White chocolate cheesecake

There is something about a bank holiday weekend that just makes you feel like you have more time for everything, including baking.  I wanted to bake something that was rich and indulgent, and would also be a fancy treat across the whole three days.  I don’t usually make baked cheesecakes but the minute I laid eyes on this one, on the BBC Good Food website, I knew it had to be!

Just reading the ingredients list indicated that this was going to be rich, rich, rich!  I tried to balance it by serving with fresh raspberries. Any acidic fruit would work well such as rhubarb or citrus.

The texture of this cheesecake is beautiful – I often find that baked cheesecakes can be a bit dense and heavy, resulting in that squeaky tooth feeling.  This one is light and almost mousse-like, but unmistakably a cheesecake.  Surprisingly, it isn’t too sweet either.

It’s possibly the first time I’ve made a baked cheesecake where I avoided a split on the top as it cooled.  I think I’ve had this in the past because I’ve overbaked it and not trusted that it would firm up enough during cooling; this time I made a conscious effort to turn the oven off after an hour even though the cheesecake looked barely set.

This makes a big cheesecake but don’t worry if you don’t want it all at once.  Cut it into slices and freeze for future treats! Or eat it all up in a couple of days – I won’t judge you.

Ingredients

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits, or Hobnobs
85g unsalted butter

For the topping:

400g white chocolate
300ml double cream
400g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve: raspberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor and then add the butter (no need to melt if you’re using a food processor) and blitz again until combined.

Press into the base of a 23cm round springform tin.

Bake for 10 minutes, then leave to cool.

Reduce the oven to 140C/fan 120C/280F/gas mark 1.

Wrap the outside of the cake tin tightly in 2-3 layers of foil – this is to make it waterproof for its water bath later!

Now make the topping: Place the chocolate and the cream into a saucepan and melt together over a gentle heat.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Beat together the cream cheese, eggs and vanilla.

Add the cooled chocolate cream mix and beat until smooth.

Place the tin (wrapped in foil) in a deep roasting tin and pour the filling into it.

Pour boiling water, from the kettle, into the roasting tin so that it comes about halfway up the side of the cake tin.

Bake for 1 hour, then turn the oven off.

Leave the cheesecake to cool in the oven for 1 hour with the door closed, then for about another hour with the door slightly ajar. 

Remove the tin from the water bath and remove the foil.

Cover the top with clingfilm and refrigerate until about 10 minutes before you wish to serve it.

Serve either on its own, or with some fruit for a fancy dessert.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Apple cheesecake tart

  

I've just realised that I forgot my blog's 8th birthday a week or so back. This apple cheesecake tart more than makes up for it.  I have been trying to think of a three word combination better than that.  Bank holiday weekend? Winning lottery ticket? Tiny fluffy puppy? I’m sure there are others!

This tart is glorious mainly because of the combination of textures.  The flavours obviously work, but it’s the crispy pastry with the creamy cheesecake layer topped with the soft, juicy apples and spice.  The apple juices bake down into the cheesecake giving it a delicate fruity tang; the apple slices hold their shape but retain a little bite but still yield to gentle pressure from a spoon or fork.

This would work beautifully served warm as a dessert with vanilla ice cream.  I served it at room temperature with thick cream.  I think you could also make smaller, individual tarts which would look very pretty served for dessert with a ball of ice cream on top (or on the side).

Normally I photograph my bakes as I serve them for eating.  This one wasn’t going to be served until the evening so I decided to photograph it in the afternoon.  Tip: If you serve desserts in the kitchen and bring them through to the dining room no one notices if there’s a slice missing!  Just call me ‘Two Desserts’......(aka The Very Thoughtful Lady Who Wanted To Ensure Dessert Was OK Before Inflicting It On Anyone Else).

Ingredients

For the pastry:
175g plain flour
85g unsalted butter, cold
30g caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:

250g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
2 eggs
60g caster sugar

For the apples:

4 Cox’s apples, peeled, cored and sliced
70g caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the flour and butter into a food processor and blitz until you have fine breadcrumbs (you can do this by hand using the rubbing in method if you prefer).

Add the sugar and cinnamon and blitz again.

Add the egg yolk and water and blitz until a ball of pastry just starts to form.

Tip the dough out onto a sheet of clingfilm and bring together, using your hands, to form a ball of pastry.  Handle as little as possible.

Flatten into a disc and roll out between two sheets of clingfilm so that you can line a 23cm round, loose bottomed flan tin.

Prick the base with a fork.

Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan oven 180C/400F/gas mark 6.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and line the pastry case with either baking paper or non stick foil.

Weight the paper/foil with baking beans.

Bake for 10 minutes, then remove the beans and paper/foil and bake uncovered for a further 5 minutes.

Leave to pastry case to cool.

Reduce the oven to 190C/fan oven 170C/375F/gas mark 5.

Now make the filling: place the cream cheese, eggs and caster sugar into a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth, well combined mixture.  You can do this in a stand mixer, or by hand if you prefer.

Pour into the part baked pastry case.

Now attend to the apples: toss the sliced apples in sugar and cinnamon.

Layer over the top of the cream cheese mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden and set.

Leave to cool in the tin.

Serve in generous slices with thick cream.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Raspberry ripple cheesecake squares

This recipe was featured in the Sainsbury’s magazine – by far and away the best supermarket magazine in my opinion. The recipe, initially, looks like a very basic cheesecake with a bit of a fruity swirl on top.  Look closer and you will spot two less common twists to a cheesecake: firstly, the addition of ground pistachios to the biscuit base, and secondly, yoghurt in the cheesecake.  Both additions pack in extra flavour and I loved the tanginess the yoghurt added.  The pistachios in the base look so pretty:

I must confess I was dubious as to the quantities of the ingredients required for the topping – it looked so much! But the fact it is baked in a traybake tin rather than the more traditional round tin necessitates the larger quantity of cheesecake – and I don’t have a problem with making a bigger cheesecake! (Do take heed though, and use a deep tin!)

Restraint is the key to creating the ripple effect.  I have to force myself to stop about five swirls before I want to otherwise you lose the definition and it all looks an odd shade of pink rather than the lovely red/white contrast.  It’s the same with any marble cake too – I always have the urge to make just one more swirl (I am the Columbo of baking) and then regret it!

Now I must end on a rant.  Kraft – the makers of Philadelphia, my go to cream cheese provider – has relaunched their product.  Now aside from the fact I’m not sure it’s quite as tangy as it was before (it’s billed as ‘now even creamier’), to my horror, the pots now have less content.  What used to be a 300g pot is now 280g.  A 200g pot is now 180g.  This is not good news for recipes using cream cheese – such as this one – where 600g is needed.  Interestingly, the pot looks the same size...just with less filling.  No doubt it is so the price can be kept the same, but, if you are paying the same price for 6.7% less content then surely that is a price rise?  Do they think we’re stupid? Not to mention the extra annoyance that you now need to buy three pots where you previously would only need two.  I am not impressed Kraft, not impressed at all.

Ingredients

For the base:

100g pistachio nuts
200g ginger nut biscuits
75g unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the topping:

600g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
450g Greek yoghurt – I used Total
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons cornflour

For the ripple:

150g raspberries
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/320°F/gas mark 3.

Line a tin approximately 30cm x 20cm with baking paper.  Make sure the tin has a bit of depth to it – about 4cm minimum.  I used a disposable foil traybake tin as I find them easy to cut open and get the finished item out.

Put the nuts and biscuits into a food processor and blitz to crumbs.

Add the butter and blitz again until you have the texture of clumpy, wet sand.  NB. There is no need to melt the butter.

Press the crumbs into the prepared tin and ensure you have an even distribution.

Beat together all the ingredients for the topping until well combined.

Spoon over the biscuit base and level the surface.

Now make the ripple: blitz the raspberries and icing sugar together in a food processor.

Sieve to remove the seeds.

Blob the puree on top of the cheesecake and, using a skewer, swirl it around so it mixes a little with the cheesecake – don’t over swirl or you will lose the contrast and just end up with it looking pink!  Less is more!

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until there’s a slight wobble but the mix isn’t runny.

Cool, in the tin, before refrigerating until you wish to serve.

Cut into generous squares.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Strawberry and almond cheesecake sponge

  

It’s Wimbledon time so my thoughts have turned towards strawberries - I am a predictable creature!  This cake was the cover star of Good Food magazine a month or so back and I stored it away for when the strawberry season was at its best.

You will often hear people complaining that strawberries don’t taste like they used to…and that is true for many strawberries but I think that, if you’re choosy about the variety of strawberry you buy, there are some crackers still available.  If you cannot grow your own, and don’t have a pick-your-own nearby, here are my tips for buying strawberries:

1. Avoid any imported strawberries – I don’t want to eat a strawberry that’s seen more of the world than I have!
2. Buy strawberries grown as locally to where you live as possible – it surely means they’ve not been sitting around for long?
3. Take note of the variety of strawberry you like – I would rather go without than buy the tasteless Sonata variety, but a Jubilee strawberry is pretty much a guarantee of flavour.
4. Smell them.  A strawberry with no smell is a strawberry with no taste.

This recipe pretty much ticks all my boxes for what I like in a cake: it’s made with yoghurt, it contains almonds, it uses cheesecake, and it has big chunks of fruit.  It would work with many different fruits.  The CCD’s damson tree is looking like it’s going to have a bumper harvest so I might make the cake again using damson plums.

The soft almond sponge provides a lovely texture for holding the pockets of cheesecake and strawberries.  This really was one of the best cakes I’ve tasted in a long time...and I’ve tasted a lot of cakes!

Ingredients

For the cheesecake:

200g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
25g caster sugar
1 egg

For the cake:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
200g self raising flour
50g ground almonds
75g natural yoghurt
250g strawberries – washed, hulled and chopped
Handful of flaked almonds

Method

Start by making the cheesecake: beat together the cream cheese, caster sugar and egg until combined.  Don’t overbeat or it will turn runny – I would actually recommend doing this stage with a bowl and a spoon to control the texture of the mix better.  (Mine did turn runny so I popped it into the freezer for an hour before making the cake – this turned it back to a more spoonable consistency).

If – unlike me – you haven’t turned the cheesecake mix runny, spoon into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/ 350°F/ Gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and whippy.  Don’t skimp on this stage – it should look almost like whipped cream.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like the mixture will curdle.

Stir in the flour, almonds and yoghurt.

Spoon half of the cake batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Spoon blobs of the chilled cheesecake mixture onto the cake.  Use about half at this stage.

Scatter over half the strawberries.

Spoon the remaining cake batter over the top and level the surface.  Be gentle so the strawberries stay in place.

Use your finger or the end of a wooden spoon handle to make divots in the sponge.  Blob the remaining cheesecake into these spaces.

Scatter over the remaining strawberries.

Scatter over the flaked almonds.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  It is best to check after 45 minutes to see if the cake is browning too quickly; if it is cover loosely with foil and continue baking.  Don’t worry if your cake takes longer – mine took almost 1 hour 30 minutes, and I did need to cover it with foil.

Leave to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Refrigerate the cake until 20-30 minutes before serving.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Trifle cheesecake

Trifle or cheesecake?  Surely, one of the toughest decisions the dessert menu can pose.  Well, fret no more because nature has found a solution: trifle cheesecake.  All the flavour and texture of cheesecake with all the bells and whistles of trifle.

As soon as I saw this recipe in the BBC Good Food Christmas magazine I knew it was what we’d be eating after Christmas lunch.  If I was in a romcom, I could tell the BBC they had me at “trifle cheesecake”.

Christmas would be much more drab without sprinkles:

When you think about it, some cheesecakes already have a thick fruity layer on top but more of a set coulis than jelly.  The jelly works really well and lightens the whole dessert.  It was definitely a crowd pleaser.

I thought I had lined my tin pretty thoroughly, and also thought I had spread out the cheesecake layer to close off any holes.  Wrong.  That liquid jelly is a terror and I say this to prepare you for the likelihood of leakage.  Take precautions in advance – lots of kitchen paper under the tin will prevent it looking like a jelly massacre took place shortly before you opened the fridge door.  Also have a spare packet of jelly to make up for the jelly lost in leakage; it looks a bit weird if your raspberries are left poking out the top! (Not a sentence I ever thought I’d type)

Apologies for the poor quality photos; the light wasn’t great and, by this point in events, I had roast potato-fuelled inertia.  In other words....a typical Christmas!  Hope you all had a good one!

Ingredients

For the base:

250g digestive biscuits
100g unsalted butter

For the cheesecake layer:

3 gelatine leaves
3 tablespoons Bird’s custard powder
200ml milk
100ml double cream
900g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
200g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the jelly:

1 x 135g pack raspberry jelly cubes (You might want a spare pack on standby, should you lose jelly to leakages – I did!)
175g raspberries

For the cream:

300ml double cream
Cadbury’s Flake
Sprinkles of your choice

Method

Line a 23cm round springform tin with foil or clingfilm.  It needs to be completely lined.  Also wrap the outside of the tin with foil – because the chances are the jelly will leak!  If you’re a pessimist (I am) then place some kitchen paper under the tin inside the foil as it soaks up any leaks.

In a food processor blitz together the digestive biscuits and butter (no need to melt) until it resembles wet sand.

Press the biscuits crumbs into the base of the prepared tin and refrigerate.

Now make the custard for the cheesecake layer: place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water.  Put to one side.

Spoon the custard powder into a bowl.

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and then take three or four tablespoons of this to stir into the custard powder and make a thick paste.

Heat the milk and cream in the saucepan until almost at boiling point.

Pour over the custard paste and stir to ensure no lumps.

Return to the saucepan and heat, stirring all the time, until the custard thickens.

Remove from the heat.

Squeeze all the water from the gelatine leaves and whisk into the warm custard.

Pour into a bowl and press clingfilm onto the surface to stop a skin forming.

Leave to cool.

When it is cool, you can make the cheesecake layer: beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and well combined.

Stir the custard to loosen it a bit, and then beat into the cheesecake mix.

Spoon over the biscuit base and return to the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Now make the jelly layer: Make half the packet of jelly and leave, in the jug to cool for 30 minutes or so.

Pour over the cheesecake and place the raspberries in the jelly.  At this point, they won’t be covered.  There might be some jelly leakage at this point but if you have prepared your tin adequately it shouldn’t cause any fridge-carnage!

Refrigerate for an hour.

Make up the remaining half pack of jelly and pour over the raspberries.

Refrigerate for an hour or until the jelly is totally set.

Whip up the cream and pipe over the jelly on top of the trifle.

Sprinkle over crushed Flake or almonds, or any sugar decoration you have.

Remove from the refrigerator about 10 minutes before you wish to serve.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Blueberry cream cheese tart

 

This is what happens when you spend too much time thinking about what to bake!  I planned to make a blueberry tart or pie – nice and simple...but then I saw blueberry cream cheese tarts and my attention was well and truly grabbed.

My ‘baking with cream cheese’ vista has expanded recently as, after years of claiming he didn’t like it, the CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) has discovered that he does.  Just thinking of all those years he’s erroneously denied himself cheesecake makes me want to weep.  If we were in a Doctor Seuss book he would be the unnamed character and I would be Sam I Am...and the tart would be green eggs and ham...which doesn’t sound quite so good for a baking site!

Anyway, back to the tart!  I loved making this one – the pastry looked like it was going to be a nightmare but then behaved impeccably; the filling looked scant but, when I dropped the blueberries in, filled the pastry case.  Blueberries never disappoint!

The cream cheese filling has a lovely acidity to it due to the addition of soured cream.  It works well against the juicy blueberries and the crumbly, biscuit pastry.  Surprisingly, the overall effect is light and easy to eat – it’s not like a heavy slice of cheesecake.  It tasted really fresh as the blueberries soften but don’t turn mushy and pop deliciously in your mouth.

I served it as a dessert with pouring cream (Mr CC thinks it’s not a dessert unless there’s pouring cream or custard on offer) but it would work just as well as a tea-time treat.  And it keeps for several days in the fridge so there’s no excuse not to make one and eat it all by yourself!

Ingredients

For the pastry:

175g plain flour
85g unsalted butter, cold
30g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:

115g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
60g soured cream
3 eggs
½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
70g caster sugar
450g blueberries – washed and dried

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs.

Add the egg and pulse again then – only if it’s needed to bring the crumbs together – add the water. [NB. If you don’t have a food processor rub the butter into the flour until you have crumbs, stir in the sugar, then the egg then the water]

At this point, you will have claggy clumps – not a uniform ball of pastry.

Tip the clumps out onto a work top and bring together into a ball using your hands.  Only handle the pastry as much as is necessary to form a ball.

Roll out the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm until it is large enough to line a 25cm loose bottomed flan tin.  Don’t grease the tin – the pastry is buttery enough not to stick.

If the pastry tears, patch it carefully as you don’t want any holes for the filling to leak out of.

You will have just enough pastry to line the tin and patch – don’t expect any leftovers!

Prick the bottom of the pastry case several times with a fork – this will stop the pastry rising during baking.

Place the pastry case in the fridge for approx 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

Line the pastry case with baking paper and baking beans and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until pale golden.

Put to one side while you make the filling.

Lower the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Now make the filling: Beat together the cream cheese, soured cream, eggs, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar until thick and well combined.  It’s easiest to use the whisk rather than paddle attachment.

Pour into the pastry case and then scatter the blueberries over the top – some will disappear into the liquid, others will remain visible.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheesecake element is set, but retains a bit of a wobble.  It will continue to set during cooling.

When completely cool, refrigerate until you wish to serve.

Serve either as dessert with pouring cream, or on its own as a tea-time treat.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Birthday cheesecake and cake pops

 

It’s my nephew, the Boy Wonder’s, 16^th birthday this weekend (16????  Where does the time go?) and, knowing he’s a cheese cake fiend, I wracked my brains to come up with an original twist on his favourite dessert. (Sorry about the photos being dark – it was one of those gloomy days where nothing seemed to work!)

I’d bought these Wilton cake pop pans in John Lewis and thought their shape made them great candidates for coring and filling:

If you don’t have them I suspect a mini cupcake pan would work just as well.  For this cheesecake I made chocolate sponges...

...cored them...

... and filled them with chocolate cheesecake mix:

Cook’s perks...always the tastiest bit of cooking!

Half of my pops were submerged in the cheesecake (along with the leftover chocolate cheesecake mix), the other half put on sticks as a decoration...well, they sure beat sparklers for something I’d like to see ‘prettying up’ a cake!

The cake balls looked mighty fine once I’d dipped them in ganache.  I was proud of them.  Until the CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) referred to them as ‘chew balls’ which made them sound like something you should give to a dog!

I scaled up my normal cheesecake quantities to go up a tin size for this one – I wanted plenty of slices so everyone could indulge on the day and also take slices home to enjoy at a later date.  There’s only one thing better than birthday cheesecake, and that’s post-birthday cheesecake...the gift that keeps on giving!

This might be another example of a ‘just me then?’ moment, but when I am tipping the entire contents of the Philly cream cheese out the tub I see it as a mark of failure to use a spoon or knife.  Instead, I invert the pot and gently squeeze it tempting the cheese to slide out whole.  I view myself as some sort of cheese whisperer and take it personally when the cheese doesn’t act on my encouragement.

Ingredients

For the cheesecake:
375g chocolate digestive biscuits
150g unsalted butter
1 vanilla pod
900g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
150g icing sugar
450ml double cream

For the chocolate sponge(this made 24 pops):
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
Optional: 50g chocolate chips

Chocolate cheesecake filling:
300g chocolate cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
50g icing sugar
150ml double cream

For the ganache glaze:

140ml whipping cream
2 tablespoon caster sugar
130g dark chocolate

To decorate: sprinkles

Method

Place the ring from a 23cm round springform tin on the plate you’ll server the cheesecake from. Wrap the ring in either clingfilm or greaseproof paper to ensure that you can free the cheesecake easily.

Break the biscuits into crumbs – either in a food processor or with the bag and rolling pin method (i.e. place biscuits in a bag. Secure end. Bash with rolling pin)

If using the food processor method add the butter to the crumbs and pulse it until the butter is distributed. If using the bag method, melt the butter and stir in.

Use the crumbs to line the base of the cheesecake. Press them down onto the plate but not so hard that you create biscuity concrete!

Refrigerate.

Now make the sponges: Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Spray your pan with cake release or grease using your preferred ingredient i.e. butter.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, flour, cocoa and milk.

When the mixture is smooth and well combined, stir in the chocolate chips, if using.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.

Remove from the tin as soon as possible and leave to cool on a wire rack – removing from the tin is important, as the heat of the tin will mean that the tiny sponges continue to (over)cook.

When cool use a cupcake corer (or apple corer) to remove some of the sponge.

Using the same method for the cheesecake topping below (basically beat all the ingredients together until thick!), make the chocolate cheesecake and pipe into the hollowed out sponges. 

Pipe any leftover chocolate cheesecake mix onto the biscuit base.

Refrigerate for an hour.

Stand half of the chocolate sponges on the cheesecake base, leave the other half to make into cake pops.

Now make the main body of the cheesecake: Slice the vanilla pod in half and remove the seeds.

Place seeds in a bowl along with the cream cheese and icing sugar and beat until smooth and well combined.

Pour in the cream and beat until the mixture is completely combined.

Spoon over the biscuit base and level.  Make sure you press the cheesecake into the crevices between the chocolate sponges.

Leave to set overnight in the refrigerator.

Now make the ganache: Place the cream and sugar in a saucepan and bring to almost boiling point.

Remove from the heat and add the chocolate.

Leave it to stand for a minute before stirring and bringing the chocolate and cream together.  At first it will look runny but keep stirring and it will become thick and glossy.

Leave to cool for ten minutes or more, or the glaze might be too runny to hold on the cakes.

Dip the top of the cakes into the glaze, add sprinkle of choice, and then put them back on the cooling tray to set.  The glaze will cover the top of the cake but the sides should remain clean so you can see the sponge....of course, the odd drip or spill is not going to offend anyone!

Remove the cheese cake from the fridge and pour the remaining ganache over the top.

Return to the refrigerator.

Remove the cheesecake from the fridge about 30 minutes (depending on your weather conditions!) before you wish to serve and remove the ring from the edge.

Place your mini cakes on sticks and insert into the cheesecake.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.