The Cake Mistress turns One Year Old today and to celebrate I’ve got an easy recipe for ‘Legless’ Cheesecakes! These are boozy little creations featuring all of my favourite food groups: butter, sugar, chocolate, coffee and alcohol. Oh yes. It’s been a big year. I’ve learned so much and made some great friends along the way, online and offline. Here’s what has been happening behind the scenes.
There was the first Food Bloggers Conference (you can watch the presentations here), then some cake decorating help from the team at Planet Cake, where I no longer feared the fondant! I picked up so many useful tips and tricks in the beginners course in addition to their cake decorating guide. Looks like I’ll be back in 2011 now that I’m making my sister’s Wedding Cake, eep! Stay tuned.
Along the way, I met the lovely Paris Cutler at the launch of the new Planet Cake Cupcake decorating book. She is so down-to-earth, inspiring and generous with her time and sharing of information.
I ventured on to Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School. The lovely Kirsten Tibballs introduced the class to impressive techniques in French Entremet:
And later, a chocolate extravaganza in the Truffle making class. There’s definitely another Savour Class in my future, so watch out for more delicious treats this year!
Towards the end of the year, I visited Essential Ingredient to learn the tricks of Macarons with Adriano Zumbo, another very patient and generous teacher. I highly recommend doing a workshop if you find Macarons tricky. It’s so much easier once you can watch the technique and see the batter in action.
Along the way we started to explore vintage and old-fashioned recipes, including the old Australian Women’s Weekly Birthday Cakes. We scored our first professional writing gig, providing recipes and tea-party advice for a client. We somehow landed in the Top 50 Australian Food Blogs and got a mention in Notebook Magazine too.
So thank you to everyone who has visited The Cake Mistress this year. Honestly, sometimes it’s hard to write a blog and stay motivated. I often ask myself why I spend hours doing this for free. But I’ve come to realise that it’s because I love sharing new things. I love how I’m learning more about photography, nerdy stuff like coding and design. I love the friendships that form and pushing myself to learn new skills. And above all, I love sharing great recipes with you all.
Here’s to another Cake-fueled Year!
LEGLESS CHEESECAKES
Makes one 23cm Cheesecake to serve 10, or at least 12 cupcake sized mini cheesecakes.
Recipe adapted from the book “Legless: desserts to get you in the spirit”
You Will Need:
250g Digestive Biscuits, crushed into crumbs
85g Unsalted Butter, melted
125ml (1/2 cup) Boiling Water
1 tablespoon Gelatin
180g Caster Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
250g Cream Cheese, room temperature
300ml Cream
Baileys Cheesecake
180ml (3/4 cup) Baileys Original Irish Cream liqueur
1 flake Bar
Frangelico Coffee Cheesecake
180ml (3/4 cup) Frangelico liqueur
1 teaspoon instant coffee, dissolved in a little hot water
1 flake bar
DIRECTIONS:
To make the cheesecake crust, mix melted butter with biscuit crumbs and press firmly into a 23cm springform cake tin. Place in the fridge to set. If you are making mini cheesecakes, line the inside ring of each hole with a strip of baking paper. Cut two smaller strips and lay them crossways to give you easy removal tabs.
Sprinkle one tablespoon of gelatine powder over 125ml of boiling water. Stir until dissolved, then allow it to cool. Meanwhile, beat sugar, lemon juice and cubes of creamcheese until the sugar has dissolved. Beat in the cooled gelatin, cream, flavours of your choice and half of a crushed Flake bar. Pour the cheesecake mixture over the base. Decorate with the remainder of the Flake bar. Place back in the fridge to set firm.
