Lemon Cheesecake (Serves 8)

Indeed it's been a while since I've posted but while I'm posting on a blog that I co-own/co-write I thought I should post a new recipe seeing as I have done a large amount of baking this week. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of everything that I baked but in total I made a Lemon Cheesecake, Banoffee Pie, Profiteroles and a decorated sponge cake, taking pictures of the cheesecake, cake and profteroles (in a tin though, the presentation of them left much to be desired!). For my Lemon Cheesecake base I used a spongecake with chocolate chips but for this recipe I'll explain how to make the more traditional biscuit base. Here are also a few extra sidenotes:

• If you want to make a branded biscuit base (malteaser, oreo, bourbon, etc.) crush about 90g of your biscuit along with 60g of Digestives.
• If you're worried about your cheesecake not setting or if it's going to be in a warm place for most of the time it's on display then it may be worth adding a small packet of gelatine (vegetarian gelatine is available also, I believe) so that it will hold a firmer shape.
• It's important to chill the base otherwise it will absorb the moisture of the cream cheese and you'll have a soggy base that won't set.
• Sieving the icing sugar is also very important otherwise you'll end up with lumps of icing sugar in the cheesecake, which isn't nice!

With those finer points laid out, on with the recipe!

Ingredients
150g Digestives
75g Margerine
50g Icing Sugar
400g Cream Cheese
Lemon Juice (add to taste)
Optional: Gelatine (see sidenote above)

1) Crush the digestives in a bowl or, if you have one, put them through a food processor.
2) Stir in 75g of melted margerine until the mixture is even.
3) Press into a regular cake tin and leave to set for half an hour in the fridge.
4) Soften the cream cheese in a bowl before sieving in the icing sugar.
5) Add the gelatine, if using.
6) Add the lemon juice, tasting as you go along until you reach a taste you like.
NOTE: The more liquid you add, the less solid the cheesecake will be at room temperature. This may mean that you're forced to use gelatine.
7) Pour the mixture on top of the base, smoothing it out until it's level and leave it to set for a few hours.

You can add whatever fruit juice you like to this cake or even melted chocolate to get whichever flavour you like. As always the motto here is to be creative and experiment, really make the recipe your own and enjoy making it. I'll also attach a picture of the sponge cake I made for my Mum to this post, it's decorated completely in glacé icing that I had to make quite thick in order to pipe it. I hope you like it!