You may have seen my latest creation. A cheesecake in less than two minutes.
Looks simple, but making that happen takes a lot longer. The process begins with me racking my brains for a new recipe. I make a number of cheesecakes but wanted something special.
Baked or chilled? Difficult decision as they both have much to recommend them, but chilled won as it is quicker to prepare. I also think a baked cheesecake needs to cook with its tin sitting in a bain marie (roasting tin filled with boiling water) to keep the texture smooth and that was far too much faff to film.
Next came the flavour decision. My first attempt used caramelised biscuits - those little biscuits they give you in the hairdressers with your hot drink to distract you from focussing on how awful you look with wet hair under their bright lights. I used cookie butter - same brand - to use in the filling and added salt to make it like salted caramel. It was a runaway success with my family and i'll share it one day but, in my view, not good enough for broadcast.
Next up was a lemon and raspberry version. Boring.
Third time lucky was inspired by American key lime pie. Intensely zingy lime on a ginger crust and a thin layer of chocolate. One mouthful told me it was a winner. The lime flavour explodes in your mouth when combined with the chocolate, which is enhanced by the layer on the base.
That was the week before. The day before, I needed to prepare a cake so that we could go straight to filming it and not wait for it to set. With the one we made on the day I finished the day with two whole cheesecakes - not good for my already cookie butter-filled waistline, but everyone wants to be my friend!
The filming process take several hours. We do it in my kitchen. The camera team (Frank and Robert) come and set up their professional lights and stage the frame we film within. The lights are needed as natural light can change over a day's filming, which would make the shots inconsistent.
Whilst they fuss over their set, I make tea and coffee and serve ... cheesecake. (I have a stock of the bakes that didn't make the grade.)
My ingredients are all weighed up and ready to go and i've worked out, frame by frame, what we need to shoot.
Just before we're ready to kick off there's a ring on the doorbell. I'd agreed to talk about Shavuot to a lady who blogs about food. About the festival and Jewish attitudes to food generally. I thought it would be nice for her to see us filming. Anyway, it turns out that she's former GBBO finalist, Kimberley Wilson who blogs here. Not intimidating at all to be cooking for a superstar baker!
She was utterly charming though and really interested in our customs. Try to ignore Mr Fresser's '50' balloons photo bombing us.
When they were ready I just went through the steps. Frank then goes off to do clever stuff with film and computers, sends it to me, I give my comments. One more edit later, it's ready to share.
I love this cheesecake and still do despite eating it for several days now. The video makes me want to eat it all over again and I hope you enjoy it too.
Click here to watch it for yourself
