Clotted Cream Ice Cream - especially for Helen!!

I've been attempting Twitter these past few days to try and chat and meet like minded foodies, who love to discuss and share recipes, and it's becoming quite addictive...

I find myself logging on while I'm bored at work, eagerly awaiting new Tweets from other food bloggers, hoping that they have posted links to wonderful and delicious new recipes that I can try. So far, I've come across some great people who always have brilliant links, and are just as enthusiastic over food as I am...and to think they're all there at the click of a mouse!!

Anyway, the point is, I have promised to post a recipe for Helen, who writes Food Stories, and has a wonderful blog. She has an ice cream maker waiting to be used (lucky thing, mine is at my Dad's house, wasted in a cupboard!!), and asked for ideas for ice cream flavours.

Well, here is my absolute favourite. I was taught it when I worked in the pastry section at one of Michael Caines' restaurants, and it truly is the most beautiful ice cream I've ever tasted.

Clotted cream ice cream is the height of indulgence It's silky texture and creamy taste transport you to days of summer instantly, perfection with summer berries, or for a more warming dish in the autumn it marries wonderfully with warm apple tart, when it melts slightly and creates a mess of creamy appley vanilla-ey heaven!!

Clotted Cream Ice Cream

190g milk
100g sugar
3 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
200g clotted cream

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.
Bring the milk to the boil, then pour over the eggs while whisking.
Place the clotted cream in a blender.
Pour the mixture back in to the pan and place back on the heat.
Cook the miture out well - it will scramble, but don't worry!!
Pour the mixture into the blender over the clotted cream quickly, and blend while still hot until smooth.
Pass and churn.

And there you have my idea of the perfect ice cream!!

Moving Day

It's been a busy few days at the Colehill Kitchen, we've moved to a shiny new flat (luckily just a few doors down - which was a godsend!) and spent the weekend turning it into a home. It's a beautiful flat, but most importantly it has a lovely kitchen, perfect for cooking up a storm in!

It's taken a little getting used to, the oven, for example, has a mind of it's own. Completely different to the old oven, so far I have discovered that one side is hotter than the other, and that the temperature on the dial is nowhere near as hot as the temperature is in reality!! However, it's a challenge and so far it hasn't caused any disasters. In fact, my bread is actually better in this oven as the initial baking heat is higher, and the bread has a much more flavourful crust on it - delicious!!.

I decided that as we were all in need of a little relaxation and something soothing during the hectic weekend, I would bake scones for cream tea on Sunday afternoon. I love scones, especially with jam and clotted cream. They are so wonderfully British and elegant. You can't help but feel civilised when you have a dainty scone and little pots of jam and cream. I'm more of an 'eat each half separately' kind of person. If you sandwich them together with the jam and cream, as soon as you take a bite it all squirts out everywhere with ensuing chaos and the jam and cream has seemingly travelled an amazing distance, managing to cover your hands and clothes and your eating companions. Kind of takes away from the whole 'cream tea is so elegant' notion! With four of us eating, two girls and two boys, guess which two decided to sandwich their scones together and cause a mess?!?!?

So, I made the scone recipe from my River Cottage bread handbook,

Scones (makes 12 mini scones)

300g flour

75g butter (if it's unsalted add a good pinch of salt) plus extra for greasing

2 tsp baking powder

50g caster sugar

1 egg

120ml cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

a little milk

Sieve the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt (if needed) into a mixing bowl.

Add the butter at cool room temperature (not fridge cold but not soft either) and rub together until it resembles a breadcrumb texture.

If you prefer you can put it all in a food mixer and use the whisk attachment to combine.

Combine the cream, egg and vanilla essence, then add to the dry ingredients and bring together to form a rough dough.

Tip out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 seconds.

Roll out to about 1 1/2 centimetres (these make mini scones, you can increase the thickness and use a larger cutter to make bigger ones).

Cut out scones, don't twist the cutter though, try and push it straight down and straight up again, this will help the scones to rise up. It may help to dip your cutter in flour to prevent it sticking to the dough.

Place on a greased baking tray and cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the scones are turning golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes, then demolish when still warm with jam and cream and a cup of tea!!


Perfection on a Sunday afternoon!!!

Step-by-Step Breadmaking

I made bread again this weekend, it's becoming something of a Sunday afternoon tradition, it's so nice to have fresh home-made bread during the week. And while I was playing with ingredients and watching the dough develop from a sticky mess to something quite amazing, I thought it would be useful to take some pictures to put up here to give you a better guide to baking bread than my previous post. I've always felt that pictures are an invaluable addition to any recipe, as it gives a much clearer indication of what everything is supposed to look like!! I find this particularly useful when baking, because it's such a technical from of cooking, and if one step is wrong, it can spell disaster for your end result!


So here are some photos from my last batch of bread for you to browse through!



When you have combined all your ingredients, you will have a sticky dough. Place it on a large work surface to knead.
It will stick to the surface, but don't panic - this will actually help with the kneading process and do some of the work for you!! It will also become less sticky as you knead, so have patience and wash and flour your hands every few minutes to help.



When you are kneading, if you are right handed, place your left fingers into the nearest part of the dough, and push the rest of the dough with the knuckles of your right hand away from you as far as you can go (or vise versa if you are left handed!). Scrape the dough back towards you, turn 90 degrees clockwise and repeat. Knead for about 15 minutes.
This will get easier with time, and eventually you won't even think about it!!




Shape into a round, oil a bowl and the dough and place upside down in the bowl. Leave to ferment in the bowl with a black bag around it and tucked underneath the bowl (keep it loose though, the dough needs room to rise!!) for about 30 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.




Now is the stage called 'beating back'. However, as Daniel Stevens says in the River Cottage Handbook, this is far too violent a description, and that you have loved your bread up until this point, don't ruin it now! Most recipes suggest giving it a good punch, however a better and more gentle method is to prod it with your fingers until the air is pushed out and the dough rather flat.

Bring the edges into the middle to create a round again. You can leave the dough to rise another 2 or 3 times by repeating this process, which will make the dough softer and more pillowy, and result in an easier bread to digest, and I've found, a lighter bread.

Next you need to shape your loaves however you want. My favourite is this short loaf. To do this you need to press out all the air as before, then roll it tightly towards yourself, pressing on the seam to seal. Then flatten out lengthways so that it is three times as long. Fold in the left third, then the remaining right third on top of it. Press down again so that you have a fairly square shaped dough. Then roll tightly towards yourself again and press the join gently to seal. If you want to coat your loaves, now is the time. I love oats, but it's the same method for any coating. Roll your loaf in little milk or water all over, then transfer onto a plate or work surface covered with oats (or whatever yoy are coating your loaf in). Roll in the oats then transfer onto a board to prove for the last time before baking. Wrap loosely in a black bag and leave to prove until it has almost, but not quite, doubled in size, and the dough bounces back lightly when you give it a gentle squueze. I usually leave mine for about 30-40 minutes, but every dough is different, so follow your instincts.



Place a baking tray in your oven while it preheats to the top temperature, and one at the bottom of your oven, deep enough to hold some water. Boil the kettle. When your dough is ready, take the preheated tray out, place the loaves on it and if you want, make some slashes in the dough about a centimetre deep, then place the tray in the oven. Pour some water from the kettle into the bottom tray before closing the oven door. Bake at the top temperature of your oven for about 10 minutes, then if the bread is browning quickly turn to 170 degrees, if it's visibly browning turn to 180 degress, or if it's still quite pale turn to 190 degrees, and bake for a further 30-40 minutes. To check if they are done, tap the bottom with your knuckle, if they sound hollow, they are ready!!
Leave to cool for 20-30 minutes, then slice gently, apply lashings of butter, and devour!!

Chewy or Crunchy??

There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly home made cookies to welcome you when you walk through the front door. There is something so comforting, so soothing and so tempting about them, like the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders just for a few moments while you bite into the warm, chewy, chocolatey treat.

Cookies are universal comfort food that I don't think anyone would pass up...from cookies and milk before bed, to a delicious offering for visitors, to home made gifts or just a cup of tea and a cookie mid morning, or mid afternoon...or any time of the day really (let's be honest, when would you pass up on a homemade cookie?!). They make us feel better when we are down, they make us feel appreciated if someone has made the effort to bake for us, and they give us a little energy boost when we need it...it's the ideal remedy for that afternoon slump at work!! And they are so simple to make!!

They are also so versatile, I doubt you could find a person who doesn't have their favourite flavour, or indeed someone who claims not to like cookies at all!! They lend themselves so well to an array of flavours; there's chocolate of course, whichever chocolate you choose, oatmeal and raisin, apple and cinnamon, ginger, blueberry and almond, apple and sultana, or even just the humble butter cookie. The list is endless, and it's a vehicle that you can use to try out different combinations of ingredients.

Quite apart from the flavours added to the cookie, there is the question of texture. Are you a crunchy person or a squidgy person? Do you like them crispy on the outside and chewy inside, or do you prefer a harder, crunchier treat? Sugar and cooking time are the key when deciding this. More white sugar will make them crispier, and more brown will make them chewier, so a combination of these can create a cookie to your taste. But slightly more importantly in my opinion is the cooking time. Often we are tempted to leave them in the oven until they are completely golden as this is so aesthetically pleasing, however this will result in a very crispy crunchy cookie that although lovely, is not to my taste. For a softer cookie, you must be brave and take them out when they are only just browning around the edges, and are still soft to the touch. They may look uncooked, but they will continue to cook as they cool, and the result is a beautifully soft and chewy cookie.

So here is a recipe I tried out on the weekend, it's a combination of white and demerera sugar (although it probably would have benefited from some soft brown sugar for an even more chewy texture). Also, I say chocoalte chunks here as I have an aversion to the 'chocolate chips' you can buy in a bag...they taste suspiciously un-chocolatey, and if you're going to bake chocolate chip cookies, you should probably be able to taste the chocolate!!!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

280g caster sugar

170g demerera sugar

225g unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

450g plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder (this makes for quite an airy cookie, if you want a denser texture, reduce this amount)

3/4 tsp salt

as many chocolate chunks as you can squeeze in!!

Beat the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.

Add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add the flour mix to the wet mix gradually and combine until you have a fairly sturdy cookie dough...it does take some elbow grease!!

Add your chocoalte chunks, then make balls about 1 1/2 inches in size and place on a baking tray. Be sure to leave space between them as they will spread when they are cooking.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until they are just about browning around the edges, but still look a little undercooked, then be brave and take them out!!!!

Leave to cool, then eat eat eat!!!

These lasted quite well when wrapped in cling film, and were perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon!

Mmmmm...bread!

They say bread is the staff of life...so it must be important right? Well, it's important to me. Bread seems to have become my new obsession. I'm fascinated by it, every last detail - from the combining of ingredients, to the magic that happens when the dough is fermenting, to the unrivalled joy and satisfaction when you watch it rise even further in the oven and become a loaf that is a result of your own craftmanship...be it well crafted or not!! Perfection in baking bread is not necessarily what I aim for. Obviously the end result is far more satisfying if the soft inside is light and tasty, and your bread has risen and baked properly (without the dreaded flying crust, or a dense heavy bread), but I think bread tastes better if it looks a little...rustic, shall we say? There's so much more enjoyment in eating home made bread than mass-produced rubbish, and I quite like it when I can tell that it is the product of hands rather than machines. Those imperfections make it all the better for me!

I was given the River Cottage Handbook for Bread a few days ago, and between that and The Wolseley book (Yes!! I now own a real live copy of Mr. Gill's beautiful book!) I've pretty much disappeared into a black hole of food writing over the last week or so. It's fascinating to learn why ingredients do what they do when you mix them together, rather than blindly following a recipe and hoping for the best! The River Cottage Handbook in particular is a really detailed account, it goes into the minutiae of breadmaking, which inevitably leads to the reader's bread being all the better for it!

I have to admit, that although I have baked bread before, plenty of times, I've never known why each step in the process is important. I've never known what makes one loaf wildly different from another, or in fact, one loaf much better than another - so thank you Daniel Stevens for writing such a brilliant and informative book!! The book also has far more steps for making bread than your run-of-the-mill bread recipes from chefs who don't specialise in breadmaking, which make a world of difference, and I thoroughly recommend taking the time to incorporate them when you make bread (which I really really really hope you do, when you taste it you'll wonder why you never made home-made bread earlier, I promise!!).

I decided to start simple, a wholemeal dough enough for two loaves - one plain, and the other coated in oats. And my oh my, putting the extra effort in and taking those extra steps really did make this bread stand apart from loaves I've baked before. Daniel Stevens differentiates between fermenting, rising, and proving, which I had never come across before (most recipes just say 'prove') and recommends letting the dough rise for a further two or three times after the first fermentation, so that your dough becomes more pillowy with a satin-like feel to it, and this really did make for a much lighter and softer bread.

So here is the recipe and method, bear with me, it's rather long, but trust me, it's worth it!!

For two large loaves:

1kg flour

600-650ml tepid water

20g salt

10g yeast

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp runny honey

Mix the flour, water, salt, yeast and honey to a loose dough, then add the oil and squidge together. This will be quite sticky, but don't worry, it will become less so with kneading.

Knead for about 15 minutes until you can stretch it as thin as a pair of tights.

Oil a bowl and the top of the dough and leave to ferment in the bowl wrapped in a bin bag until it has doubled in size.

Take out the dough and press the air out gently with your fingers. You can leave to rise again another 2 or 3 times to make the dough softer and pillowy.

Press with your fingers again to push the air out.

Shape the loaves.

Coat in anything you fancy!!

Preheat your oven to maximum temperature and place your baking tray and a tray that will hold some water at the bottom of the oven.

Leave to prove until almost doubled in size and when you give the loaves a gentle squeeze they bounce back.

Slash the tops and spray with water.

Place on the baking tray and pour some some water from the kettle into the tray at the bottom of the oven then place the loaves in the oven on the top temperature for 10 minutes.

If the loaves have browned quickly, turn the oven down to 170 degrees and bake for a further 40 minutes. If they are a pale brown, turn the oven to 190 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

Tap the bottom of the loaves with your knuckles, if they sound hollow, they're done. For a harder crust, you can leave them in the oven a little longer.

After all that time and effort, I wanted a quick and easy dessert...which just so happened to involve more bread...I'm a woman obsessed!! Summer pudding is such an easy pudding, and really, it's not summer until you've made one! I hate to waste food, so this is a great pudding as it prefers slightly stale bread, and you can chuck in any summer fruits you happen to have.

Summer Pudding

600g mixed berries

100g caster sugar

100ml water

8-10 slices white bread

Line a bowl (this recipe makes enough for about an 800ml bowl) with cling film - have two sheets crossing each other so you have the cling film in a sort of X shape.

Put the berries, sugar and water in a pan, and cook for a few minutes until the fruit is tender.

Remove the fruit, and reserve all the juice.

Cut your bread into rectangles, and dip into the juice before lining the bowl with them.

Put the berries into the lined bowl and then fold over the bread to create a lid, or if your bread isn't long enough, just place more soaked slices on top.

Fold over the cling film sheets fairly tightly so that the pudding firms up in a good shape in the fridge.

Ideally leave it in the fridge overnight...but we're too impatient so a few hours in the fridge will do!!

Enjoy your summer in a bowl!!

A Pork Epiphany

I'm feeling very peaceful and relaxed now after a week of frantic organisation, diligent preparation and thorough enjoyment at the end of it all! So I've finally found time to sit down and write a post to update you on all the delicious food we've been indulging in! Unfortunately, due to being a bit of a whirling dirvish while cooking the pork, I completely forgot to take any photos, and was too interested in eating it when it was ready. So you'll have to trust me when I say how fabulous it was, and try it for yourselves! I did however remember to take some pictures of the cake, so enjoy!


It's been a flurry of birthday celebrations in the Colehill Kitchen this past week, and a birthday is not a good birthday without good food! I'm a firm believer in enjoying food as part of a celebration. I don't feel like it's been a real occasion unless the kitchen is brimming with ingredients and a medley of delicious smells has been emanating from it all day. This time there were aromas of chocolate (of course!!) and baking, as well as roasting pork, garlic and onions, balsamic vinegar and herbs galore!! It was quite a feast and began the week in true decadence!


Thanks to these birthday celebrations, I've had an epiphany about pork. I never thought I liked pork really. I always found it a little dull compared to other meats, and quite often dry and chewy, as well as finding crackling a complete and utter anti-climax.


How wrong I was.


We had the MOST beautiful pork loin from our local butcher (The Parson's Nose on Fulham Road if you're interested, which you really should be if you live nearby, their meat is phenomenal!). I asked for it boned and rolled, which the butcher did right there in front of me in a matter of minutes, quite an impressive sight, let me tell you! I hurried on home to cook it, and stuffed it with a rustic herby stuffing from Jamie Oliver's website (jamieoliver.com) which I tweaked a little. I don't often use his recipes, but this one was a real winner, beautiful tasting stuffing that complimented the pork perfectly. Obviously we had to have roast potatoes with it, and then some steamed brocolli for a bit of goodness!! And to finish, a chocolate mud cake with mascarpone cream. I know, restrained wasn't I?


I had a complete meltdown with the mudcake. I had arrived home from work after a nightmare-ish journey, and a frantic dash to the shop to get the ingredients, and was baking up a storm in a frazzled state, just finishing adding the chocolate mix to the rest of the mix, about ready to put it into the tins, when I happened to look around and see an unopened bag of caster sugar sitting next to me. Bugger. In my manic state, I had completely forgotten to add the sugar to the flour mix. What to do? Well, I decided to just add it to the melted chocolate and continue pouring this into the rest. The recipe said to put the sugar in with the dry ingredients, but the cake turned out so well, I'm sticking to my accidental method now!!

We've been indulging in delicious delights for quite a few days now - it's probably time to reign it in a bit... but before I do, let me share with you these recipes that I've been using during the celebrations!


Roast pork with herb stuffing

Pork loin, off the bone
500g rustic bread
small handful picked Rosemary
2 red onions, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
3 heaped tblsp fennel seeds
sea salt and black pepper
handful pinenuts
4 tblsp balsamic vinegar
generous drizzle of olive oil


Throw it all in a mixing bowl and toss so that the oil and vinegar cover everything, then stuff into the pork. This makes quite a lot of stuffing, but try and get as much under the pork as possible, trust me, you'll thank me when it's cooked!! Then score the skin thickly and rub with sea salt to make extra crispy crackling!


I had a 3.4 lb piece of pork, the general rule is 20 minutes per pound plus 20-30 minutes, but I cooked mine for about an hour and a quarter at 180 degrees and it was perfect. Then let it rest for 20 minutes so that it's really juicy and tender when you eat it.


Roast potatoes

Maris piper potatoes
Vegeatable/sunflower oil

Boil the potatoes until the outsides are soft, drain and put back in the pan.
Hold a lid over the top and shake the pan to bash up the outsides of the potatoes.
Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, heat some oil (about 1/2 inch deep) in a baking tray in the oven.
After it's been heating for about 5-10 minutes, carefully place the potatoes in the oil, and put back in the oven at 180-200 degrees for about 20 minutes, basting now and then, until nice and golden and crispy. If they aren't crisping up then turn the oven to full heat for the last five minutes and they will be lovely and crunchy when you take them out.


Chocolate mud cake

125g dark chocolate
125g milk chocolate
250g butter (if unsalted, add 1/2 tsp salt)
188ml water
500g caster sugar
160g plain flour
165g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 large eggs
40ml oil
125ml buttermilk (I couldn't find buttermilk but a substitute is to add 1 tblsp of lemon juice to 240ml whole milk, then use 125ml of this)
1 tsp vanilla extract


Put the chocolate, butter, sugar and water in a pan and warm gently until the chocolate and butter have melted. Stir occasionally to stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and bicarbonate of sodatogether.
Place eggs, oil, buttermilk and extract in a bowl and mix.
Add egg mix to flour mix, then add chocolate mix in 3 stages.


Split into two springorm tins and bake for 45-50 minutes at 170 degress, or until a skewer comes out clean.


Mascarpone Cream

250g mascarpone
130 ml double cream
90g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Beat the mascarpone, vanilla extract and sifted icing suagr together.
Whip the cream to a soft peak, and fold this into the mascarpone.
Slather onto the bottom sponge, place the other cake on top, then top with more mascarpone cream and dust with a little extra cocoa powder.

A healthy nutritious dessert!! ;-)

Pitta nachos and cupcakes

As I was in the baking mood over the weekend, I decided to try my hand at making pitta bread for some 'healthy (ish) nachos'. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see your pittas puff in the oven in matter of minutes!! I've never made pitta bread before and I found the recipe on http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ and it came out beautifully!!



Pitta Bread
260g white bread flour
130g wholewheat bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp honey
1 packet dried yeast
300-350ml tepid water
2 tblsp olive oil

Very similar to my previous post on white bread, the method goes like this:
Combine yeast, flour, salt, honey.
Make a well and stir in water and oil slowly, mixing with a fork until you are able to get your hands stuck in and then knead for 10-15 minutes.
Leave to prove in a floured bowl and covered with a warm damp cloth for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Beat back, and divide into 8 balls, then prove for a further 20-30 minutes.

Roll out into 1/2 cm thickness and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees on a hot baking tray.

The first couple I tried didn't puff up as impressively as I was hoping for, until I realised I wasn't rolling them thin enough. This seems to be the trick to puffing pitta bread!! The other important factor is that the baking tray you put them on be very hot too, I put mine in while the oven was preheating and then left it for another 5 or 10 minutes to really heat up.

When they had cooled a little I cut them into sixths, and then opened each trangle up and cut it in two, so each pitta produced 12 nachos. Then I put them on a baking tray, drizzled some olive oil on them and a couple of pinches of salt sprinkled over, then back in a hot oven for 3-5 minutes to crisp up a bit more.

I made them with some minced beef, yoghurt dressing and fresh vegetable salad for a mountain of yummy goodness!!

500g beef mince, fried with:
1 red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

For the dressing: yoghurt, feta, lemon juice, fresh mint and seasoning (all to taste).

And a salad of chopped cucumber, tomatoes and sugarsnap peas.

I could have eaten and eaten and eaten!! The freshness of the dressing complimented the fried beef well, with the sharpness of the lemon juice cutting through the fat from the meat.

I did eventually did stop eating though, because I had made some pretty exciting cupcakes for dessert. This is a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and these cupcakes, as the author says, really do pack a punch. They are a dark, dense chocolate sponge with cheesecake baked into them and cream cheese frosting on top. Indulgent you say?...maybe a little!!

The sponge is egg and butter-less, and uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate, so quite good for those who are non-dairy, however, the cheesecake obviously involves dairy (the clue is in the title I guess!) as does the frosting (which although extravagant, I think the cupcakes need, as the sponge is really not that sweet...and you know, who doesn't like a little extra frosting on their cupcake?!?!). I would say that the cheesecake mix is a little thin in this recipe, as it sort of baked around the cupcake rather than into it, and I suspect that if the mix was heavier and less liquid, it would fall into the cupcake rather than let the rising sponge push it up. Nevertheless, they were a delightful treat, a dense moist sponge with the creaminess of the cheesecake and frosting setting it off.

Blackbottom Cupcakes

Chocolate Sponge Base

190g plain flour

120g caster sugar

40g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

40ml sunflower oil

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar (I only had white wine vinegar but it seemed to do the trick!)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

125ml water (I needed a little extra splash)

Cheesecake filling

140g cream cheese

60g caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

100g milk chocolate chips

Cream cheese frosting

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter

125g cream cheese

For the sponge, put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and water in a jug and whisk to combine. Add gradually to the flour mix, whisking as you pour. I needed a splash more water to create a smooth mix.

Spoon into paper cases until two-thirds full.

For the cheesecake filling, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt until smooth and fluffy.

Fold in the chocolate chips. Don't overmix or the cream cheese may start to split.
Scoop about 1 tblsp of the mix on top of the sponge mix, and bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back and the cheesecake has a golden colour.

Don't overcook or the cheesecake will become crumbly.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.


For the frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together until well combined.

Then add the cream cheese and beat till smooth and fluffy.

When the cupcakes have cooled, spread a generous dollop of frosting on top and enjoy!!!