1st Post: Citrus Cheesecake

Greetings, foodies. I am Mary, a person with a slight aversion to computers, but with a huge enjoyment of cooking and the intention of persuading everyone else to love it too. I'm 17 and live in the glorious rolling hills of Devon. My friends and I have formed a 'Pudding Club,' where we eat desserts and drink fine (as fine as you can get for £4 from Scummerfield) wines in the height of sophistication. One of my very dear chums from Birmingham is a fashion blogger and gave me the idea of starting a recipe blog. Visit her at coralstars.com

I do a hell of a lot of cooking: main meals, cakes, biscuits, desserts ET CETERA and generally attempt to make them as healthy as is possible (often hard with cakes...). I often read in cookbooks the importance of using 'the finest quality ingredients' and 'only using butter, as lower fat alternatives just aren't as good.' I would like to state my belief that this is a load of old b****cks and that the best cakes I make use Utterly Butterly rather than butter, as this makes your average sponge far more moist and light; cheap cooking chocolate from Lidl is great, and there is nothing wrong with a bit of food colouring from time to time.

So, just to give you a wee taste of what this blog is all about, here is a recipe for a cheesecake that is really light and fruity and not too unhealthy (excepting the base, but we all like a bit of sugary goodness!) You can always change all the low fat/sugarfree elements of it for the real thing if you are one of these 'the way nature intended' purists, but I don't think it makes any difference to the taste, and using the light alternatives means you can eat about 4 times as much (if you are a greedy git like me.)

Citrus Cheesecake:

1 pack sugarfree lemon or orange jelly

One lemon/orange

350g light soft cheese

2 heaped tbsp light fromage frais 

3 tbsp splenda

Aaaaand for the base:

140g hobnobs

40g utterly butterly

1tbsp golden syrup

1. make the jelly up to half a pint using the juice of the lemon/orange, so it is twice as concentrated as usual. Put this in the freezer to nearly set.

2. crush up the hobnobs either in a food processor or by violently wielding a rolling pin. If you are cooking to alleviate stress then the latter is an extremely good vent for any pent up frustration. 

3. melt the utterly butterly and golden syrup either in a pan or in the microwave. Stir in the hobnob crumbs.

4. squash the biscuity base down into a 9" tin. I like to use a potato masher for this, it's pretty exciting; my friend's mum laughed at me and said to use my hands.

5. Put the soft cheese into a big bowl and add the splenda, stir it up and then use an electric whisk to mix in the fromage frais and the grated rind of the lemon/orange.

6. By this time the jelly should be nearly set. It should still slide about a bit in the jug. Whisk this in with the cheesy mixture and pour over the squashed in base.

7. Refrigerate until set.

I like to serve this with fresh fruit and a drizzle of homemade raspberry sauce. Mum likes ice cream with it, but personally I find this is slightly excessive and the cold vanilla-iness overwhelms the citrussy cheesecake. 

Hope you enjoy it and come back, I'll post as often as I can with recipes and pictures!

Miss Kipling