Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

This is a lovely summer dessert, that makes the most of ripe, succulent strawberries while they're at their best and the tangy ginger nut base works really well with the sweetness of the strawberries.

This can serve about 10-12 people and the whipped cream topping means you need no sides with it. You should make this in advance of serving; at least a few hours beforehand; but it would also be good to make the day before and chill in the fridge. 

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

Here's how:

• 680g cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
• 250g mascarpone
• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar
• 200g strawberries
• 1 packet of ginger nut biscuits
• 120g salted butter

For the topping:

• 300ml double cream
• Drop of vanilla extract
• Handful of strawberries to decorate

Firstly grease a 23cm springform tin and place the oven on to pre-heat at 160 degrees. 

Now make the base first by crumbling the biscuits. You can do this in a food processor or as I prefer, to pop into a sealed food bag and then I bash with the end of a rolling pin until the texture looks like sand. Then place into a bowl. 

Now melt the butter by popping into the microwave for a few seconds (or longer if you had the butter in the fridge) and pour into the biscuits and mix well. 

Now spoon the buttery biscuit mixture into the springform tin, use the back of a spoon to press down so it is evenly distributed as much as possible and neat, and then place into the fridge while you get everything else ready.

For the filling, firstly take the stalks off of the washed strawberries and place into a blender or Nutribullet and blitz to a puree and set aside. 

In a bowl place the cream cheese, mascarpone, yoghurt and icing sugar and mix well. Add the eggs in, one at a time, mixing really well each time until combined. 

Add the vanilla and again, mix well to evenly distribute, and then finally, add the pureed strawberries and gently swirl around. 

Now spoon over the biscuit base, and again use the back of a spoon to try to evenly distribute. Then place into the hot oven and cook for 50 minutes exactly. 

When you remove the cheesecake from the oven, it should still have a little wobble in the middle, if it still looks very wobbly all over, return to the oven for a little longer. 

Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for a while, and if you can, place into a fridge for a few hours to cool right down before decorating when ready to serve. 

For the topping simply whisk the cream with the vanilla extract either by hand, by electric whisk or use my hack of throwing into the Nutribullet and blitzing for just a few seconds which results in perfect, thick and fluffy whipped cream. 

Decorate with some chopped strawberries to your preference. Enjoy!

Here are a few other dessert recipes you might like:

Cheat's Chocolate Trifle
Rhubarb & Custard Cake
Triple Chocolate Cookie Brownies
Cinnamon & Honey Baked Nectarines
Bread and Butter Pudding
Cheat's Pavlova
Greek Yoghurt & Honey Baked Cheesecake with Berries
Apple & Blackberry Pie

Greek Yoghurt and Honey Baked Cheesecake with Berries

This is a lovely alternative baked cheesecake recipe that works as a beautiful centre-piece and is thick, creamy and delicious without feeling too heavy. 

Greek Yoghurt and Honey Baked Cheesecake with Berries

Here's how:

• 1 large pack Digestive biscuits - I used McVitie’s but any brand is fine
• 100g butter
• 500g Philadelphia (or other cream cheese)
• 200g Greek Natural Yoghurt (I use Total Greek)
• Seeds from an entire vanilla pod
• 1/2 tsp good quality vanilla extract
• 175g runny honey
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 75g caster sugar

To decorate:

• 1 tbsp runny honey
• Handful raspberries, blueberries and strawberries

Firstly grease a 20-23cm spring form cake tin and set aside. I lined with baking paper, which made for some unsightly creases in the final baked dish, so avoid doing this; instead be liberal with the butter here.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees and fill and boil the kettle.

Either place the digestives in a food processor or, if like me, you prefer a slightly bigger, less fine texture, place into a bowl then bash with the end of a rolling pin, or even a potato masher.

Place the butter into a ramekin and blast in the microwave for 30 seconds until melted. Stir then if not thoroughly melted, place back in for another ten seconds and repeat until done. Now pour into the biscuit mixture and use a spoon to combine and ensure all of the biscuit has taken in some of the butter.

Place into the base of the spring form tin and use the back of the spoon to spread evenly and press down firmly so it's tight to the base. Pop this into the fridge to firm up for twenty minutes.

For the cheesecake mixture, firstly crack the three eggs into a small bowl and gently beat with a fork. Set aside for the minute.

In a large mixing bowl, place the cream cheese, cornflour and sugar and mix well.

Add the eggs and yoghurt and then scrape in all of the seeds from the vanilla pod plus the vanilla extract. Stir well then add the honey and do the same again.

Once the filling is well combined, remove the base from the fridge and pour over the mixture. Try to evenly distribute as best you can.

Place the cake tin inside a larger ovenproof dish and then gently pour the warm water from the kettle into the gaps between the cake tin and the other dish till it reaches half way up the cake tin. You may prefer to pour some water in, then place the cake tin on top if you don't have a particularly steady hand.

Place into the oven for 35-40 minutes until the top has just begun to brown; the middle should still have a bit of a wobble too.

Remove from the oven and set to cool, inside the tin for at least an hour. Then release the spring form and place onto a plate or cake stand, as you wish. Allow to cool for another hour, or overnight in the fridge if you have the time before decorating.

Once ready to decorate the cake, firstly wash the berries and remove the ends of the strawberries. Now dry with a clean tea towel or some kitchen paper; remove all excess water as you don't want this sitting on top of your cheesecake.

Get a tablespoon of runny honey and drizzle it all over the top of the cheesecake, to act as a kind of glue to the fruit.

You can arrange the fruit in any order you wish on top. I did a uniform circle of raspberries in the centre, followed by a single row of blueberries and finished with an outer row of strawberries.

Leave to stand for twenty minutes to allow the honey to work its’ magic and keep the fruit in place and serve with a drizzle of double cream, vanilla ice cream or a dollop more of Greek yoghurt.

Prix Fixe

Good Food - Shame About the Service

I've fancied trying Prix Fixe for a while - my friend Lianne recommended it for the food and the excellent value and I've read several good reviews too. So yesterday afternoon after visiting the Museum of London with my family we were in Soho around 5ish, and in something close to a miracle we managed to sway my mum away from our regular haunts in Chinatown, and got ourselves a table in Prix Fixe.

As it was early - far too late for lunch, and a little too early for dinner, there was only a couple of occupied tables in the restaurant. This did not prevent the restaurant manager from looking around at all the empty tables, 'finding' us one and informing us we'd have to be done by 7pm in a very sharp manner. This put my back up immediately as it was unlikely we'd be more than two hours anyway, and I found it be unneccesary rudeness.

One thing that must be applauded in Prix Fixe is the fantastic value for money available on their set menu. For £11.90 you get two courses and can choose from 7 starters and 12 mains. There is a good selection however for somewhere pitted (on their website) as a 'Classic French Bistro' the menu is a little bit confused - with items such as Falafel and Hummus, Halloumi, Canneloni and Sausage and Mash on there - definitely not dishes I would cite as French - however I was willing to keep an open mind.

To start we all fancied the same dishes - so we had two Crab Croquette's which came with avocado mousse, pickled cucuber, cream cheese and a red chilli salsa. I thought this was a great plate of food - prettily presented and with all the accompaniments working well together. The croquettes themselves had a good helping of Crab in there and were seasoned well. I love avocado and pureed as it was it tasted great with a bite of the crab. The cream cheese was wrapped in a slither of the cucumber and had chopped dill - another great partner to the crab and the salsa was actually chopped pineapple with chilli - which gave the dish an added element - sweetness. I asked my brother and my Mum who had this dish to mark it out of five purely on taste - and they gave it a 5 and a 3 respectively.

My Dad and I both had their special of the day which was a Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Terrine with homemade chutney and wrapped in parma ham. This came served with two little toasted slices of ciabatta bread. This was a fantastic start to the meal - the leeks gave the chicken a gorgeous strong flavour and the chicken was incredibly moist and well seasoned. The chutney was tangy and went perfectly on a piece of the bread with the terrine. We gave 4 each for flavour.

For the main course my Dad and I again chose the same - the infamous Steak & Frites. I'd read excellent reviews of this and with a £7 supplement on the set menu I thought it would be rude not to try at such a low price in the West End. The steak 'entrecote' itself was cooked well, had a round of garlic butter on top, which melted slowly and gave a lovely flavour. The Frites were perfect, thin French Fries and a small side salad was dressed in a fresh citrussy oil. A great dish and enjoyed by both. But what actually elevated this dish for me was the accompanying sauce - a peppercorn and blue cheese affair which was fabulous slathered over the steak and also to dip the chips into. A four each for flavour again.

Daniel had the Roast Barbery Duck breast with dauphinoise potatoes, marinated red cabbage and a cherry and red wine jus - this had a £6 supplement on top of the set menu too. This was by far the dish of the day for us. The duck was pink and juicy and full of flavour, the dauphinoise were cooked beautifully and the accompanying red cabbage was a lovely pickled addition to the plate. The sauce was like the final link in a chain of beautiful food to make this dish near on perfect. Again a five was scored.

The worst dish of the day was my Mum's - the Roasted Cumberland Sausages and mash. The sausages were good actually - herby and flavourful, but the mashed potato was a complete disappointment. Aside from the fact it was lumpy and not as warm as you'd like - it was watery, flavourless and was left on the plate pretty much untouched.

There was hardly any of the caramelized red onion and sage gravy so my Dad tried to get the attention of the Restaurant Manager again, as he had been serving us throughout the meal, to request more. The far from charming man waved us away and shouted to one of his waiting staff to come and 'deal with table 5'. I thought it was disgusting behaviour - after all the old adage goes 'manners cost nothing' and it's true. Hillariously once the ordered, but polite waiter had taken our request - he returned with a sauce pot full of gravy - the equivalent of a large tablespoon!

I'm working in Soho at the moment and a couple of Friday's ago I had Sausage & Mash in the modestly priced The Garrick Arms and I can honestly say this pub grub was a whole lot better than the slop my Mum was served.

Despite the rudeness of the manager, as always, I found room for dessert after my steak and opted for the cheese selection. This is three small pieces of cheese with biscuits, a plum chutney and red and white grapes - for £5.95. I had a piece of Comte, a Sauvageon and the divine Fourme d'Ambert. The Comte was actually not the best I've tried - but I have to admit I've been spoilt for cheese recently with a visit to Bistro du Vin's Cave a Fromage so I didn't judge too badly. The Sauvageon was mild, creamy and lovely and popular around the table and the Fourme d'Ambert was exceptionally good - a blue cheese triumph.

My Dad was the only other person to order dessert and he went for the Madagascan Vanilla and lime Cheesecake which came with raspberry coulis. This looked very pretty, and I'm told it was an excellent dessert too - with a strong vanilla flavour and a buttery biscuit base - exactly what you want from a cheesecake.

With only a minor complaint towards the food (mash-gate) I left with the opinion that the quality of food against the value for money was really very good. We paid £113 including service charge for four of us and this included a bottle of Chardonnay, a large glass of Merlot and a couple of Peronis too. The waiters were pleasant enough towards the end of our meal - but unfortunately the head waiter left more than a bad taste in our mouths and I doubt any of us would return again soon, despite all enjoying most of our food. Such a shame.

I can only assume that a restaurant in the constantly lively West End, which is constantly busy due to decent and well priced food, has given the manager of Prix Fixe an air of over-complacency. He clearly doesn't feel the need to employ even basic manners. We left at 6:40 and while it was busier than when we'd arrived - the majority of the tables were still empty. If you can bear the rudeness then do try but for heavens sake - don't choose the Sausage and Mash.