I have finally joined the modern technology age and am now the proud owner of an Ipad. I am not sure whether it is right to be in love with a machine but I am utterly besotted! Peapod - who usually runs I mile when I point a camera at her (unless she is asleep) was completely unphased by the ipad and I managed to snap this cute picture of her on my patchwork quilt. What a cutie! I have had a fun weekend trying out the voice recognition and amazingly I can dictate recipe methods with hardly any mistakes at all! I knew I would be able to justify the purchase somehow - the trick will be however how to avoid the ipad becoming covered in cake batter and other kitchen mess!! I managed to make another 8 cheesecakes this weekend - baked vanilla, mini blueberry cheesecakes baked in jars, brownie cheesecake, fresh fruit glazed cheesecakes, 2 banana cheesecakes (I really do not like banana so had to outsource the tasting of these two!), popcorn cheesecake and peppermint bark cheesecake (which looked very Christmassy and completely out of season). All passed the taste testing panel so only 19 recipes left to go now on the book!
I am in full swing of writing my new cheesecake book - 31 recipes done, 29 to go - I am over half way woo hoo! I am not sure however that I can eat much more cheesecake! Luckily my work colleagues and neighbours are doing an excellent job of being taste testers! At the weekend I made honeycomb cheesecake which was great fun as I got to make fresh honeycomb. Being impatient, I couldn't wait for it to cool down as I needed to put some in the cheesecake filling (coated in whipped egg white - a useful tip from Masterchef winner Mat Follas of the Wild Garlic) so I hung it over the kitchen door to cool. Strange I know but it honestly seemed like a good idea at the time. I imagine the passers by wondered what on earth I was doing! It did cool and very quickly and ended up being an amazing curl of honeycomb (see below). Obviously I won't be recommending this method in my book! Luckily with a few bashes of the rolling pin the curl was gone and I had lovely honeycomb ready to stir through the cheesecake. More cheesecake making this weekend - cheesecake Alaskas are on the menu!!!! Can't wait!