And the winner is Cheesecake!

Don’t forget to share your creations with us on Instagram and Facebook

The Winner of our Instagram poll was Cheesecake.  With so many baking ingredients in short supply in our local supermarkets we’re going to show you how to make a cheesecake without eggs or gelatine!  We’ll start with a vanilla cheesecake and show you some flavour options to make it your own.  If it was an Easter like any other, we would have our Mini-Egg cheesecake on the menu, and we’ll show you some images from our photoshoot later too!

For your vanilla cheesecake, you’ll need

Easter Mini Egg Cheesecake
  • 250g digestive biscuits
  • 100g butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
  • 600g cream cheese (room temperature)
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 280ml full fat cream (from the fridge)

Serves 12 approx.

Per Potion 424kcal

Allergens: Wheat (contains Gluten), Milk

Steps:

  1. Crush the digestives biscuits in a plastic bag or food processor. Transfer them into a bowl and pour over the melted butter
  2. Press the biscuit crumb into a 10″ spring form tin or you can make individual cheesecakes in cups.
  3. Put the base into the fridge for at least an hour to set.
  4. For the cheese whip the cream to stiff peaks (if you don’t whip to stiff peaks you’ll end up with vanilla cheesecake soup).  In a separate bowl whip, the soft (room temperature) cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract until perfectly smooth and creamy.  If there are lumps of the cream cheese keep mixing until smooth.  You may need to scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula a couple of time to get the creamy texture.
  5. Now you’re going to fold the whipped cream into the cheese mixture.  Fold it in half at a time and be careful not to over mix as you want to keep all the air in the cream for a perfectly fluffy cheese.  (add your crushed mini eggs now – toss them in a little icing sugar so they don’t sink to the bottom)
  6. Take the crumb from the fridge and spoon in your cheese mix.  Smooth from the middle to the sides and smooth the top with an offset spatula.  If you don’t have one use the back of a tablespoon.
  7. Cover your tin with cling film and chill for at least 8 hours.

 

Flavours and finishes

The winner of our instagram poll was cheesecake but let’s make it your own with some creativity.

Mini eggs – These little eggs are very hard to crush.  We recommend leaving them in their bags and wrapping the bag in a tea towel.  Use a rolling pin the bash the eggs.

Oreo – Keep 5 biscuits to decorate.  Separate the rest of the oreo cookies and just add the biscuit to the digestives for the crumb base.  You can add the oreo cream to your cheese mix @ step 5.  Berry Cheesecake

Berries – If you wash and cut your berries and put a tablespoon of icing sugar into a bowl with them.  You can fold them into the mix @ step 5 or leave them in the fridge for a while and you’ll create a lovely fresh compote for the top of your cheesecake.

Lemon – If you add two teaspoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon of lemon zest @ step 5, you’ll create a beautiful fresh lemon cheesecake.  You could decorate with lemon rind curls left from the unused lemon.

Easter Egg toppings – You could take some chocolate from all the Easter eggs in the house and create a chocolate fiesta cheesecake for Easter Dessert.

Good Luck everyone and Happy Easter