Spiced chocolate cheesecake with Christmas cake crust & Festive Decor ideas

Christmas decorations in our family home have always been the responsibility of my sister and I - as children we would decorate and redecorate the Christmas tree no less than 3 times before the 25 December, which not surprisingly drove our mother nuts! It was a happy coincidence then when my sister, Sarah-Jane and I were asked to team up and put together a very special feature for Food and Home magazine last month; 'A Guide to the Perfect Stress-Free Christmas' which ironically, was a not-so-stress-free experience creating it! But we did have tons of fun and hopefully, if you're feeling a tad stressed out about hosting Christmas lunch or dinner, it may give you an idea or two. 

A showstopper succulent wreath, rosemary napkin rings and hand-painted napkins for guests to take home as momento's.

I thought I'd share some of the great ideas my sister-dearest came up with (especially for an African-inspired Christmas), my favourite being the gorgeous succulent wreath she created as a centrepiece. Oh, and the paper origami! 

The perfect roast potatoes,  French-roast turkey and beautiful origami star string lights

The menu was all about tradition with a twist, my grandmother's French-roast turkey was the highlight - steam-roasted so it's juicy and falls off the bone - and stuffed with sage and dried pear bulgar wheat stuffing. This year, serve your turkey on a bed of fresh bay leaves, rosemary and sage - it looks so ridiculously royal and fancy with so little fuss! 

Three pea salad with mint dressing, Naartjie (citrus) and ginger beer gammon and Lemon-cured trout with herby mayo

My favourite recipe on the menu though, was this gorgeously rich and velvety spiced chocolate cheesecake which I really like not just for the decadence but because it's something a little different but still nods to tradition with the addition of a Christmas cake crust. Great for using up any leftover Christmas cake you have hanging around! 

Spiced chocolate cheesecake with Christmas cake crust

Spiced chocolate cheesecake with Christmas cake crust

Recipe originally created for F&HE Magazine December 2014 issue

Serves 12 

100g ginger biscuits, crushed

100g Christmas cake, crumbled into pieces

50g butter, melted

200g full-fat cream cheese

400g ricotta cheese

75g castor sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

40g cocoa powder

30ml (2 tbsp) brandy (optional)

5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

100g good-quality dark chocolate, melted

200g dark chocolate, melted, to decorate (optional)

cocoa powder, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 22cm springform cake tin.

In a food processor, blitz the crushed biscuits, Christmas cake and butter until combined then press into the base of the lined tin.

Place the cream cheese, ricotta and sugar into food processor and process until smooth.

Add the eggs, cocoa powder, brandy, if desired, cinnamon and the cooled melted chocolate and mix to combine. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and bake in the oven until just set, 25 – 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow to cool in the tin. Once completely cool, refrigerate overnight.

To serve, unmould the cheesecake onto a cake stand and allow the cake to come back to room temperature before decorating with melted dark chocolate and dusting with cocoa.

Roast vegetable crumble and origami Christmas trees

Easter Entertaining - Easter table setting and Easter food ideas

A friend of mine, who just happens to be the most fabulous fashionista in the country, last week dubbed me 'The Coco Chanel of cooking'. What a scary (but extremely flattering) title! But if I'm the 'Coco Chanel of Cooking' then my colleague Matanna is definitely Martha Stewart. Matanna, is probably the only person on this planet that understands the joy that bunting, pastel colours, bunnies and bows bring to my life. She just gets me. We teamed up for an Easter Entertaining shoot recently which was shot for Expresso Breakfast Show (where we both work - and play!) and I just had to share what we came up with.

Heard the saying 'location, location, location!'? Well, in television, this is the golden rule of anything looking beautiful on screen. And for gorgeous decor and food to look good, it has to be surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Ours was the Cellars-Hohenort hotel in leafy Constantia, Cape Town. Their gardens are absolutely magnificent and we both felt like we'd gone 'down the rabbit hole' into a wonderland.  

Pastels, florals prints, lace and bunting set the scene with bunnies (chocolate and fluffy ones) and eggs (again, chocolate and the real kind) adorning the table. It was all about the attention to detail. What I loved most about Matanna's decor, is that all of it can be recreated at home. For the table she used scraps of fabric and lace and simply draped them over each other. The cups and paper plates were painted in pastels - the plates topped with paper doilies so our little guests could eat off them. 

Photography and food styling by Katelyn Williams
 Decor styling by Matanna Katz

Speaking of eating, there was no shortage of treats. The whole idea of Easter for me is spending time with family and the last thing I want to be doing, is slaving away in the kitchen so I opted for a fuss-free spread. 

Marshmallows or sweets piled into glass jars are pretty and great for little hands to snack on. My favourites, were probably these cute 'carrots' made by dipping strawberries into orange-tinted white chocolate. How adorable?!

The Hot Cross Bun macarons I prepared in my post here were piled onto a pretty cake stand alongside the real buns that inspired them.

 For something on the savoury side, I made dainty tea sandwiches and simply used bunny cookie cutters to cut out cute shapes. So simple but so pretty.

And of course, a few pastel-coloured cupcakes to go with the colour scheme. After all, Julia Child once said, 'a party without cake is just a meeting'. Too true.

 Ending off on a sweet note, a VERY sweet one, I set up a mini 'Easter Sundae' bar. Easter Sundae - get it? Okay, I'll stop. Cute buckets held an array of toppings: caramel fudge sauce, sweet croutons made from Oats 'n honey loaf, caramel popcorn and speckled mini Easter eggs were all layed out to adorn vanilla ice cream. The kids will love this! 

A beautiful and easy-to-do spread. Accompany this with an Easter egg hunt in the garden and there is no way you can go wrong. Happy Easter everyone! 

VIEW THE INSERT AIRED ON EXPRESSO BREAKFAST SHOW SABC3 HERE:

Sweet as honeycomb

Your dentist may despise it and your dietician loathe it, but honeycomb is a childish delight all the more delicious for it’s reputation. Also known as hokey pokey, cinder toffee or puff candy, the crunchy moreish shards make the perfect dinner party gift as no one can resist its old-fashioned charm.

Photographs by Angie Lazaro Photography

Homemade honeycomb

Makes 20 pieces

300g castor sugar

150g golden syrup

pinch cream of tartar

1t white wine vinegar

1 ½ t bicarbonate of soda

Place the sugar, syrup, cream of tartar and vinegar into a saucepan. Add 5T water and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Bring mixture to the boil.

Cook until the syrup turns amber-coloured and reaches hard-crack stage or 150°C on a sugar thermometer*. Remove the pan from the heat.

Working quickly, add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk to combine. The mixture will foam up. Pour into the prepared tin and leave to cool. Turn honeycomb out and break into chunks. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

TIP: be sure to use fresh bicarbonate of soda and don’t overmix the toffee once it’s added

Entertaining tip: dip shards of the honeycomb into white and dark chocolate, pile into a beautifully wrapped box and present it to guests to take home or as a hostess gift. 

*DON'T HAVE A THERMOMETER?

Boil a sugar syrup to the right stage

The best utensil for testing sugar syrup is a sugar thermometer but if you don’t have one, you can test it by dropping a small quantity into cold water and feeling the consistency:

Soft ball stage: 116 - 125°C – the syrup will form a soft, flat ball.

Hard ball stage: 126 - 135°C When a little syrup is dropped into ice water the ball that forms does not collapse as it is harder.

Hard crack stage: 146 - 155°C The ball forms is flattened between the fingers but is hard, brittle, breaks easily and not sticky.