Banoffee Cheesecake with a Cornflake Base

It all started with a basket of fruit that we were sent at work. By the end of the week, there were a couple of bananas left that were going really soft. I was the last person in the office on the Friday (sigh) so thought I may as well take them home as they would only be thrown away otherwise - even though I don't like bananas! A few of my boyfriend's family were coming to our house at the weekend for an informal barbecue and I wanted to make dessert; I knew they liked bananas even though I didn't so I thought this would be a good way to use them up. Though I don't think the person who sent the healthy fruit basket necessarily expected the fruit to end up in a sugary dessert - we did eat the rest of the fruit whole!

I remembered that I had bought some cornflakes at Easter to make chocolate cornflake cakes and it had been a massive box. I'm not a big fan of cereal anyway and find cornflakes very plain so most of the box was left. I wondered idly whether you could use cornflakes as a base for cheesecake rather than crushed biscuits - and it turns out you can!

I used this recipe from RTE Food but I had to almost double the amount of cornflakes as it wasn't anywhere near enough to cover the base of the glass-bottomed pie dish I was using.

To serve 8, you need:
2 bananas
100g chocolate, melted
300g cornflakes
100g caster sugar
100g butter
100ml double cream
400g soft cheese
50g icing sugar
dash of vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate and mix with the cornflakes in a large bowl. Press down the cornflakes into the base of the serving dish and place in the fridge for half an hour to set.

 Heat the butter and sugar in a pan until the sugar has dissolved and carefully place the peeled bananas sliced in half into the pan. Bring to the boil and turn the bananas occasionally until they are caramelised.

Remove the bananas to a plate with a slotted spoon. Keep the caramel over the lowest heat until you are ready to use it otherwise it will start to set hard.

Mix the soft cheese, cream and vanilla and icing sugar and spoon onto the cornflake base.

Slice the banana and place over the top of the cheesecake then drizzle over the toffee sauce.

This was a delicious cheesecake (though I took the banana pieces off mine!) but it doesn't keep long - the cornflake base started to go soggy after the second day. It won't be sitting in our fridge for long I expect anyway!

 

I'm sharing this with Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Camilla at Fab Food 4 All, and Helen of Fuss Free Flavours, as it uses up leftovers.

 

 

Chocolate Birds' Nests with Mini Eggs

These 'bird's nests' are really easy to make - something you can throw together in a few minutes or have fun making with children - and taste delicious! I don't think I've made cornflake cakes since I was a child and now I'm wondering why not! The addition of Cadbury's mini eggs make these great for an Easter treat.

I made about 12-15 of these (I can't remember exactly, as we may have eaten a few already!) by using the smaller cupcake cases rather than muffin cases. I used about one and a half of the 90g packets of mini eggs. You can use milk or plain chocolate but I prefer milk.

You need:
225g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tbsp. golden syrup
50g butter
75g cornflakes
about 150g mini chocolate eggs

Place cupcake cases into a muffin tray. Melt the chocolate with the golden syrup and butter either in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave.

 

Stir until smooth and then carefully fold in the cornflakes.

 

 

 

Spoon straight away into the paper cases and decorate each nest with mini chocolate eggs, and place in the fridge for about an hour or until set. These keep fine in an airtight container for a few days.

 

 

 

 I’m sharing these with We Should Cocoa, hosted by Choclette at Tin and Thyme, as the theme this month is no-bake chocolate treats.

 

 

I am also sending this to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and on alternate months Janie at The Hedgecombers, as their theme is chocolate.