Vanilla & Chocolate Cheesecake

In which a vanilla and chocolate cheesecake is made ahead of tea testing...

Obviously tea testing requires suitable cake (someone else was already making scones for it) so a decadent cheesecake was required :)

Ingredients

• 175g caster sugar
• 450g cream cheese
• vanilla pod
• 75ml lemon juice
• 175ml crème fraiche
• 625ml double cream
• 150g dark chocolate
• 25g butter
• 12 dark chocolate HobNobs

Recipe

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1. Crush your biscuits of choice (HobNobs :D ) with a rolling pin.
2. Melt butter.
3. Mix.
4. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch cake tin.
5. Chill in fridge while preparing filling.
6. Cut the vanilla pod open and scrape out the seeds.
7. Mix the sugar, cream cheese and vanilla seeds together.
8. Whisk lemon juice, 475 ml cream and crème fraiche until they form soft peaks.
9. Fold the mixtures together.
10. Melt dark chocolate into remaining cream.
11. Cool until you can make a trail with it.
12. Put a third of the cheese mix into the base.
13. Swirl chocolate mix on top.
14. Repeat until all the filling has been used.
15. Use a sharp knife/long cocktail stick to swirl the mixtures together.
16. Chill for approx 5 hours (I did overnight).
17. Enjoy!

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Cheesecake

Tom Out!

P.S. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11296/gordons-cheesecake

Christmas Puddings

In which stir-up Sunday comes early and on the wrong day of the week...

Although I realise stir-up Sunday is later than this week (and that I made these on a Monday night), it is always good to make your puddings early so that you can top them up with lots of of brandy (feeding the pudding.) Also I always used to make Christmas puddings on Remembrance Day with my school choir.

My mum has always made the best Christmas pudding (as far as i'm concerned) and here is the recipe. This recipe is designed for a Slow cooker.

Apologies to members of CAOS expecting a recipe for tonight's cake but the recipe for mincemeat tart is:

1. Obtain mincemeat and pastry.

2. Place pastry in dish.

3. Fill with mincemeat.

4. Bake.

UPDATE: Mincemeat tarts came out like this :)

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Mincemeat Tart

Ingredients

• 50g plain flour

• pinch of salt

• 2 teaspoons mixed spice

• 100g currants

• 100g sultanas

• 100g raisins

• 100g mixed peel

• 100g shredded suet

• 100g soft brown sugar

• 100g fine white breadcrumbs

• 50g chopped blanched almonds*

• grated rind of 1 lemon

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 2x15ml spoons black treacle

• 1x15ml spoon brandy

• a little stout/ale or milk for mixing†

*The nuts are really important, it's what makes this pudding that bit better than anyone elses :P

†I change the stout every year, this year I went for Marston's Oyster Stout

How-To

1. Sieve together flour, salt and spice, add all dry ingredients and mix well.

2. Add eggs, brandy and treacle with enough liquid to make a soft clinging mixture.

3. Divide between 2 greased basins, leaving about 1 cm headspace.

4. Cover with a double thickness of greased greaseproof paper or tinfoil.

5. Put basins in a slow cooker and pour 1 pint of hot water around them.

6. Heat on high for 1 hour then low for 12 hours or alternatively on high for 7 hours.

7. To reheat: heat on high for 3 hours.

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In the slowcooker

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Almost done!

It's double recipe week this week as on Thursday there is the World Famous ManSSAGO Pudding Party!* Stay tuned on Thursday for the desserts and the recipe!

*May not be actually famous worldwide!

Tom Out!

Regular 4-sided polygons flavoured with the seed of Theobroma cacao (aka Brownies)

In which I bake brownies and try to imitate the inimitable Wade...

On Sunday I tasted a brownie and it was good. I asked Wade for the recipe. For those who have never enjoyed a Wade email (he was ManSSAGO secretary) I will try to write this in a similar way to this wonderful worldly wordy wordsmith!

Culinary Necessities (some optional)*

• 250g dark chocolate

• 200g butter

• 150g brown sugar

• 350g caster sugar

• 2 tbsp golden syrup

• 4 eggs

• 1-2 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

• 200g self raising flour

• an arbitrary amount of cocoa (1-2 tbsp)

*The chef points out that this recipe scales linearly if you want more or less of it

Mostly Non-arbitrary Techniques to Employ in Some Form of List-like Order

• Apply heat in a manner which causes gentle merging of constituent parts (Melt)

• Enjoy in an olfactory manner

• Agitate (whisk) the ovoid ovums (eggs)

• Mix in the chocolate ecstasy (allow to cool first, you don't want to cook the eggs)

• Sieve in ground wheat (flour) and the seed of Theobroma cacao (cocoa)

• Fold it in

• Apply grease resistant flat tree matter (greaseproof paper) to a containment device (It's a TRAY!)

• Chuck in the oven at an arbitrary place on the Celsius scale (~200°C)

• Allow the passage of multiple time units (30-40 mins) until stodgy (knife not entirely clean when stabbed through)

• Let it return to near room temp

• Enjoy with your sense of gustatory perception

Remember, Remember

On the subject of verbose verbiage we're only a day late for one of the best speeches ever:

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villian by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengence; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Tom Out!

P.S. V for Vendetta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

Giant Jaffa Cake

Ingredients

• 12 oz self raising flour*

• 12 oz caster sugar

• 12 oz margarine/unsalted butter

• 6 medium eggs

• 2 packs orange jelly

• 1 pint water

• 300g chocolate

How-to

1. Cream the sugar and marge together in a big bowl

2. Add in the flour and eggs slowly.

3. Mix thoroughly.

4. Bake in a frying pan at 180°C for ~30 minutes (or until cooked through)

5. Leave to cool.

6. Dissolve two packets jelly in ½ pint boiling water.

7. Make up jelly to 1 pint by adding ½ pint cold water.

8. Leave to cool in a small bowl (pick one the correct size and shape for a good jaffa cake look).

9. Carefully slide a knife around of the jelly and then upturn on top of your cake base.

10. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (small ceramic/glass bowl in a saucepan of hot water).

11. Coat the (top of the) cake in chocolate.

12. Allow to cool

13. Apply a pattern in any remaining chocolate to the top.

14. Allow to cool.

15. Enjoy :D

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Enjoyed!

*The original recipe said that baking powder was required then their cake overflowed. It really isn't required.

Tom Out!

P.S. Original recipe: http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project/332/