probably the cinnamon and spicy flavours combined with the textures of soft cake with nutty nuts within, and soft smooth cream cheese frosting. Either way, WINNING. And I still think that this Nando’s Carrot Cake deserves the 4 1/2 Waffles I bestowed upon it last time

 

An exciting discovery made this month was that of LUNCHBOX SIZED MALT LOAVES! Personally it took me some time, but in the past year or so, Malt loaf has become a very important and influential part of my life. One of the nicest snacks in the whole world is sliced malt loaf, sandwiched together with smooth creamy butter. It is chewy and rich, fruity and yet densely flavourful. So when  one of the midwives at work brought in these bad boys, the excitement within the room was palpable. The problem I found with them however, was that they do not come with butter. So if you want butter with them then you have to take some to work with you… Which kind of takes away the whole point. But I still find them very joyful and tasty. Becase A) they are malt loaves, and B) they are mini, and mini things are amazing.

 

I took my Mum to Dobbie’s Garden Centre one Saturday this month. This is the benefit of having a car!! Oh how I have missed it! Not because I love Garden Centres, but they are definately renowned for good tasty cake and pudding! They had an offer on that day, £9.95 for Afternoon-Tea-For-Two. A selection of sandwiches, cake and tea/coffee. Sounded good to me!! But trust me, we were not expecting THIS!!!! 3 tiers comprising of sandwiches, Millionaires Shortbread, Meringues, Vanilla Slices and if that was not enough, a Cherry/Sultana scone each complete with Jam and Cream!!!! OM NOM FRICKIN NOM! We thought we wouldn’t be able to manage it between us. But needless-to-say we certainly coped quite well! Each component was delicious! Freshly made and very tasty. And it all looked so so pretty! The scone for me was the highlight. They were obviously freshly baked as they were crunchy on the outside but light, warm and soft on the inside, and combined with the strawberry jam and whipped cream, truly was the icing on the cake (LITERALLY! ) So for those that love afternoon teas, and want to try one that is simply spectacular, and very reasonably priced. You must try Dobbie’s Garden Centre!! 5 Waffles!!

To continue with the Scone theme. In the lovely sunny May weekend weather, my parents, grandparents and I went to Lamport Hall Country Show. It was a nice day out that we have attended for many many years. Consisting of shops and stalls selling allsorts of crafts, food, plants, antiques etc, and also a fair and tractor/vintage car show. When there is nice weather, the natural reaction is to picnic. My grandma being the star she is, fully arranged this, complete with pear cider out of plastic champagne glasses! But there was no shop bought pudding for us!! Grandma made her signature scones. Freshly baked, soft, fruity sultana scones filled with butter and jam for us to enjoy. I will try and snaffle the recipe off her so that I can attempt to recreate them as an adult. Because as a child you see this was one of the first confections my Grandma taught me to make . With my Gradma’s effort, skill and the fact is was very sunshiny, she definately deserves another 5 waffles. OH, AND THERE WERE OWLS! I don’t think they would have tasted as nice…

The final pudding of note in the month of May that I have not covered was a delicious Apple and Blackberry Pie in the garden . But this was not just any old pie. This was a succulently fruity, warm and satisfying Mark’s and Spencer Lattice pie. Crispy pastry, juicy and tart fruit, baked till hot and served with cold vanilla ice cream. I honestly don’t remember the last time I had a fruit pie that was this nice! I certainly don’t think I have ever blogged about one anyway! I would definitely recommend this pudding supreme to you lovely people! The fruit was not soggy, and kept its shape and flavour, whilst giving a wonderful summery colour to the dessert, and Mary Berry would certainly approve of the lack of soggy bottom! So play some Fleetwood Mac, and pretend you are in the M & S adverts whilst nomming this beauty!

Christmas Time. Pudding and Wine.

FIRSTLY, sorry about my severe lack of pudding posts as of late. It is been a busy time of the year, as it has for everybody, and I have been awful at documenting my desserty experiences.
But as you can probably imagine, Christmas time for me is by far one of the most pudding rich times and so many food babies were had that I cannot even begin to describe my constant excitement!















Christmas Cake! Made by my Amazing  Grandma, decorated with lovely homemade icing characters by my very talented cousin Abbie. I got a wonderful delivery of this fruity alcohol fuelled cake with my parents when they came to visit for dinner and Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding. I could not wait to taste this Christmastime staple! And when I did it did not fail to impress! Packed with fruit it was moist, soft, chewy, and layered with tangy nutty marzipan, and sweet sticky icing! It has gone down very with my housemate Amy, and I this holiday season, trust me.

“Merry Christmas”- The Birmingham Bullring Bull

Christmas Dinner. What a magical experience that was. My lovely friend Sarah-Jayne kindly asked me and Amy to join her and her boyfriend for Christmas Dinner, because I could not go home until Boxing day due to work commitments.
After a scrummy starter of pate and warm bread rolls we tucked in to an outstanding Christmas Dinner. So many delicious things on one plate. Turkey and all the trimmings. Two kinds of stuffing. Roast potatoes. Different varieties of broccoli and cauliflower cheese. El dente steamed vegetables. Gravy. Yorkshire puddings. It could not have been beaten!
What Xmas dinner would be complete without a steaming hot Crimbo Pudding!? Yes we had to wait about 2 hours for dinner to digest. And yes I did actually require a sleep in this time, but when it was served, with lashings of Salted Caramel and Chantilly Cream. DELICIOUS!! Soft, sticky, gooey and tangily fruity! I could eat a hundred of them! If it didn’t clog up my stomach like a cakey puddingy lead weight that is…
And if that was not enough, when I go to work, our entire coffee room had been invaded by a buffet!! I have never seeeeeeeeeeeeen so much food!!! Spread over the whole countertop were a whole array of delicious things! I only wish I had not already eaten my bodyweight in Christmas deliciousness, I was unable to really enjoy the festive-food-ness!

[A rather rubbish panoramic photo of the Aladdin’s cave of delights!]

Oh if only I could have eaten and blogged about all of the delicious puddings, cakes, pies and gateaux’s I had the utter delight of being in a room with on Boxing Day! Post night shift sleep after work, I had a lovely family Christmas at my Auntie’s house for food, fun and frolicks. And the works of art above are just a few samplings of what puds were on offer! Lime and Chocolate Cheesecake, Viennese Mince Pies, Chocolate gateaux, Trifle, Raspberry Pavlova you name it, we probably had it! Never has a more beautiful sight besought me!
The baking component of my Crimbo consisted of these beauties, Lemon Butterfly Cakes, and Chocolate Fairy Cakes! I made these to take to my works Christmas Day night shift, and also to take home for Christmas for my family. This is by far the easiest recipe ever!

For the Lemon Butterfly Cakes:	For the Chocolate Fairy Cake
3 eggs- weigh them (Whatever the weight is, weigh the same of)- Caster Sugar, Self Raising Flour & Butter Zest of 3 lemons Juice of 1 lemon 1 tsp Baking Powder And to decorate: 200g icing sugar Juice of half a lemon 100g butter Edible glitter	3 eggs- weigh them (Whatever the weight is, weigh the same of)- Caster Sugar, Self Raising Flour & Butter 100g Cocoa Powder 30mls water 1 tsp Baking Powder And to decorate: 200g bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silver balls
Method:	Method:
Pre heat oven to 180C Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy Beat in an egg and a third of the sifted flour at a time until all three eggs are combined Zest 3 lemons and add the zest to mix and combine Juice a lemon and mix with the baking powder, combine into the mix Distribute even the mix into prepared cake cases and tins, or silicone cake cases Bake in pre heated oven for 20-30mins or until the cakes are cooked (springy to touch and golden brown- not burnt!)	Pre heat oven to 180C Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy Beat in an egg and a third of the sifted flour and baking powder at a time until all three eggs are combined Mix together the water and cocoa powder to a paste Mix the paste into the cake mixture until totally combined Distribute even the mix into prepared cake cases and tins, or silicone cake cases Bake in pre heated oven for 20-30mins or until the cakes are cooked (springy to touch and golden brown- not burnt!)
To decorate: Wait for cakes to cool Once cooled beat together the butter, icing sugar and lemon juice to form a butter cream Using a sharp knife, cut a circular shape out of the top of the cake to form a “short cone shape” when removed In the hole you have created, fill with the lemon buttercream Cut the cone shape of cake in half and place on top of the cake at an angle in a “butterfly” shape Spoon a small amount of lemon curd on the butterfly and top with edible glitter ENJOY!	To decorate: Wait for cakes to cool Once cooled, melt the chocolate over a Ban Marie until fully melted Using a teaspoon, spoon a little of the melted chocolate in a blob on top of the cake Top the chocolate with a silver ball ENJOY!

Finally…

New Years Day. Me and Stacey were happy to be invited to my Auntie Andrea and Uncle Darren’s house for another lovely family gathering. Buffet time was once again upon us! So after many a homemade sausage roll, pork pie and cheese and crackers, it was delicious pud time!!
I had the treat of two helpings of profiteroles and cream…. Om Nom Nom! [Unfortunately I ate this before a picture could be taken]
But my Auntie being the wonderful human being she is, sent me home with THIS. 2 slices of Homemade Baileys and Profiterole Cheesecake!!!! Yes! Baileys AND Profiterole! OMG it was amazing! very rich and decadent, with a very tangy boozy note. Just what the New Year needs to kick of off!
So…. that was my Christmas and New Year! A big thank you to everyone for reading my blog and getting me to nearly 3900views! In 52 blog posts I am very proud! So happy reading my lovely readers! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!