Strawberry and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar

Strawberries are so plentiful and cheap around here at the moment and everyone has those buy 3 punnets for $5 deals so our fridge is full of them.

That is not a complaint.

I love fruit. Mostly we just wash and eat it fresh here.

Seriously I did not fish around to find these strawberries, they were the top 2 in the punnet.

But I couldn't resist making up these strawberry and cream cheesecakes in a jar. The great thing about making cheesecakes in a jar, apart from y'know obviously they look lovely, is that you can spoon on heaps of strawberries and puree some up as sauce and it stays put as you scoop around eating.

If it doesn't happen to be strawberry season for you at the moment - just pop any fresh fruit in the top and it will be just as awesomely delicious.

I have used recycled jam jars, which actually took me a while to collect up, but you can use whatever you may have sitting around. In the past I found drinking glasses or even clean unused glass tea light holders from Ikea work.

Oh and if your a bit of a fan of upcycling and recycling you should check out the latest edition of 'Tickle the Imagination' online magazine.

I have a super yummy recipe for Blueberry jarcakes with cream cheese frosting in the lasted edition.

......hmmmm that styling looks familiar. Nope I didn't do it the same day (I don't have that many jars), although it was about a week apart. I needed to use the jars quick as my friend was collecting used jars to use at a party as drink glasses. Yup another fab recycling idea right there.

This photo is really Bubble and (a) Sweet

Now if only I could come up with an idea for recyling all those plastic fruit punnets I would be set.

and YAY for Bubble and Sweet, we were featured as one of Parenting.com's fav Halloween pintrest ideas for my Double Trouble Witch Brew Cauldron Cake pops. Thanks Parenting.com you can check out all their other creepily delicious favorites HERE.

anyway shameless self promotion over.....back to the cheesecakes.

Strawberries and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar makes 6
You will need 6 clean 250ml jam jars or similar. If you do not have jars available you can use cupcake papers and bake in a muffin tray. Imperial conversion is approximate.

500g (17oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 250g (8 1/2 oz) punnet strawberries
Extra whipped cream for serving

Preheat oven to 140 C (280 F).

Beat the cream cheese and sugar using a mixer at medium speed until smooth and lump free, add the cream and mix until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined.

Spoon mixture into jars, place on a tray and pop in the oven.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature and the pop into the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.

Just prior to serving puree about half the strawberries. Chop the remaining strawberries into small pieces. Evenly divide the strawberries and puree between the jars. Top with some whipped cream, decorate with sprinkles if desired and serve with a spoon.

Lollipop Macarons

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love *......these sprinkly swirly macarons.

OK we all know macarons are perfect just the way they are, and in fact I am always in humour to give them consequence....or you know just eat lots of them :)

If I was a Mr Darcy kinda person I would just leave them be.

 
But y'all know I can't do it, I had to go put a stick in it, add some sprinkles. and make some 'Lollipop' swirl macarons. Cause that's what I do :)

And if you like you can too. I made the macarons up myself from scratch but I think that you could easily buy some already made macarons and follow the instructions below. To get shop bought macarons on a stick you just need to bring them to room temperature make a hole in the ganache filling with your paper lollipop sticks and then secure the stick into the macaron with a little melted chocolate. You know, just like you would do for a cake pop.

* Those couple of lines above were plagiarized and quite badly reworded by me from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin, as if you didn't already know that :)

Lollipop Macarons recipe and instructions
I used Wilton pink and Wilton Violet for the macarons in the picture

Macarons with ganache (CLICK HERE for my recipe)#
lollipop sticks
50g white chocolate
sprinkles
shallow bowl

#When making the macarons lay a lollipop stick on top of the ganache before pressing the second macaron biscuit on top. Place in airtight containers and pop in the fridge for a day to allow the macaron to develop it's soft center.

 
Lay the macarons down on a tray lined with parchment paper.

Melt the white chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl on medium low heat until smooth and all lumps have melted. If you like you can around 5g of copha while melting (or paramount crystals) to make the chocolate more fluid.

Place the melted white chocolate in the corner of a ziplock bag. Cut off the tiniest hole, just the very tip of the bag. Practice piping a swirl on some spare parchment paper starting in the middle and working around in a circular motion. Once you are happy with your piping action pipe a melted chocolate swirl onto one of the macarons.

Working quickly hold the macaron above the shallow bowl and sprinkle the sugar sprinkles over the melted chocolate swirl. Place the macaron back on the parchment paper to set.

Repeat for remaining macarons.*

If you like once the chocolate and sprinkles have set you can turn the macarons over and pipe another swirl on the other side and add sprinkles for a double sided swirl.

*once you get the hang of this process you can actually pipe quite a few swirls in a row and then add the sprinkles afterwards. The trick is to adhere the sprinkles before the chocolate starts to set.

Perfect Blueberries and Goldilocks porridge

Bet the blueberries you buy don't look like these....well maybe if your from a different country, not sure about that, but around here they have a weird white sheen.

I'm going to share my perfect blueberry secret with you.

Enjo. Yup they don't just clean bathrooms and floors, they have an Enjo cloth to clean blueberries. OK not specifically blueberries, it's to use on all fruit and vegetables and it's kinda awesome.


Only problem is you might need to have an Enjo party or attend one to actually buy some of these super cool babies. CLICK HERE for more details on the Fruit and Veg cloth.*

And while I'm in a sharing mood have y'all seen the last issue of Tickle the Imagination, the free online magazine.

The current issue is the Once upon a Time kids issue filled with gorgeous fairytale inspired inspiration and what better recipe for them to include than my Goldilocks porridge which is healthy, delicious and just right.
 
CLICK HERE to check out the latest issue of Tickle the Imagination Magazine.

Yeah and I'm sure I will get tired of my Greengate china but it's not happening this week.........still love it.

 
* I was not sponsored in any way by Enjo, really it's just a pretty awesome cloth so I wanted to share, however Enjo you can feel free to send me another cloth, or some of those great tea towels anytime ;)