An Overdue Christmas Update

Happy New Year everyone! This post is completely overdue as Christmas is wonderfully hectic in my family, especially as my birthday is on the 27th December, right inbetween all of the festivities! As a result, I didn't get around to doing much baking and when I did, they didn't hang around long enough for me to take photographic proof!

As I've never made a Christmas cake, I used Mary Berry's version of Delia's all in a bag cake. I hate Christmas cake, but the smell of the fruit and the spices really got me into a festive mood!

As everything was measured for you, and pre soaked, it was the easiest way to make a Christmas cake. Unfortunately, as we've had far too many indulgences over the last few weeks, my cake is yet to be decorated or eaten, so I'll keep you all updated when it is!

We also got our new oven just in time for Christmas, and I got straight on to making festive shortbread. I found some lovely little presentation bags in Morrison's and bagged them all up, ready to hand out to friends and family.

As always, the photos for my bakes are either rubbish or non existent! Alongside Christmas cake and shortbread, I made peppermint creams and miniature bakewells, all of which were eaten so quickly that I didn't get to take any pictures! I promise that my New Years resolution is to take better pictures!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, all the best!

Sticky Toffee Cheesecake

I am so excited about this!

Not the most attractive from above, I'll admit, but it tastes soooo good.

I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was immediately overwhelmed by the ingredients list. The amount of ingredients was over excessive, if I'm honest, 600g of cream cheese, 300g of white choc, sour cream, eggs and flour among other things. This meant that each slice had a huge 887 calories per slice (according to the recipe anyways) and this put me off somewhat.

Surprisingly, this cheesecake also lasted well in the fridge, despite its delicate dairy ingredients so I'd say it could be made in preparation a day or so before. As I sit here writing this, we have had half the cheesecake sitting in fridge for a week as there was just so much of it. Maybe next time I'll half the mixture and make two cheesecakes, I can't see why this wouldn't work.

To be honest, the amount of calories and the richness has put me off the recipe all together. Despite this, the cheesecake was delicious, especially the biscuit base which was made from a shortbread mixture. This was delicate and was balanced well by other flavours within the cheesecake.

If you do try this recipe, I suggest you put the tin on a baking tray as mine had a liquid leaking out of it throughout cooking and cooling which I think may have come from the cream cheese. 

All in all, a very tasty recipe but definitely a no go for those who like to watch their weight!! To try this recipe, go here :)