Teasecake Time!

I recently finished my job in Exeter and am in the middle of a relaxing 3 weeks between jobs. I came back to Nottinghamshire this weekend after making the most of my last week in the place I've called home for the past 4 years! It's been emotional, but I'm excited about what's to come!

Obviously this has meant lots of goodbyes and get togethers. A friend from work invited me and a few colleagues over for a dinner party. I offered to make dessert, and given my free time I decided to make something a bit different...

I've never made a non-bake cheesecake before and didn't actually think I liked the (I'm a ridiculously picky eater), but after finding a recipe for a Malteaser Cheesecake, I didn't really think I could go wrong...

I wasn't mistaken.

The recipe is taken from BBC Good Food (I changed it a teeny bit but all credit to the genius that came up with this). It doesn't really even take that long to make, but will need 5 hours to chill & set.

I used a 24cm loose bottomed round tin. Remember to line it so you can get the cheesecake free easily!

Ingredients

200g malted milk biscuits

100g unsalted butter, melted (I didn't melt mine, which meant the base was a bit too crumbly so don't miss that!)

5tbsp caster sugar

600g soft cheese

300ml double cream

300g white chocolate, melted

200g milk chocolate, melted

2tbsp malt powder (I used half a sachet of the malteaser hot chocolate drinking powder which then meant there was enough left over for a drink too...)

37g bag malted sees

Method

Bash the biscuits up into crumbs. Putting a lot of effort into this will mean you burn off enough calories to eat a slice of this guilt free...maybe.

Mix together the butter, biscuit crumbs & half the sugar

Push into base, making sure it's level.

Leave this to chill whilst you make the topping.

Melt the two different chocolates separately in glass bowls over a simmering pan, or in the microwave.

Then, add the white chocolate to a bowl with half of the cream cheese and half of the cream.

In another bowl, you need the milk chocolate, malt powder and remaining 3tbsp sugar. Beat both bowls until they are super smoooooth.

Get the biscuit base back from the fridge and spread the milk chocolate mixture over the top, keeping it as even as you can on the top. Wipe round the side of the tin so your layers stay as neat as possible!

On top, add the white chocolate mixture and smooth with a spatula (let's just say I went for a more rustic look...) 

Finally, top with malteasers! The original recipe used white chocolate malteasers but I went for the milk chocolate version to give a bit of a contrast.

Refrigerate for 5 hours (if you can stay away that long!!)

And what you get, with surprisingly little effort (but sshhh) is a pretty impressive looking dessert! 

This goes pretty far, as it is quite rich so a small slice is plenty! Give it a go, you won't be disappointed! 

I'm going away to Suffolk this week so will hopefully have a new post up soon!

Feeling 22

I recently celebrated my 22nd birthday. I'm a firm believer that birthday celebrations should be spread out over as long a time as you can manage, and I think I did pretty well this year. I also got 3 birthday cakes so that has to count for something.

I kicked off celebrations a week early when I was treated to a beeeauutiful steak at Cafe Rouge before a night out in Exeter with all of my friends still around down here. 

 Obviously a new outfit was needed and after a verrrry big shopping spree on payday I settled on this dress from Topshop which I love!

I had a great night, feeling pretty horrific the next morning but it's nothing that can't be fixed with a morning snuggled up on the sofa watching Friends and a trip to my new favourite cafe in Exeter, Cakeadoodledoo. It's tiny, but the slices of cake are not, so I don't mind the occasional wait for a table.

On my actual birthday I was surprised at work with the first delicious chocolate cake of the day (I'm talking a lot about cake aren't I?!) 

Aaand that evening I had a bunch of friends over for curry, games and more chocolate cake thanks to the fabulous Cat - just LOOK at it! 

The next day I had a day off work and headed northwards to my parents' new house in a small village in Nottinghamshire for a weekend with friends and family which was lovely! 

Having not seen anyone since Christmas it was great to catch up, eat even more, and explore the new area...

...which, by the way, is pretty beautiful.

A fantastic few days with some of my favourite people! I'm looking forward to a lot of changes this year... who knows where I'll be at 23!

Hummingbird Happiness

For my birthday a few months ago, my friend bought me a Hummingbird Bakery recipe book.

Almost 300 pages of yummy treats; cupcakes, cheesecakes, cookies, pies...

But the section that has captured my attention the most (so far!) is home to the huge, 3 layer mountains of goodness.

They are deeeeelicious, and have got me so many compliments from people! I've always loved baking, but had previously stuck mainly to the traditional Victoria Sponge and simple, iced cupcakes.

These are on a whole other level!

If I'm honest, they use far more ingredients (and therefore money) and take up much more time than I should probably have been spending on a lot of these, particularly since they were mostly made throughout revision time (oops!)

 But they are certainly worth it!

This is their Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting, probably my favourite

Chocolate Malt Cake with yummy fudge sauce in between the layers (as well as the cream cheese frosting, they don't do anything by halves!)

Cookies & Cream Cake

Mississippi Mud Cake, a little sickly I thought but others didn't think so!

I'm looking forward to my next baking day so I can try out another of their great recipes! Has anyone got any cake or biscuit recipes they think shouldn't be missed?!

N x

Procrastibaking

Wow, again, I've certainly been neglecting this blog for a while! It seems something happens each April to get me wanting to blog again... Well this time I'm starting out with the very best intentions so fingers crossed I'll stick to it this year!

In 44 days I finish University and enter the unknown with (at least for the moment) very few plans. I'm pretty nervous about that, and pretty upset to be leaving uni and most of what goes with it! I can't say I'll miss all the work that third year has brought with it though. I'm currently going through some sort of dissertation denial stage which unfortunately isn't too conducive to getting much of that done...

This term, then, has been very hectic. There's been a lot of work, obviously bringing with it the "need" for a lot of procrastinating. This has meant there's been a lot of baking going on. Because cake makes everything better, doesn't it?

I've even branched out and started baking bread too. Kneading is just a great way of destressing. Throw a bit of dough around the kitchen and any bad vibes from work or money or hangovers or just a general bad day (we all have those!) are banished. And you get a lovely smelling kitchen and a yummy loaf at the end of it!

So I just thought I'd add some photos of what I've been baking this term...particularly as I'm back on that pre-summer diet everyone seems to go on once April's here.

Vanilla sponge cupcakes with milk chocolate icing and white chocolate shavings

Very first pizzas from scratch! With tomato sauce, mozzerella, prosciutto ham,
sundried tomatoes, olive tapernade and topped with rocket.

Chocolate Malteaser cupcakes

First loaf of bread. Slightly mis-shaped but nice and fluffy!

Loaf number two!

Pineapple upside down cake

Sorry about the quality of the photos, I'm a bit of an instagram lover (you can follow me at niobe93), and I've currently only got my iPhone available. Hopefully going to get a nice new camera soon though! Any suggestions?

I'm going to Copenhagen tomorrow with my family for a nice break away from all this horrible work and to celebrate my Dad's birthday, which should be lovely! I'll blog about it once I'm back, I'm determined to keep this up this year!

Niobe xx

Revision Blues

I'm not very happy.

It's mid April, and the past few days is the first real sign of Spring we've had in the UK this year. The weather has been pretty horrible for months, constantly grey and rainy.

But now the sun is shining, the sky is blue, there's a nice breeze... and I'm stuck inside revising.

My exams start three weeks today, and I have three in total, spanning over about a week and a half.

There's a lot to learn.

Obviously I want to do well, so over the Easter break, when I haven't been out with friends and family, at work, or asleep, I've been revising. 

(Well, a lot of the time I've just been pretending, but shhh)

I'm a master of procrastinating. 

I'm tempted to clean and sort out my room after posting this.

On Sunday, I rewarded myself for doing about 1% of my target Economics revision for the day by baking a cake. 

Why not, eh? Everyone deserves a break!...

At least I've got company. 

This is Hebe.

She's spent all day yesterday and today lying on the windowsill next to my desk and coming for a cuddle when I'm losing motivation.

And when my motivation's running reeeeally low, I've always got my I Hate Economics Revision cake!

A month tomorrow I finish my exams, then I have a 17 week Summer.

Work now, play later.

I'm sure it'll pay off.

I suppose I better get on...