LEMON CHEESECAKE

Before today I had never made cheesecake, I think it's because I don't usually have biscuits in my cupboard so it never happened, but I thought I would give it a go and ran to the shop to get some. At the moment I really love the taste of lemon and as my fridge is always full of them I thought what could be better than some lemon cheesecake!

 Serves 8

Takes around 3 to 4 hours to set

 
INGREDIENTS
100g unsalted butter
250g digestive biscuits
2 lemons zested and squeezed
4 sheets of gelatine
200g casting sugar
300g cream cheese
300ml double cream

 METHOD

 1. Place your biscuits in a plastic freezer or sandwich bag and hit it with your rolling pin, trust me if you are having a bad day this is such a stress release!! Stop when they are all crumbly sizes.

 2. Place your butter in a saucepan on the hob and melt, stir often. When melted pour over your biscuit crumbs and mix.

 3. Place the mixture in a cake tin that has a loose bottom so it is easy to remove, pressing down to your prefered thickness.

 4. Zest your lemon and juice it.

 5. Pour your lemon juice over your gelatine that is broken up and leave for 5 minutes to soak. Put over a saucepan of boiling water in a heatproof bowl and all to melt stirring constantly. When done leave to cool to room temperature.

 6. Beat together the lemon zest, cream cheese and casting sugar until all smooth.

 7. Stop when it looks like this.

 8. Whip your cream together to make soft peaks but don't make it to thick.

 9. Add the gelatine mixture to the cream cheese and mix together.

 10. Slowly add your cream to the cream cheese mix folding it together slowly so as not to loose volume.

 11. Place onto your biscuit base spreading it out equally, use a palette knife to make sure the top is flat. Place in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours to set. There you have it, a yummy lemon cheese cake!

 

12. As you can see from mine I added some chocolate decoration to the top. This can be done by melting chocolate and using a spoon or cocktail stick to spread into the shape you want on a sheet of baking paper. Stick in the fridge for a few minutes and the chocolate will harden and be easy to remove.

13. The kitchen this time was a mess! I had cream cheese everywhere, don't ask how but it took ages to clean up!