Lemon Curd Swirl Cake

I made this cake for a picnic I went on yesterday; it was easy to make and travelled fairly well too. I based it partly on a recipe from Weightwatchers magazine but doubled the quantity and used different frosting.

To serve 8-10, you need:

225g butter or reduced fat margarine

150g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

150g cream cheese

3 tbsp lemon curd

Preheat oven to 175C fan. Grease a loaf tin with cake release - or two tins if you have them. (You can either make two cakes and sandwich them together, or one big cake and slice it in half).

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the eggs and beat, then fold in the flour and the lemon zest.

 Spoon half the mixture into a loaf tin and repeat, or if you prefer, put all the mixture into one tin.

I baked my cake for 25 minutes then did the same again with the other half of the cake mixture. If you are making one cake with the whole mixture it will take longer to cook.

The recipe I used instructed me to mix 150g of 0% Greek yogurt with 1 tsp icing sugar to make the filling. It may have been because I was using Tesco Light Greek Yogurt but my mixture was extremely thin and runny and I didn't think I would be able to use it to fill the cake. Instead I made some cream cheese frosting using Philadelphia and icing sugar with a few drops of lemon juice.

I levelled off the top of the cake as it had risen a little too much.

Spread the cream cheese frosting on one half of the cake. I then warmed a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd in the microwave until it was runny, and swirled it through the cream cheese.

I then sandwiched the cakes together and used some of the same frosting and lemon curd on top, though I spread it in quite a thin layer as I was going to wrap the whole cake in tin foil to take to the picnic - I had quite a long way to go by public transport and on foot and had a lot to carry, so I decided this was the easiest way to transport the cake!

I'm sending this to Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel of DollyBakes and Laura of Laura Loves Cakes, as their theme this month is "pump up the jam" and they have asked for bakes using jam and curds. As I used lemon curd for the filling I am sending them this cake.

Philadelphia Sausage, Bacon and Potato Bake

I was looking for a simple recipe that my boyfriend would like that would also give me leftovers to reheat after a choir rehearsal, so I had in mind some sort of one-pot bake. I came across this recipe on the Philadelphia cheese website, for a Philly sausage, bacon and potato bake. It was really good!

To serve three or four if you are having a side dish of vegetables with it, you need:

6 sausages

4 rashers bacon, cut into pieces

1 onion, diced

500g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

200g Philadelphia Light with Spring Onion and Black Pepper

120ml chicken stock

30g grated cheddar

Chop the sausages and bacon and fry with the diced onion until the meat is browned and the onions translucent.

Meanwhile boil the potato slices in salted water for about 8-10 minutes; it will depend how thick you have sliced them as you want them to be tender but not so soft they fall apart.

I decided to use a mixture of Philly and fat-free Quark as I had an open pot I needed to use up.

Melt the cheese in a saucepan with the stock but do not bring to the boil.

Spoon the sausage, onion and bacon mixture into a casserole or pie dish, pour over the sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for about 25 minutes at 190C until the cheese is golden and serve with a green veg or salad.

Chocolate no-bake cheesecake

When I made a peach cheesecake recently I wanted to make a chocolate version for my boyfriend as he doesn't eat peaches. I came across a recipe on the Kraft Philadelphia website for a no-bake chocolate cheesecake using chocolate Philadelphia, and then when I went to the supermarket the next day chocolate Philly was half price.... so I think somebody was telling me to make this recipe!
You need:
about 140g biscuits eg digestive, crushed
30g low fat spread, melted
400g Cadbury's chocolate Philadelphia
250ml creme fraiche
8g powdered gelatine (about three quarters of a sachet) dissolved in 60 ml hot water

At least, those are the ingredients from the recipe, I did end up adapting them slightly to use up what I already had in the house.

First I used my food processor to turn the biscuits into crumbs:

Mix with the melted butter and press into the bottom of a tin. I lined it with greaseproof paper which turned out to be a good move in the end.

Whisk Philadelphia and creme fraiche. I actually used fat-free fromage frais as I had some to use up, and I decided it would be similar enough - but it ended up a little runny and I wonder if this was the problem.

Dissolve the gelatine according to the instructions on the pack. The recipe said to use powdered gelatine but I had sheets; I worked out how much I thought I would need according to the quantities on the packet but as the final dish was a bit too runny, I'm wondering if I didn't use enough. Maybe it was a combination of using fromage frais instead of creme fraiche and not using enough gelatine - next time I'll follow the recipe properly!

Mix the gelatine in with the chocolate mixture, pour over the cheesecake base and leave to set

A bit on the runny side - you had to eat it with a spoon rather than a fork - but otherwise it was pretty good, and very simple to make!

As there was no baking required, I am sending this in to Maison Cupcake's Zero Baking Required Challenge, a new event which she started this month.

Secondly I am sending this to Culinary Vibes' Cook Eat Delicious Desserts blog challenge, as this month's theme is chocolate.
 

Finally I am sending this to Frugal Food Fridays hosted by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours as it ticks several boxes - the ingredients are cheap, even more so as the main ingredient was half price, and no baking means not paying for the electricity for the oven!