Cherry cheesecake – pure pleasure warning!

We had a few hours to fill before Sam’s drama class, and as the TV ban is still imposed baking was the order of the day.

I don’t make a lot of desserts. I try not to eat them at home and save them for special occasions. But July’s Good Food is riddled with gorgeous looking puds just waiting to be sampled.

The most inviting recipe I found is this:

Baked cherry cheesecake

For the base
12 digestive biscuits
50g melted butter
50g caster sugar

For the filling
300g light cream cheese
2 eggs
50g caster sugar

1 x 400g can cherry fruit pie filling

Pre-heat oven to 180’c (160’c fan oven)

Crush the biscuits into crumbs. We used a large bowl and a mixture of heavyweight spoons to achieve this in a calm manner. But you could also put the biscuits in a sealed bag and bash the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin!

Mix the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter and sugar until it’s all nicely coated.

Press the mixture into the base and sides of a 20cm springform tin. Chill in the fridge while you get on with the next bit.

Mix up the cream cheese, eggs and sugar to create the mixture for the filling. Pour it onto the chilled biscuit base and pop it into the oven for 30 mins until it’s set.

Cool completely then spread the cherry filling evenly over the top. Done! Whack it in the fridge ready to serve up when you need it!

Sam enjoyed making it – crushing biscuits was the best bit.

I’ve never made cheesecake before and was slightly scared the whole thing would collapse when I released it from the tin. But no! It looked and tasted magnificant.

It’s definitely a good pud for when you’ve got people coming for dinner. I normally wimp out on scratch cooking dessert and buy something to save time and stress. But this cheesecake is easily achievable and so inviting!!!

For tea I dished up a super simple bowl of gnocchi tossed with butter, peas and fresh basil. Sam had two helpings. It must be the easiest supper you can make!

Arlo was too poorly to eat it. Little lambkin has picked up Sam’s bug from the weekend 🙁

The other reason for baking cheesecake was to have something yum to eat while watching the last ever Big Brother launch show.

TV gold dust, enhanced with text commentary from my beloved ex Newsround comrades.

After another bedtime battle with Sam and a hot and pukey Arlo, cheesecake was a welcome reward!