Mini-Cheesecakes

Baked the London Cheesecake yesterday and Young Master asked if that was for us...well, no. He, being a big cheesecake fan was obviously disappointed. Though I had extra cream cheese and sour cream (which I usually would prefer not to keep too long once opened) and the spring- form pan was being used, I kind of mumbled something along the lines of "I'll think of something" to him. Well, a couple of pages forward and there we have it! Mini-cheesecakes for school fetes. I didn't want to use the recommended mini muffin pan, those are just too small for my big fingers to press the crumbs down. I had some mini quiche tins and used 12 of them instead. Followed a single recipe for the base but doubled the filling. With that, I got a 50/50 ratio of base and cheese...much to our delight. We love thick crusts. These are very convenient, in fact, too convenient....... TO EAT!!!

Chocolate-Marsala Cake

This is a near-flourless cake with only 5ogms of flour used and it's actually a very light cake. Very aerated from whisking the eggs till tripled its volume and I used bitter chocolate instead of dark for this cake. I didn't know what to expect from this cake but was pleasantly suprised that it was very good with a cup of tea. The cake tastes kinda moussey. Nice. I was glad I didn't make the chocolate marsala ganache for it because (1) I didn't quite like the smell of this liquour (which I did pour 3 tablespoons over the hot cake as instructed) and (2) love the crusty top. I'd make this again but without pouring the marsala on it and fold in the flour better - was too lazy to switch to a larger bowl, hence a couple of flour lumps which "irritated" the little folks in the house.

Store-Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake

If you like the Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, you'll like this. I remember baking this 9 years ago for Young Master's playgroup when it was my turn to bring snacks for the children and mums. The cake was polished off its plate within minutes! I had since then renamed this cake to Dark Chocolate Orange cake/cupcake because I use 70-75% dark chocolates and premium marmalade (both not very "store-cupboard" then, though they are now staples in my larder). I once used Seville orange marmalade and it was even better. It pretty much stuck as being THE cake to bring whenever it was my turn. When the children outgrew playgroups, I stopped baking this cake. Don't know why but I'm very happy to have revisited this. I had an order for "something different" and I made these for the client. It's moist, wholesome and decadent. Even if you're not a fan of marmalade (like me), you'll still enjoy this cake because it tastes nothing like marmalade on bread. It's just Dark Chocolate Orange Cake.