My Super Easy, Super Yummy Cheesecake

This is very much a tried and tested recipe, in fact I think I've been using it for about 6 years, it never fails and is so quick and easy to make I would never look at any other recipe, although I'm sure there are some great ones out there.

I made this particular cheesecake last week for our Burns Supper and i think its fair to say everyone loved it. 

300g digestive biscuits

150g soft butter

300g cream cheese

60g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

250ml double cream

2 capfulls of whisky

1 punnet of raspberries

1. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until beginning to turn to crumbs, then add the butter and whisky and whiz again to make the mixture clump.

2. Press this mixture in a 23cm springform tin; press a little up the sides to form a slight ridge. I then pop it into the freezer as the whisky makes it a little wet.

3. Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.

4. Lightly whip the double cream, and then fold it into the cream cheese mixture.

5. Take base out of the freezer, spoon the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth with spatula. Put it in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.

6. When you are ready to serve the cheesecake, unmold it and scatter the raspberries on top.

Alternatives:

You can change the biscuits to chocolate digestives

You can leave out the whisky or use a drink of your choice

You can change the topping.

I love this recipe as its so simple, so yummy and so versatile.

The original recipe is by Nigella Lawson, which can be found on her website or book - Nigella Express.

Our Annual Burns Supper

Today is the day that we celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns. In previous year my husband and I have been quite low key about this, but last year we held a Burns supper party for a few of our friends. We had a great time and have decided to do it again this year! 

As usual there is still lots to do but you can rest assured that this afternoon my house will indeed be a place of haggis and whisky (although none for me as I'm pregnant!) 

I will post later in the week with details of our party but for now I will leave you with a couple of recipes that I used last year! 

Nanny Bunty's tablet

Cranachan

Cranachan

This is a lovely Scottish desert, if you remember I serve it when I had my Burns party which you can read about here. I thought I'd share the recipe today as it would also make a great desert for a Valentines meal! 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp medium oatmeal
• 300g fresh British raspberries
• a little caster sugar
• 350ml double cream 
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2-3 tbsp whisky, to taste
• Method
• To toast the oatmeal, spread it out on a baking sheet and grill until it smells rich and nutty. Let it cool
• Make a raspberry purée by crushing half the fruit and sieving. Sweeten this to taste with a little caster sugar. 
• Whisk the double cream until just set, and stir in the honey and whisky, try not to over-whip the cream. Taste the mix and add more of either if you feel the need.
• Stir in the oatmeal and whisk lightly until the mixture is just firm. 
• Alternate layers of the cream with the remaining whole raspberries and purée in 4 serving dishes, I used wine glasses. Pop in fridge to chill
• 
• I got the recipe from here

Happy Valentines Day! 

Linking up with  Tami's blog

Friday - Creative Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

 

• 
  

Nanny Bunty's Tablet

As I mentioned in my earlier post about Burns Night I made some tablet. Well today I want to share the recipe with you!

I was a bit nervous about making this as I knew toffee could be tricky, this however was surprisingly easy! The first thing I did was call my nanny Bunty as she always used to make it when I was little! She was thrilled to be passing on the recipe and was keen to hear how it turned out.

Ingredients:

2lb sugar

1 tin of condensed milk

2 tbsp golden syrup

2oz butter

7floz milk

2tsp vanilla

Method:

Put all ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan

Stir it together

Bring to the boil for 15-16 mins

Keep storing to stop it sticking

Prepare a  large baking tray

Remove pan from heat and let stand for 5 mins

Add vanilla

Beat mixture for 5 mins

Pour into tray

Leave overnight to set

Cut into squares

And that's it, really easy and super tasty! 

Linking up today with  Tami's blog
Friday - Creative Friday
Saturday - Weekend Wrapup
                Show and Tell Saturday
                Lovely Crafty Weekend
                Strut Your Stuff
Sunday - Sunday Showcase Party
               Think Pink
               Homemaker on a dime
               Linky Party Sunday
Monday - Motivate Me
                Craft
Tuesday - Too Cute Tuesday
               one project at a time

Burns supper party

As I have mentioned once or twice we were celebrating Burns night at the weekend. This is something the husband and I have done for years, ironically its not something we did much when we lived in Scotland but since we moved to England we haven't missed a year. Usually its a low key affair, just the husband, me and some haggis. This year though we invited some friends to help us celebrate. This meant that on Saturday we were expecting 10 people (6 adults, 3 babies) so there was lots of planning to do.

I wanted to make sure the place felt a bit Scottish and the atmosphere was perfect. I knew the food would be ok but the decorations could be tricky. The first thing I did was look to pinterest for some ideas and thankfully I was not disappointed! The main thing really was tartan and thankfully I had some ribbon and a scarf that I thought would work. I decided that if I had plain red napkins i could tie the cutlery together with the ribbon and it would look quite effective. 

I was quite pleased with the result. I used the ribbon for a couple of other touches but I'll show you them later. Now onto the food. Husband always does the haggis, neeps and tatties so I got to do the fun stuff. I decided I would make some tablet. I thought we could have some before haggis and then I could give everyone some to take home. Although I have eaten tablet since being a little girl and I used to help by Nanny make it, its not something I had ever made as an adult. So I rang my Nanny and got the recipe and set to work. It was surprisingly easy to make and the result was fab.

I tied little bundles together with ribbon for our guests to take home. I think they look pretty cute!

Next I made the pudding, I wanted this to be a traditional Scottish desert so I chose Cranachan. Again this was quite simple to make but very tasty and looked pretty good too!

I had told our guests that the dress code was tartan but then had the problem that I didn't have anything tartan myself except for some shoes

However, I think Angus more than made up for me

Husband also has his own kilt and I managed to get this very sweet photo of  him and Angus together in their kilts 

And here is the table all set. I used my tartan scarf as a table runner and I think it worked really well. I was really happy with the overall look.

We had a lovely time and hopefully shared a piece of Scotland with our friends. I will blog later in the week with recipes for the tablet and the Cranachan, so look out for those.

Thanks for stopping by

Happy burns night!

The day of our party has arrived! As usual there is still lots to do, I'm at work this morning and Angus has swimming with daddy, but then after lunch it's all systems go! I have done some prep and the house is tidy but there are still some finishing touches to do! 

I can't wait to celebrate with my English friends and introduce them to a bit of haggis! If you are doing anything for Burns night I'd love to hear about it! 

I'll be posting about the party later in the week and I even have some recipes to share with you! 

Happy weekend!