Recipe – Chocolate Caramel Swirl Cheesecake

Christmas is over, and now is the time when I will have to stop ignoring the fat content of my food and start eating a bit sensibly. Also, if you read my New Year’s post, you’ll know that I’m giving up dairy for health reasons. HOWEVER – my dairy abstinence started on New Year’s Day, and I made and ate this at Christmas, so it’s fine!

This recipe was one I made for Christmas Day as an alternative to the traditional pud. It’s originally from the Hummingbird Bakery (a must-visit next time I go to London!), but I’ve adapted it a little, as usual. I seem unable to properly stick to a recipe. But, hey. It turns out ok most of the time!

This is a baked cheesecake. In the past I’ve been a little wary of baked cheesecakes as there’s so much that can go wrong… This one turned out brilliantly. It’s cooked in a water bath to stop the top from cracking and make sure that the cheesecake cooks evenly. Don’t be put off by the water bath, it’s nothing to be scared of! My only tip would be if you are using a loose-bottomed tin, make sure that the tin is wrapped securely in several layers of kitchen foil, to stop any water from seeping in and ending up with a soggy bottom.

The original recipe called for the base to be made out of digestive biscuits, but I only had Oreos, so used them instead. So, here we go…

Ingredients

220g Oreo biscuits
100g unsalted butter or Stork, melted
700g cream cheese eg Philidelphia
120g caster sugar
3 large eggs
50g dulce de leche – I used tinned Carnation Caramel
50g dark chocolate, melted
Another 4 tbsp caramel, as above

Method

— Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Using a loose-bottomed 20cm cake tin, line the base with greaseproof paper, then wrap the tin as above in kitchen foil. Make sure the whole outside of the tin is covered in at least 3 layers of foil to prevent any water from getting in.

— Tip the biscuits into a food processor and blitz into fine crumbs. Mix the crumbs with the melted chocolate and press into the base of the tin. Pop it in the fridge whilst you make the rest of the cheesecake (at least 20 minutes).

— Put the cream cheese and caster sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer and beat together on a medium speed until smooth. You can obviously use a bowl and spoon if you don’t have a stand mixer! With the mixer still going, add the eggs one at a time until combined. Set aside one third of the mixture. Add the tinned caramel to the remaining mixture and pour it onto the biscuit base. The mixture will be quite runny.

— Add the melted and slightly cooled chocolate to the reserved cheesecake mixture. Pour into the tin on top of the caramel mixture, then use a skewer, or the end of a knife to swirl the two together.

— Fill a roasting tin with hot water and place the cheesecake tin into it to form your water bath. The water should come about an inch from the top of the tin. Bake in the oven for around 40 minutes. The cheesecake will be done when the top is firm to the touch but the cheesecake has a little wobble to it. Remove the foil and leave it to cool completely in the tin, and put in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

!

— For the final touch, spread the 4 tbsp caramel over the top with a pallette knife, if you have one.

There you have it, Chocolate Caramel Swirl Cheesecake! Not fot the faint hearted, the healthy or the lactose intolerant, but a great dessert for a dinner party

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

If you’ve read my Caramel Cupcakes post, you’ll know that the recipe for the frosting made A LOT! I had a whole pot of it left over to use up.

I knew that I wanted to add some salt to it and make salted caramel. The original batch was a little too sweet for me (although I had no complaints from everyone else who ate them).

I’m a member of my local WI (Women’s Institute) group and have a committee meeting this evening to discuss our next event (A Christmas Feast!). I’ll post more about the WI soon – people have an idea of what the WI is all about but I can guarantee you ours is definitely different and modern.

I wanted to make a cake to take to the meeting. It is LAW, don’t you know, that to be a WI lady, you must either bake, or eat, cakes. You’re absolutely not allowed to join if not. True fact.

I thought that’d I’d try to use up my icing by making a chocolate cake and cover it with the caramel frosting. Chocolate plus salted caramel = no willpower.

This chocolate cake is a bit of an odd one. It uses no butter and instead uses oil. The mixture is nothing like a normal cake mixture, it’s very runny and wet. But trust me when I say, just go with it. It will produce a lovely, light and airy sponge which, when added with the frosting is to die for!

I’m hoping no-one else takes a cake as well as I may end up feeling a little sick – I can’t help but try a bit of everything. I just can’t stop myself – I have a problem!

On to the cake.

SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

For the cake

175g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

150ml sunflower oil

150ml milk

2 tablespoons honey

For the Frosting

Use the remainder of the mixture from the caramel cupcakes recipe – to remind you, the whole recipe is…

140g Carnation Caramel/dulche de leche

200g cream cheese

100g butter

450g icing sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

REMEMBER – this recipe made enough frosting for both the cupcakes AND this cake!

I made this cake in my KitchenAid but in the past have made it with an electic whisk or even by hand and it came out fine.

Method

— Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line and grease two 20cm sandwich tins.

— In the bowl of your mixer, measure out the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb and caster sugar. Give it a quick stir or mix.

— In a measuring jug, measure out the milk, oil, and honey. Chuck in the eggs and give it all a stir. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, slowly start to add the wet ingredients to the dry.

— Once fully mixed, turn up the mixture to a medium speed for 2 minutes (I used level 4). The mixture should be runny and have a few air bubbles in it.

— Pour the cake mixture into the two tins evenly then bake for 25 minutes. I checked mine after 20 minutes – the cakes should be slightly springy and a skewer should come out clean.

**NOTE – Sadly, this is not the kind of mixture you want to lick the bowl for. Sad face.**

— Let the cakes cool on a rack. Once cool, spread a layer of caramel top of one cake. you can take this from the remainder of what is left in your can. Cover this with a layer of frosting (for directions on how to make, refer to my previous post) then sandwich the other cake on top. Cover the whole cake with the rest of the icing using a pallet knife, or whatever you have available. Decorate, if you like, with some sprinkles or chocolate swirls.

ENJOY!

FYI – Although the cake wasn’t presented as well as I’d have liked, it went down a treat at our WI committee meeting!

Caramel Cupcakes Pop KitchenAid Cherry

So excited was I to use my new toy (see my previous post about my new KitchenAid), I hot-footed it down to my local supermarket and stocked up on baking supplies in preparation for a mammoth session.

I searched through all of my recipe books looking for the perfect recipe to test out and decided on some yummy caramel cupcakes. I’d never made these before so just had to give them a go!

I also had some posh purple cupcake cases which I had for a Christmas present last year (!) which I hadn’t got round to using yet. I kept waiting for a special occasion, and what better than this.

They are from the Bath Cake Company on Lansdown Road in Bath, a fantastic little find well worth taking the short walk out of the centre to peruse their shelves. Not only do they sell an abundance of baking supplies, but you can also treat yourself to some freshly baked cakes as well!! Om nom nom.

You can check them out here: http://www.bathcakecompany.co.uk/

Anyway, onto the recipe.

Ingredients

Cake

175g butter, softened

175g light muscovado sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour

2 tbsp milk

Frosting

397g can Nestle Carnation Caramel

200g tub soft/cream cheese

100g salted butter, softened

450g icing sugar

Method

— Heat oven to 180 degrees and pop your cupcake cases into a muffin tin. This recipe should make about 12 cupcakes.

— Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. I used the KitchenAid on level 2, rising to 4 and then 6. Beat until soft and pale. Add a handful of the flour to stop the mixture from curdling, then with the mixer still going, add a little of the eggs at a time.

— Next fold in the flour and milk until fully incorporated. Divide the mixture between the cases (fill them up to about two thirds full) and bake for approximately 18 minutes (the exact amount of time will depend on your oven – check them after 15 minutes). The cakes should be golden brown and spring when you touch them. Leave to cool fully.

— Mix half of the can of caramel with the cheese, butter and icing sugar with your stand mixer or electric whisk. **TIP – Cover your stand mixture bowl with a tea towel or your kitchen may end up looking like it’s snowed… Like mine did!!)**

— Chill in the fridge. Meanwhile, cut a small section out of each cupcake using a knife and drop a half-teaspoon of caramel into each one. Put the cut bit of cake back on top.

— Ice your cupcake with the frosting however you want! I used a Wilton 1A piping nozzle, the big round one, and a disposable piping bag.

— I had some caramel left over, so I dropped spots of it onto the frosting, and swirled it with a skewer to make a nice pattern.

— Make yourself a nice cup of tea and feel smug 😀 Then eat a cupcake and feel slightly sick!

NOTE! I found with the original amount of icing sugar that the frosting was far too runny so added some more sugar to the mix. Although the cupcakes were delicious, they were VERY sweet and you definitely couldn’t have more than one! (Probably a good thing). Next time I will add a few flakes of sea salt to balance the flavours out a little… And who doesn’t like salted caramel?!

Also – this makes a LOT of caramel frosting so I have a load left over which I have put in the fridge and now need to bake something else to use it up! Any suggestions? Have any of you tried this recipe? I’d love to hear how you got on!