Homemade

I found this stamp for cookies at Big Blue the other day. Oh, the joy. I've been looking for one of these things for ages. I haven't had a chance to use it yet. That will be changing this weekend though. Why? Because I'm on holiday for a week as soon as I hand in my assignment today. Hallelujah.

I made a cake

For some odd reason, I have never been able to bake a cake that doesn't end up getting chucked in the bin. The other day I made this sticky lemon cake and what do you know, it was a success. Yes! This cake is very similar to the Greek cake, revani. The biggest difference is that revani is made with semolina. It's a light, fresh alternative to something rich and chocolatey. Not that there's anything wrong with that either.

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature

250g caster sugar

2 lemons

3 eggs

75g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

150g ground almonds

150g natural yoghurt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and 150g caster sugar in a large bowl. Grate the zest from both lemons, add to the bowl, and mix together. Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time. If the mixture shows signs of curdling, add 1 tsp of flour.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, and ground almonds together. Sift into a seperate bowl, then fold into the butter and eggs with a metal spoon. Stir in the juice of 1 lemon and the yogurt. Pour the mixture into the tin.

4. Bake for 40 minutes or until the centre of the cake is just firm to the touch. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
5. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Heat the remaining sugar and the juice from the remaining lemon in a saucepan. Pierce the cake several times with a skewer, then drizzle the syrup over the cake. Leave to cool before removing the cake from the tin.

Little baked cheesecakes

I hadn't baked anything yummy for ages so when my mom decided to throw a little party for my dad's birthday yesterday, I jumped at the opportunity. Even though it requires a little bit more effort, I really like the idea of these individual baked cheesecakes. Here's the recipe!

The recipe says that it makes a dozen little cheesecakes, but I was able to make 18. Score!

125 g Tennis Biscuit crumbs
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
450g ricotta cheese
450g cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla essence
175 g icing sugar, sieved
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Place 12 paper cases in a muffin tin. Put the biscuit crumbs into a medium bowl and stir in the bitter. Spoon tablespoons of the crumb mixture into the cases, pressing firmly into the bottom. Chill until set.
2. In a large bowl, beat the ricotta until smooth. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and icing sugar, blending until smooth.
3. Slowly add the eggs, blending well.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cases.
5. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove tin from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the paper cases and cool on a rack.

The recipe doesn't call for any sort of sauce on top of the cheesecakes, but I like the sweet, tangy fruit combined with the rich cheese so I made my own strawberry sauce. Any fruit can be used in place of the strawberries though.

Sauce:
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
a pinch of salt
2 cups fresh strawberries

In a saucepan, blend the cornstarch and 1 tbsp water, then add sugar, salt and remaining water. Cook the mixture over a low heat until clear and slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Add strawberries and boil for 3 minutes or until fruit is slightly softened.

Cheesecake recipe from my cupcake bible, 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly.