Caramel apple cheesecake

Cheesecake is basically my favourite dessert, and also one of my favourite things to bake.

Over the years I’ve been making this recipe, I’ve adapted and tweaked it to what I think is cheesecake perfection – although of course that depends on your personal cheesecake preference!

I know most people prefer a biscuit base, but I like a sponge base and that’s what I’ve used here. It’s an easy recipe, but quite time consuming – it’s best done over 2 days if you have the time.

The basic cheesecake will suit any number of toppings, and is equally delicious plain, but as I had a large bag of apples waiting to be used, I went for caramel apple.

It’s insanely calorific, and a bit pricey to make, but well worth it for a special occasion, or just if you need some indulgence!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake:

For the sponge base:

• 65g butter
• 65g caster sugar
• 4tbsp cornflour
• 1 egg
• 65g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder

Line a 9″ springform tin with baking paper, and grease the paper and sides of the tin. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, then beat in the egg and fold in the flour and baking powder until combined. Spread into the tin and bake at 180 for about 20 minutes, until golden and springy.

For the cheesecake:

• 900g full-fat cream cheese
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• zest and juice of a lemon
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 375ml double cream

Beat the cream cheese to soften, then add in the sugar and cornflour and beat until well combined. Add in the eggs one at a time, then add the lemon zest, juice and vanilla extract. Finally, fold in the cream, until it’s mixed in well. It should be a fairly liquid consistency.

Remove the sponge from the tin when cooled, grease the sides of the tin and put the sponge back (with the paper still on the bottom). Pour the cheesecake mixture on top, and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. When you are pre-heating the oven, leave a baking tray at the bottom to heat up, then when you put the cheesecake in pour a couple of centimetres of hot water into the tray, to make the oven nice and steamy.

After the first 15 minutes of baking, turn the heat down to 110 degrees, and bake for a further hour and a half. When the time is up, the cheesecake should be set but still have a bit of a wobble in the centre. Turn the heat off, but leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool for at least 3 hours, when it can be transferred to the fridge to chill overnight.

For the caramel apples:

• 3-4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped into wedges
• 1tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/3 cup brown or muscovado sugar

Heat the butter in a saucepan until melted, then add in the sugars. Stir until dissolved and bubbling, then add in the apples. When the apples are starting to soften, remove from the saucepan and set aside. Keep cooking the sugar and butter mix until it becomes a thick syrup, then stir into the apples.

To assemble the cheesecake, run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake and remove the side of the tin. Cover a plate with clingfilm, then turn the cheesecake upside down on to it. Take the paper of the bottom of the sponge, then flip back onto a cake board or whatever you want to serve it on. When the apples are cooled, spoon on top of the cheesecake and serve!

Apple and blackberry frangipane tart

This is my entry for Kate’s Autumnal Baking Challenge – an amazing idea as I think autumn may be my favourite season for baking!

I’ve made quite a few things recently that probably could have been entered for the challenge, but I wanted to make something especially with autumn in mind, and I’m glad I did as this was delicious!

I adapted a recipe from Delicious magazine for an apple frangipane tart, used Mary Berry’s sweet pastry recipe, and added in blackberries for extra autumnalness (yes, that is a word).

The blackberries were all picked within 3 minutes of my house and the apples came from my bosses tree, which in my mind makes this extra tasty!

Can’t wait to see the round up of everyone else’s Autumnal Baking!

Apple and blackberry frangipane tart:

For the pastry:

• 100g butter, at room temperature
• 175g plain flour
• 25g icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tbsp water

Chop the butter into small chunks and blend in a food processor with the flour and sugar until it has a breadcrumb texture. Add in the egg yolk and water and blend again, until it just comes together as a ball. Chill for about half an hour, then roll out to line a 10″ flan tin, and chill again for 10 minutes. Blind bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, then return to the oven for a couple more minutes until golden.

For the filling:

• 125g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 3-4 small apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 100g(ish) blackberries

While the pastry is baking, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then fold in the ground almonds and flour. Once the pastry case is done, pour the almond mixture in and spread level. Arrange the fruit in a pretty pattern (you probably don’t need to spend quite as long doing this as I did), then return to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes.

Heat 2tbsp apricot jam, then brush this over the tart and return to the oven for a final 10 minutes of baking. This amount of baking will make the top of the crust go quite brown, but the filling should be golden and shiny. Serve warm or cold.

National Cupcake Week – apple and cinnamon cupcakes

I’m not quite sure how it gets decided that there will be a National Cupcake Week, but not for one minute does that stop me jumping on the bandwagon and getting my metaphorical baking hat on.

It was pretty easy to decide what type of cupcakes to make, after I was gifted with a lovely bag of apples fresh from my bosses garden…

I found this recipe on What The Fruitcake?! and decided to go with the basic sponge, but skip the caramel filling and swap the cream cheese icing for a brown sugar cinnamon buttercream. As I had lots of apples I also make caramelised apple slices to go on top, which give them a nice bit of colour!

I warn you, these cupcakes smell AMAZING when they are baking and it took a lot of willpower to stop myself devouring them the minute they were baked.

I took these into work and also to visit some family, and everyone seemed to like them. I maybe went a bit over the top with the cinnamon dusting, but I think it’s a good balance to the sweetness!

Apple cupcakes with cinnamon brown sugar buttercream:

For the sponge (recipe from What The Fruitcake?!)

• 1 cup of peeled, cored and finely diced apples (this worked out at 2 small apples for me)
• 45g butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

Beat together the butter and both sugars until creamy and smooth. Beat in the egg, then half the apple sauce. Mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and sift half into the batter. Mix well, then add the rest of the apple sauce. Beat until combined, the fold in the remaining flour mix and chopped apples. Divide between 12 large cupcake or muffin cases and bake at 180 degrees for approximately 18 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

For the icing

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g light brown sugar
• 125g icing sugar
• 2-3tsp cinnamon, plus extra to dust

Beat together the butter (softened) and brown sugar until well mixed. Sift in the icing sugar and beat for a further 5 minutes, until really light and delicious. Add in the cinnamon to taste, then spread on top of the cooled cupcakes. Dust with a bit more sieved cinnamon.

For the caramelised apples

• 1 small apple, cored and cut into 12 slices
• 10g butter
• 1 tbsp caster sugar

Heat the butter in a saucepan until melted, then stir in the sugar until dissolved. Add in the apples and keep stirring until they caramelise, maybe 5 minutes. It seems like it’s going really slowly then all of a sudden they turn golden, so keep a close eye and keep stirring! Tip onto a plate to cool then use to top the cupcakes.

Apple and raspberry crumble

Basically, this is exactly what it says, a delicious fruit crumble. No story behind it, just a crazing for hot fruitiness.

But simple is in no way a bad thing, and this crumble really did have super tastes.

I didn’t follow a recipe, so this is more of a rambling than a proper recipe post.

The fruit part is 3 medium sized cooking apples and half a pack of frozen raspberries, maybe 125g, in a medium sized baking dish.

Sprinkled on top of this is 50g caster sugar, and a bit of lemon juice to keep the apples from browning.

The topping is 50g butter, 100g plain flour, 50g demerara sugar and 50g porridge oats. Rub the butter and flour together until it turns into a breadcrumb consistency, then stir in the sugar and oats.

Scatter the topping all over the fruit, then bake at 200 degrees for about an hour (I covered it over with foil part way through to stop it getting too brown on top). You know it’s ready when the bright pink juices are bubbling out around the edges – and it smells amazing!

Serve with custard, cream or ice cream, any would go well!