Well, it certainly has been a long time since posting though not for the lack of cooking, eating and making memories but more for the uncontrollable business of life!

Since last writing, I am so excited to announce that the fresh start on life I’ve been aiming for these last two years has finally arrived! I have now left the home of my lovely parents and moved into a little place of my own- and, if I may say so, it’s lovely!

I’ve already gone cooking crazy since living here! I’ve indulged in old favourites such as Thai Red Curry and Chicken Pathia, naturally had Josh and Stephen to visit for Wholegrain Maple Gammon, and on my first weekend here I had my parents to dinner to show my gratitude for everything they have done to support me, where we had a starter of Mojo Chicken, a main course of Beef Bourgignon and a dessert of Retox Pie.

But all those recipes are to follow soon! Last, I had my cousins Sarah and Samantha to stay and we indulged in a simple favourite- Chicken Fajitas! Sarah’s birthday passed recently on 31st May so I thought it would be nice to treat her to a favourite for dessert. Having exposed her more than once as a psychotic cheesecake thief, a strawberry cheesecake seemed the only option! And then there was this bottle of rum just lying around…

AND SO STRAWBERRY RUM CHEESE CAKE WAS BORN!!

And after some gentle nagging from my cousin Samantha, a return to blogging followed…

Ingredients

• 200g of digestive biscuits
• 150g of butter
• 2 tablespoons of clear honey
• 500g of mascarpone cheese
• 50ml of spiced rum x 2
• One vanilla pod, or a teaspoon of good vanilla essence
• 400g of fresh strawberries
• Two table spoons or muscavado brown sugar (to be revised)
• 150g of icing sugar (to be revised)

 

Let’s get this strawberry tipsy…

1. Place your biscuits in a sandwich bag and take out your rage on them using a rolling pin or something until they are nothing more than fine crumbs.

2. In a saucepan, gently melt your butter on a low heat. Stir in the biscuit crumbs and your two tablespoons of honey.

3. Now press it down into a sandwich tin, preferably one that has a removable bottom as it will make things much easier later, and leave it in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

When you put it in the tin, try to make it as smooth as possible with the back of a spoon, but just ridge it up on the side ever so slightly.

4. Now for some rummy mascarpone! Plonk your mascarpone cheese into a bowl with your vanilla and 50ml of spiced rum. Stir in gently until lumpless and divine- about 5 minutes. Add on top of your biscuit base and return to the fridge for a further 45 minutes.

5. Finally, the strawberry compote. Although this turned out tasty, it definitely did go wrong and is a part of this recipe that I will be revisiting soon! So, you may want to research a better technique as making strawberry compote as I will do before jumping into this step.

OK, so cut up all your beautiful strawberries like this:

Pop them all in a saucepan on a very low heat, covered, for about 40 minutes to reduce- stirring occasionally.

6. Stir in the brown sugar, and the icing sugar, until dissolved. So, the reason I tried using icing sugar here is I thought it would set better as a result- I WAS WRONG!! Instead, it sweetened more intensely but did NOT fully set and I ended up with a fridge covered in strawberry juice! I’m getting ahead of the story here but… Just a warning. Recipe to be revisited soon to rectify compote issue. Apols.

7. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Once cool, stir in 50ml of spiced rum then add to the top of the cheesecake and leave in the fridge overnight to “set”.

Oh yeh, I then panicked at the fact that it clearly wasn’t setting and sprinkled it with a ton more icing sugar, and got icing sugar everywhere. It didn’t work, so don’t try that either.

Inspite of the errors in the compote, this still came out pretty nice with a lovely crisp base and good rummy strawberry flavours throughout!

I’m looking forward to an excuse to make it again. And that is why I INTENTIONALLY messed up the compote. For that excuse. To make it again. And that’s that.

The End.