Filthy Snickers Cheesecake

This month it was my brother's 40th birthday, so of course a cake had to be made! I was wondering for a while what sort of cake I should make, I normally do a big fondant affair but rather than just making a cake that looked nice I thought I'd make him one that I knew he'd love to stuff his face with as well! My brother is the only human being I have ever seen consume a cheesecake in about four mouthfulls, and I'm not even making that up, it's quite true. So a cheesecake it simply had to be. 

It of course couldn't be a thin cheesecake piled high with fresh fruit, no no. It could only be a huge cheesecake piled high with peanuts, Snickers bars and caramel sauce. I found a great recipe which I couldn't resist trying, I've made a baked cheesecake before where the bars were baked actually in the cake, and it was in a word, amazing. But this time I decided to go down the plain cheesecake route and put all the glorious calories on top instead. 

I don't often make baked cheesecakes as looking out for the 'wobble' and not over-baking it gives me the fear, and as this one was especially deep I really wanted it to be brilliant. The only thing I didn't make was the caramel sauce, I just didn't have time. But I have made it in the past and it has been gorgeous so if have the time I'd still say do it.

Ingredients

Crust:
• 2 cups chocolate digestive crumbs
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter; melted
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
  
Cheesecake:
• 4 bars of cream cheese (8 oz each), room temperature
• 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup double cream
• 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
  
Topping:
• 4/5 Snickers bars; cut up into small pieces
• 1/3 cup roasted peanuts; halved or chopped1/2 cup caramel syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 C. Prepare either a 9-inch springform pan by greasing them liberally with cooking spray or butter. In a separate bowl, stir together the crust ingredients until evenly mixed. Then press into the bottom of your pan, either just on the bottom or also about 1" up onto the sides. Bake for 7 minutes and cool completely on a wire rack. 

Begin to boil a large kettle or pot of water for the water bath. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar and cream cheese and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream and vanilla and mix until smooth. Do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared crust.

 

Once your kettle or pot of water is boiling, carefully place a large baking dish on the lower rack of your oven and pull the rack out a few inches towards you, and then pour the water into it. (Or use your best judgment on how to do this without burning yourself. I just heat the water in a kettle, which is very easy to pour into the pan.) This will create a water bath that will give off lots of steam while the cheesecake bakes. 

Then place the cheesecake pan in the oven, and bake until the edges will appear to be set, but the center will still have a slight jiggle to it. This will be about 45-55 minutes. At this point, close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. After one hour has passed, carefully remove the cheesecake and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cake is completely cooled, place it into the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.

Serve topped with caramel, Snickers, and peanuts.

OK seriously, it was gorgeous 

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Easter Bank Holiday Weekend

I know it wasn't that long ago since I went on a big holiday, but I was SO looking forward to having four days off to just relax. I'd planned to do some shopping, eating, drinking and sleeping.

 Some cheeky Easter pin curls

On Friday I did some work on my mum's website that I'm helping her set up and I also sneaked into Cambridge to do some shopping at Hobbycraft and B&M. I've never been to B&M before and it was pretty good actually, all the home decor bits were so cheap I couldn't resist picking up these signs. We also then popped into Dunelm Mill where I got this cute little jar for my jam which I make myself before I'm a rockstar like that, and I also got another sign...I'm looking to move out soon so I thought this might come in handy at some point.

Saturday I spent time with my brothers, sisters-in-law and my nieces, we had a BBQ because you know, the sun was out so any excuse eh? My oldest niece wanted to go in my car, and I'm such a soft touch it didn't take her long ton convince me to put the roof down. My brother also does the best BBQ food ever, so it would have been rude not to go, ended up playing a lot of stupid games in the garden and then ended up spending the night after drinking a lot of Red Stag and watching trashy TV.

Sunday was of course Easter Sunday and I had one excited niece waiting to do an Easter egg hunt, I do of course have a brand new baby niece, but she was more excited about milk and burping to think about eggs. With a selections of eggs from Tesco and Poundland and also a little hunt kit I set up the garden and hid so many eggs even I forgot where some of them were! I also rocked my Easter hair again, which got shown on Sunday Brunch! Yay!

With another day off I couldn't resist hitting the shops, Primark and Tesco getting raided, I love some of the tops that I got so I will post some of them later, a cheeky kimono came top of the list. I also picked up disposable picnic bits which I thought would look really good with my car...yes I do basically buy half of the stuff I have because I think it'll look good with my car, it's a true story. Now for another short week...and probably more shopping...

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Easter Hair!

This is my first hair post, it's just going to be a mini one. I wear my hair in victory rolls and pin curls a lot, and they've always got comments and a bit of attention which is great when it's nice. 

We were at work talking about Easter and one of the lovely ladies I work with jokingly said I should turn them into little nests with little chicks for the Easter period, so I thought 'You know what? I will!' Step down Easter bonnets!

And that's exactly what I did, I used some decorations we got from Poundland that were actual little nests with speckled eggs in and I bought some cute pastel chicks from Tesco. The nests came with feathers in so I ripped those out (didn't want to look crazy, right?), I then secured the chicks with hair grips in the nests.

 I put my hair up in victory rolls but had them more flat so that they could be used to hold the nests, which I secured in place with more grips, lots of grips! I did a little Easter egg hunt for the guys at work so I had to have hair to match, and considering I always do crazy things with my hair I don't really think too many people thought much of it.

Has anyone else done anything similar?

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