It has been a long time since I have made a baked cheesecake as I often opt for the simple no bake style. I decided that with all the baking I am doing at the moment it would be good to do a lower fat version and so used reduced fat digestives along with low fat cheese and quark.

You will need:



11 reduced fat digestive biscuits
50g butter
250 light soft cheese
500g Quark
3 eggs
4 tbsp plain flour
Juice of 1 lemon
10 raspberries
150g caster sugar

To decorate: melted white chocolate, raspberries and lemon slices.

Start by making the biscuit base. Rub butter around a 23cm springform tin. Crush the digestives, add the melted butter and push into the base of the tin. Put this in the fridge to cool whilst you make the cheesecake filling.

Combine the soft cheese, quark, caster sugar, lemon juice and eggs. Stir in the raspberries.
Smooth this mixture over the digestive base. Cook at 180C for around 40mins. Allow to cool.

Add the remaining raspberries as decoration using melted white chocolate to stick them in place.

As part of our anniversary weekend away, I asked my husband if we could go out for a nice meal. As we were going to The 99 Club in the evening we opted for the lunch menu at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

When I saw that this weeks bake off theme was bread, I was quite pleased as I really love Strombolli and thought I could make variation of that. Then I read that they were no yeast quick breads. After a quick google for ideas I decided to make a no yeast focaccia.

You will need:


1 cup water
2 cups of strong white flour
2tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese grated (and a little extra to sprinkle on top)
2 sprigs of rosemary taken off the stalks.
3 large sundried tomatoes chopped.

Put the oven on at 220C to heat up.
Spray a square pan with olive oil.
Mix all the ingredients together and place in the tin.



Cook for around 20 minutes. Take out and sprinkle a little more Parmesan on top and cook for a further 5 mins.

Allow to cool slightly before eating.



You can find more blogger's bread recipes here.

I was in my element at BritMums as there was a fantastic craft room thanks to Lady Sew and Sew and Make It Coats. I was even happier when I was invited to be an ambassador. I love crafting but use the excuse of not having time. I thought this was a great excuse to make time.

I decided it was probably best to start with a simple project and opted for a cowl. Luckily there are you tube videos and tutorials galore to help you learn to knit.

For this pattern I was sent 3 balls of the Rowan Big Wool Silk and some size 10 needles. You can download this pattern for free by registering and there are 3 different patterns to choose from.



I chose to make the stocking stitch cowl. The pattern was simple.

Cast on 26 stitches
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl 2, Knit 22, Purl 2
Repeat until desired length, cast off and sew together. (You will need a large needle for this part.)


I was surprised at how addictive I found it and actually felt I could have done something more complex. With the weather at the moment I fear that I will be wearing this much sooner than I had originally hoped! If you are interested in this or other craft projects then you can find your nearest stockist here. Do you knit? Have you any suggestions for my next project?

This Easter we had a lovely holiday in North Devon. Whilst I love going abroad for the weather, there is nothing better than exploring our own country and all it has to offer. Parkdean currently have a competition running to win a break at one of their sites in Cornwall or Devon. I have had a go myself but really need to scrub up on some of the local views. If you are lucky however, you might like to know what is in store for you if you choose to visit North Devon.

1. Make the most of Devon with the National Trust. If you are off to North Devon, it may well pay to get a National Trust Membership. There are a number of beach car parks which are free if you have membership. We also visited Knighthayes and Arlington Court.



2. There are a number of attractions to choose from. I have friends who have recommended The Milky Way theme park and the Quince Honey Farm. We went to The Big Sheep which is well equipped to entertain you even if the weather isn't its best. There are talks about the animals, rides and a soft play area.


3.Enjoy the beautiful beaches. The weather wasn't the best when we visited Devon, but that didn't stop us from visiting the beaches. The boys loves climbing the sand dunes. Lynmouth had some fantastic rock pools filled with anemones.Whilst we visited Sandymouh when the tide was in and there wasn't a great deal of sand, it was beautiful and kept the boys entertained.


4. Lynton and Lynmouth are joined by a cliff railway. When we visited it was actually celebrating 150 year anniversary and had a visit from Princess Anne. There are lots of little shops to look around and big man was excited to buy clotted cream fudge.



5. You can't go to Devon or Cornwall without having a cream tea. I have to confess I probably ate mine in Devon all wrong. Apparently it's cream first and then jam.


Have you been to North Devon? Where would you recommend?

Last week saw my husband and I celebrating 10 years of marriage. Our wedding cake was an amazing 3 tier white chocolate covered sponge cake with chocolate dipped strawberries on top.


I therefore wanted to make a white chocolate and strawberry cake to celebrate our anniversary. I decided to put my spin on it too.


For the cake:
4oz butter
4oz self raising flour
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs

For the buttercream:
50g white chocolate
75g butter
150g icing sugar

For the cream cheese centre
100ml whipping cream
100g soft cheese
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
1 dessert spoon of grenadine
chopped strawberries

Strawberries
75g of white chocolate
Plus a small amount of grated white chocolate.

I chose to make a 13cm diameter cake. This is quite small but as I was using fresh cream, I felt this was a better size as we would be able to eat it all.

I started by making the 2 layers of sponge cake by mixing the flour, sugar and eggs with melted butter. I cooked these until a skewer came out clean. (Approx 20 mins at 18-C)

I chose the best and biggest strawberries from my punnet and used these to dip in melted white chocolate. I put them on grease proof paper to set.


I then made the filling by whipping the cream and adding the soft cheese, icing sugar and grenadine.
I place this on one sponge, added the strawberries and some more filling. I had made slightly more than required but my boys happily gobbled this up!


Next I made the white chocolate buttercream by adding the melted chocolate to the creamed icing sugar and butter. I started by putting this around the sides of the cake and adding the white chocolate fingers around the cake. I then added the remaining buttercream to the top.


I grated a small amount of white chocolate and put this around the sides of the top and added the dipped strawberries. I then tied red ribbon around the cake.



The boys loved the dipped strawberries and now have an idea of what our wedding cake was like. What kind of wedding cake did you have?

Linked to August Cake Club Challenge

A couple of weekends ago we visited Cliveden National Trust for the afternoon. I had not appreciated how big it was and we could have easily spent longer there, and I would like to go back.

The children's playground is great as it is shaded by trees. It has a theme of fairytales, with carvings of Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Winnie the Pooh.


There is also a maze. I am rubbish with mazes but we eventually found our way to the centre and back out again.

There are stepping stones to cross water and you could see fish in the ponds.


Climbing Trees and walking across logs is always on the agenda!



The grounds were stunning and as I said there is still more for us to explore.



Which is your favourite National Trust?