Strawberry Cheesecake

This is amazing! This recipe was from Nigella Lawson's website and I have put my own little twist on it. You don't have to use strawberries in a cheesecake, you can use many types of fruit and chocolate. This recipe serves 6-8 but if you want to make the cheesecake bigger just use bigger quantities.

Ingredients

125g digestive biscuits

75g soft butter

300g cream cheese

60g sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

250ml double cream

2 pots of strawberry jam

Punnet of strawberries

25g caster sugar

Method

1. Crush up all of the biscuits into a bowl until they look almost breadcrumb like.

2. Melt the butter on a low heat by stirring with a wooden spoon every few seconds. Once the butter has melted pour into the bowl of crushed biscuits, find a loose bottomed tin and tip mixture into it. Spread it out evenly making sure there are no gaps in the base. Put in the fridge for around 20 mins.

3. Meanwhile take half the strawberries and chop the tops off of them. Put the caster sugar and strawberries into a jug and blend. Put through a sieve so the mixture is smooth.  

4. Take the cream cheese, vanilla extract and sugar, then beat until smooth. Whip the double cream and add into the creamy mix. Put 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam into the mix and fold together. 

5. Spread strawberry jam over the base until it is covered (yum!) then put the creamy mixture on top and spread out evenly, it should now have a cool strawberry ripple effect.

6. Put in the fridge for 5-6 hours. Before serving cut the tops off the rest of the strawberries and make a cool pattern with them. I have sliced them into four pieces and made a cool pattern around the middle. Drizzle the sauce you made earlier randomly around the top of the cheesecake.

It will taste really nice. Have fun making it! (◕‿◕✿)

What my family and I grow in the garden

I love growing things. A quarter of my garden has been turned into a vegetable patch. We grow lots of different vegetables and some fruits.

Sweetcorn growing in the veg patch!

We grow things like figs, parsley, rosemary, raspberries,  strawberries, sweet corn, thyme, tomatoes and also carrots. We have a greenhouse with things like lettuce, parsley and chives. We have a fruit tree which grows cherries. We have a raspberry bush next to it. We painted a little wooden container and put some bottles which had the top cut off of them and holes in the sides. So you can fill them with water and they water the plants for you because the water leaks out of the sides of the bottles.

One of our first raspberries!

I love the taste of fruits, especially home grown strawberries dipped in melted chocolate ,yum!

Sweetcorn is always the best barbecued it has a lovely smokey taste. I use the herbs in my cooking, like thyme, rosemary, parsley and chives.

Parsley - great for burgers!

Mum's Fig Tree

Strawberry Planter - we had loads this year!

Runner Beans - Not sure these are doing very well :( 

Tomato Plant in the greenhouse

What do you grow in the garden? Beth x

Apple Crumble

Crumbly on the outside, hot juicy apple mixture in the middle. This is one of my favourite recipes of all time. :)

Ingredients


4 large cooking apples
250g of flour
100g of butter
50g of brown sugar

Method


1.  Turn oven onto 180C and then peel, core and chop the cooking apples.

2. Put in a pan with a little bit of water and then put on a medium heat to stew until soft.

3. While the apples are stewing, make the crumble by putting: 250g of flour and 100g of butter, together and make into a breadcrumb like mixture by crumbling the mix through your fingers lightly. Leave for 10-15mins.

4. Scoop the soft apples into a dish and sprinkle the crumble over the top, spread out the mix with a fork so it covers all the soft apples.

5. Put into the oven and cook for around 20-25 mins ,until the crumble on top has gone golden brown.
  

When you serve the apple crumble it tastes really nice with cream or ice-cream! ζ°)))彡

Milka Oreo Chocolate Cupcakes

This week the kind people at Cybercandy sent me some delicious Milka Oreo chocolate, and they gave me inspiration for this recipe from their blog. Have fun! :-D

Ingredients

100g softened butter
150g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
3 tbs milk
Half a tea spoon of vanilla extract
2 large eggs
4-5 shakes Galaxy hot chocolate powder
Bar of Milka Oreo chocolate


For the Icing

2 tbs Nutella
100g softened butter
225g icing sugar
Splash of milk
Bar of Milka Oreo chocolate

Method


1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and put muffin cases into a 12 hole tray.

2. Mix the butter, flour, sugar, vanilla extract and eggs together with a wooden spoon until light and airy. Then add the Galaxy hot chocolate and mix again.

3. Spoon the mix into the cases and put a square of Milka Oreo chocolate on top of each cupcake. Put into the oven for 25 mins until golden brown. Test that they are ready by gently sliding the end of a skewer or a knife into the cupcake. If it comes out clean it is cooked.

4. Place onto a cooling rack and let them cool until there is no heat from the cupcake (this is so the icing doesn't melt).

For the icing

1. Slowly add the icing sugar to the butter until nice and creamy. Add a dash of milk to make it a little bit creamier (don't put in too much milk or the icing will go runny!). Scoop the Nutella into the icing and mix.

2. Pipe the icing onto the cupcake.

3. Put a square of the Milka Oreo chocolate onto the icing.

Many thanks to Cybercandy and I hope you have enjoyed making this. Me, my daddy, mummy and sister Megan all loved these cakes as we all love chocolate!

Roast Beef Sunday Dinner

Here is another brilliant Sunday dinner! I cooked the beef so it was at medium. Because I think it tastes nicer that way but is up to you. :-D

Ingredients

500g joint of Roast Beef
4-5 Potatoes
Mixed veg
Beef OXO Cube
Wholegrain Mustard
Bisto Beef gravy powder
Bisto stock cube

Method


1. Turn the oven onto 200C and then calculate the time of how long your beef is going to take (mine took 50 mins.) Then put some oil into the bottom of a tray for the potatoes. Then spread the mustard lightly over the beef and then lightly season with salt and pepper.

2. Chop your potatoes into quarters and then peel and chop your parsnips.

3. Put a couple of centimetres of some water into steamer. Then put veg in.

4. Part boil the potatoes for 4-5 mins. Then drain the potatoes, put back into the saucepan and shake, this will roughen up the edges of the potatoes to make them really crispy when roasted. Put potatoes into hot tray  and roast for approximately and hour.

5. Shake 2 shakes of Bisto beef gravy powder into gravy pan and crumble a beef oxo cube into the pan. Fill half full with cold water and then put on the heat and stir until thick. Crumble in a beef stock cube and stir put onto simmer.

6. Put veg on the heat for around ten minutes.

 Serve. I loved cooking and eating this dish :)


How to make the Yorkshire puddings


This goes really well with the Roast Beef dinner.

Ingredients


150g grams of flour
150ml of milk
2 eggs

Method


1. Put some oil into a Yorkshire pudding tray and put into oven at 200C

2. Mix all the ingredients together to make a thick ,creamy mixture then leave to rest for about a half hour.

3. Put into the tray and cook for another half hour.

Serve. Then you are done!

Chicken Fajitas

I love making these they are easy to make and delicious to eat!

Ingredients


4 chicken breasts
Spice mix
Olive oil
Salad
Cheese
8 Wraps

Method


1. Cut chicken breasts into chunks

2. Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a bowl along with the spice mix and the chicken and mix until  the chicken is fully coated.

3.  Put the coated chicken onto a tray, make sure it is spaced out.

4.  Cook for 18-20 mins until golden brown and cooked.

5. While they are cooking make the salad and then grate the cheese. Then take the chicken out of the oven.

6. Put the wraps onto the tray and cook for 3-4 mins.

Serve it is really fun to make your own wraps! :)                                                     Serves: 4

Watermelon Punch

I love summer it is the best season of the year. This recipe is brilliant for a drink with the BBQ food! It's easy to make and delicious to drink. Have fun    (◕‿◕✿) 


Ingredients


1 whole Watermelon
A bottle of lemonade
Ice cubes

Method


1. First of all slice off the top of the Watermelon and hollow it out, and put the insides into a bowl. Make sure you keep the Watermelon shell.


2. Then put the insides you have just hollowed out through a juicer. Which will separate the juice from the pulp and the pips


3. Pour a litre of lemonade into a jug or a bowl then add the watermelon juice.


4. Pour juice back into the Watermelon shell.


5. Ladle some of the drink into glasses and add ice and then top up with some lemonade.

Then you are done :)