CALORIE ALERT!

There are not many things in life better than a good cheese cake. A colleague of mine at work likes to bake cakes and bring them in to share every now and then. Most of her cakes are really good but she has really outperformed herself with this gorgeous Blueberry Cheesecake.

I have previously, somewhat unsuccessfully, tried some baking
This recipe does seem really easy though. I’ve put the basic recipe below but if you go the following link you can see all the details plus a really cool video showing you all the steps.

Blueberry Cheese Cake

Ingredients

75g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
175g digestive biscuits
175g blueberries, plus extra for decorating
450g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, lightly beaten
icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Butter the sides and base of a 24cm cake tin.

2. Place the biscuits into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs. Alternatively, place them into a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press down into the base of the tin. Spread the blueberries over the base and allow to chill in the fridge until needed.

3. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and the eggs together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour over the top of the blueberries and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until pale golden and only wobbles slightly when you gently shake the tin.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen it and carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over a few blueberries, then dust with icing sugar.

5. Cut into slices to serve. This cheesecake is best eaten when it is at room temperature.

Agent Delicious x

'The lesser spotted tofu rock cake'

That is the question.

Today was baking day in gayboy house and we decided that we were going to be baking muffins.  Healthy muffins mind you… not those artery clogging triple dip choc chip killers.   We downloaded one of those impossibly pretentious recipes that insisted on things like soya flour and silken tofu (still not sure what that is) as well as certain other ingredients which sounded like they could single handedly eradicate world poverty.  Amazingly, we actually managed to get all the ingredients at Sainsbury’s which was rather surprising as I hadn’t figured them for the types to stock something like almond powder.

Not having baked in years the actual preparation of the recipe decended rapidly into lawlessness.  We were mixing when we should have been folding, trying to work out what a cup of flour actually equals when you are not using a cup and subsituting certain items on the original recipe for  other preferences.  The batter did look pretty good and we were feeling optimistic.  30 minutes later and our ‘giant muffins’ rose by about 1cm.  In the end it was a failure but we were feeling very proud of ourselves; first attempt and all.  Then my flatmate’s boyfriend came over and we offered him the container with the muffins.  ‘Oh you guys made rock cakes!’ he said.  We told him that no, actually they were muffins.  He looked confused and then offered ‘No really they look like rock cakes’.   Yeah, OK so I guess that means they came out worse than we thought but it’s like all mothers think they have beautiful babies until some nasty bitch comes along and shatters her illusions.

I’m taking the rock cakes into the office tomorrow for my colleagues.

Agent Delicious x