Giant cupcake for Tegan

This is one of the three cakes that started my business off.  It was made for my daughter's friend, Tegan, who was celebrating her 11th birthday in March.

The sponge is vanilla with chocolate flavoured fondant covering the base of the cake.  The top is piped with vanilla buttercream swirls in various shades from yellow (her favourite colour) through to a bright and vivid orange.

It's trimmed with fondant flowers and leaves.  The bottom is piped with buttercream 'grass' and I've added a couple of friends to the board; namely a snail (on the left hand side peeping round at you) and just about to crawl onto the log at the front of the cake is a ladybird (with the bright googly eyes!)

Thankfully Tegan loved her cake and all who saw it were pretty impressed too.  Not bad for one of my first attempts at a giant cupcake.

Picture credit goes to my husband Will for making it look so incredibly bright and vibrant.

Cheesecake

We love cheesecake, but the stuff that supermarkets pass off leaves something to be desired, not to mention the frozen ones you can buy (don't get me started on the taste & mushiness of these), so, as requested by some of my friends over on my Facebook page, Freycob's Cakes, here's my recipe.

We were invited to friends for a BBQ today, and this is what I made for dessert to take with us. The conclusion was that this was the BEST cheesecake they've ever tasted!

400g digestive biscuits
200g butter
300ml double cream
600g Philadelphia cream cheese
1 lemon, juice & rind
4tbs caster sugar
Fruit for topping
Caster sugar to taste

1. Crush the Digestive biscuits.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Mix the butter and biscuits together then press firmly into an 20cm (8") springform tin. (I line the base of mine with parchment to make it easier to remove).
4. Place in the fridge for 30 mins to cool & set the butter.
5. Whisk the cream, Philadelphia, lemon juice, rind & sugar together until well combined and thick.
6. Spread on top of the cooled base.
7. Return to the fridge for at least an hour to cool.

You can leave it plain or use berries in season to top the cheesecake or make your own coulis as follows:

8. Blitz a large punnet of blueberries with 100g of frozen raspberries and 50g (or to taste) of caster sugar.
9. You can sieve your fruit if required, or as we like it, leave it as it is.
10. Top your slice of cheesecake with a generous portion of fruit and enjoy!

If you prefer, you can defrost 400g of frozen berries to mix with your sugar to use as your topping.