Snickers Cheesecake

This was a special request from the youngest of my three baby sisters, she turned 21 a few weeks ago and I wanted to make her a special birthday cake, one of her favourite chocolate bars is Snickers and she loves Oreos –YUM! I have made it for another special occasion since and it was well received, I really perfected it second time around and am feeling rather proud of myself that I have mastered baked cheesecake and using a water bath!

Ingredients:
Crust
1 packet of Oreo cookies
25 grams butter, melted

Cheesecake
500 grams cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cornflour
4-5 full sized snickers bars, cut into 1/2 - 1cm slices
1/4 caramel sauce
1/4 cup peanuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 170ºC and grease a 20cm round springform tin or PushPan.
If using a springform tin you will need to wrap the bottom and sides with tin foil to protect it in the water bath, if you are using a PushPan the rubber seal means that this step can be omitted.
Pulse cookies in a food processor until crushed. Pulse in butter.
Press into an even layer in pan. Bake until firm, 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Place a roasting pan filled with 2-3cm of hot water on oven's centre rack, this is your water bath.
Beat cream cheese until smooth.
Add sugar and beat for approximately 1 minute, until well combined.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl before beat in vanilla and cornflour.
Place Snickers evenly over crust.
Pour batter over the Oreo crust and place in water bath.
Bake until cake is set around edges but still jiggles in centre, about 50-60 minutes.
Remove cake from roasting pan and if you need to remove foil.
Place cake on a rack to cool.
Once cool, cover and chill in the fridge until firm – at least 4 hours or up to 1 day.
When ready to serve, drizzle top with caramel sauce and top with chopped peanuts and the remainder of your Snickers pieces.

Mini Berry Cheesecakes

I made these Mini Berry Cheesecakes for our High Tea Picnic Party.  They are actually something I have wanted to make since we began our blog but I was put off as they look tricky.  Truth be told, they weren’t as fiddly as I feared and I was able to make them the night before too, which meant I wasn’t rushing around on the day.  Win!

1 cup ground up biscuits (about 10 – I used gingersnaps)
40g butter, melted
½ cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
375g cream cheese
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoons vanilla essence
12 – 24 fresh raspberries, to serve

Preheat your oven to 165°C.  Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper or foil cases.
Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter in a bowl.  Divide the mixture among the muffin cases, pressing down firmly.  Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and cool. 
To make the raspberry purée, mash the raspberries to a pulp with the back of a fork, then strain through a sieve into a bowl, keeping as much juice as possible.  Discard the seeds.  Stir the icing sugar into the raspberry juice.
Place the cream cheese and caster sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.  Finally add in the lemon rind and vanilla essence and mix to combine.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the biscuit bases, filling right to the top of the cases.  Place small drops (about ½ teaspoon) of raspberry purée on the top of the cakes.  Using  a skewer, carefully swirl the purée through the cheese mixture.  Bake the cakes for approximately 15 minutes or until set.  Switch off the oven and leave the cakes in it to cool completely (they will shrink a bit).
Once the cakes are cool, top with fresh raspberries and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Coffee Group Treats: Cheesecake Brownie Swirls and Savoury Scone Scrolls

It was my turn to host coffee group for the Mum’s and Bub’s Max and I hang out with every week so I had to whip up some treats.  I got this amazing ‘Cheesecake Brownie Swirl’ recipe from one of the Mum’s on a baby forum that I chat on – the bonus of living in this age I guess is that when you are at home with bubs you don’t have to be ‘alone’.  So thank you for sharing Caroline (or maybe not, as these are SO good that they have to be absolutely no good for me or my waistline!).  Baked cheesecake on a rich brownie base, truly irresistible!


Ingredients:
Cheesecake mix
1 egg
250g full fat cream cheese
50g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brownie mix
115g plain chocolate
115g unsalted butter
150g soft brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
50g plain flour

Preheat oven to 160°C, grease and line a 20cm square shallow cake pan.
To make the cheesecake mixture, put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat well together.
To make the brownie mixture melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a saucepan of hot water, or in the microwave.  When melted, remove from the heat, stir well then stir in the sugar.  Add the eggs a little at a time and beat well.  Gently fold in the flour.
Spread ⅔ of the brownie mixture into the base of the prepared tin.  Spread the cheesecake mixture on top.  Spoon the remaining brownie mixture on top in heaps.  Using a skewer, swirl the mixtures together.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until just set in the centre (there will still be a wobble to your cheesecake), Leave it in the oven with the door ajar for 30-60 minutes then remove to further cool on the bench.
Remove it from the baking tin when completely cool and cut in to squares to serve – I cut mine into 16 but you could go bigger for a dessert.
* Note, if you leave your cheesecake to cook for too long it will crack, don’t be afraid to turn the oven off as long as your center has set, this was my first go at making a baked cheesecake and I probably left it 5 minutes too long and as you can see below, some small cracks in formed on the surface of cheesecake.


I also whipped up some savoury scone scrolls using this recipe Melissa posted earlier in the year, except I filled mine with shaved ham and a sprinkling of the new ‘Egmont’ cheese that Mainland have released (they are right – it is great in baking!).


And just because I can’t resist – here is a pic of Max with his ‘birthday buddy’ Sophia at coffee group this week :-)