How To: Baked Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis

So last week, I decided I wanted to make a cheesecake for the weekend because 1) my parents had people coming over and dessert is always a good way to end a night of good food and 2) I could. I followed my mums recipe that she has used since she was my age, and this how it goes :)

   

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You will need:

Crust

- 230g of Sweet Biscuits

- 125g of Butter, Melted

Filling

- 750g of Cream Cheese

- 4 Eggs

- 1 cup of Sugar

- 1 dessert spoon of Lemon Juice

- 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence

Raspberry Coulis

- 450g of Frozen Raspberries OR 350g fresh

- 7-8 tablespoons of Caster Sugar

- 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice

- 1/4 cup of Water

Others
- 8" Spring-form Cake Tin
- Stick Mixer and Container
- Food Processor
- Fan Force Oven
- Strainer or Mesh Bag

Serves: 10-12 | Cooking: 25-35 minutes | Preparation: 1 hour
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Crust

- Measure out your biscuits, then place in a food processor and blitz till crumbed.

- Transfer into a bowl and pour over the melted butter, mixing with a fork till all combined.

- Lightly grease the cake tin, then place 1/3-1/2 of the mix onto the bottom of the tin and compress with a spoon or glass.

- With the rest of the mix, press onto the sides of the tin, 3/4 of the way up.

- Place tin in the fridge for 1 hour (or more) to cool and set.

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Filling
- Pre-heat a fan forced oven to 180*C (adjust for different ovens)
- Break 4 eggs into a food processor, and beat until thick.
- Once thick, gradually add the cup of sugar, small bits at a time.
- Cut the cream cheese into cubes and drop one cube at a time into mix while it is on.
- While adding cheese, add the lemon juice and vanilla essence in drops at a time.
- Once mixture is smooth, take the base tin out of the fridge and pour mixture into the tin.
- Place in the middle of the oven on a rack and let cook for 25-35 minutes.
- Once cooked, turn oven off, leave the door adjure and let the cake cool inside the oven. This will prevent the top splitting or the middle of the cake falling.

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Coulis
- Measure out your berries, sugar, water and lemon juice and place into a saucepan, and turn the heat on.
- Dissolve all the sugar and bring to a simmer for a few minutes, steering frequently.
- Transfer into a container that you can use a stick mixer in, and mix until the berries are all crushed.
- Place a bowl under a strainer or mesh bag, and pour your berry mix into it to remove most of the seeds, as they are not needed.
- Once strained, pour the coulis into a pouring jug and place in fridge to cool down.
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Once everything is cooked and cooled, time to cut the cake, pour some coulis on, plop some berries on top and eat up!! I hope you enjoyed with recipe and are inspired to make some cheese cake and coulis. Thanks for reading and visiting, comment below if you have any questions or comments, and see you next time!
xxx

Review: Lootcrate Un-Boxing

 My childhood was filled with Nintendo 64 and Gameboy games, and I still re-play some of these games to this day, as they give me such good memories. This has resulted in me becoming a big nerd and me liking all things nerdy haha I watch a very gamers on YouTube, and through one channel I watch, TheJWittz, I learnt about this subscription service called Lootcrate, which is a surprise box that is sent to you monthly, full of nerdy goodness, with a new theme each month. The May box was the theme of "Adventure", which showcased Legend of Zelda, Minecraft and Adventure Time, and it is my first box from the subscription, so I thought I'd do a little review of that was in the box and what I thought about it.

Everything comes in a nice, easy to open box, with a few un-boxing tips on the side lid to optimise the Lootcrate experience. There was a total of 5 items inside the box, first being an Adventure Time tin that had a mystery figure inside,and I got the BMO tin with an angry Finn inside. Next, there was a mystery Minecraft keyring, and I got a zombie-pigman. There was a bottle opener with the classic Legend of Zelda quote "It's dangerous to go ahead! Take this..." with Link holding up a Lootcrate, a Lootcrate pin which had this months logo on it, showing the Hyrulian shield, Diamond sword and Finn's sword in a coat of arms, and several sheets of stickers, tattoos and a soudtrack to the backing music to a podcast series. Finally, my favourite item in the Lootcrate, a Legend of Zelda inspired T-Shirt with a picture of Link made out of words that are all related to the Legend of Zelda franchise.

All of the items in the box were really good quality, my only complaint is with the T-shirt as the material was really thin, but apart from that, everything was great and all stuff I would have picked out myself :) Legend of Zelda is one of my favourite gaming franchises, so I was super excited when I saw the T-shirt. As this was my first box, I didn't really know what to expect, but I really liked and enjoyed this box!! I can use all the things I got and I will most definitely be getting this again if I like the theme for the month of June. 

Hope this wasn't too nerdy for you, and you liked my review of this months Lootcrate, if I keep getting them I'll most likely make this a monthly thing :) Thanks for reading and visiting my little place on the internet, comment if you want, and see you next time!!
xxx

The Hills are Alive With Colour

Hello! My friend, Katt, and I went for a drive around the Adelaide Hills last week, and I decided to take a few pictures of the leaves that are all changing colours, from Summer greens to Autumn oranges, yellows and reds. These were taken with a Nikon D3100 DSLR with 18-55mm lens.

Thankyou for viewing my pictures and my blog, comment down below with any questions or comments, and see you next time!

xxx

How To: Owl Costume

I had my 21st birthday the other week, and to celebrate, I had a party were everyone dressed up as different animals!! My favourite animal is an owl, so I made my own costume, and thought you'd like to see how I made it in hopes it inspires you to make your own :)

You will need:
 - Felt in various colours
- Plain fabric
- Dress/Shirt
- Measuring tape
- Scissors
- Fabric marker
- Hot glue gun + glue

Depending on how many feathers you want, how big you want to make your feathers, and if you're doing wings as well, will determine how much felt you will need to buy. I went for a brown owl, but you can make it any colour(s) you want. I bought 1.5m of three different brown felts, which was *just* enough for a knee-length dress and two wings, using 12cmX10cm feathers. So once you have your coloured felt, cut it into 12cm wide strips, then cut each strip into 10cm long rectangles, or whoever big you want your feathers will be.

You will then need to cut your feathers out, either by drawing them into the rectangles so they are all the same or just re-cutting each for a varied feather look. I wanted to keep mine all the same, so I cut one feather out that I liked, and traced it on to the remaining rectangles with a fabric marker. This process is while laborious and time consuming, so be prepared for it to take a long time, and for even your pen to run out a couple times. 

After all your feathers are cut out, it is time to start gluing them onto your dress/shirt with the hot glue gun. I chose a glue gun because sewing them on would take a long time, especially for someone who cant sew, and because I needed the dress to stretch when I wore it. Once you have your pattern figured out, place two dots of glue on the top corners of the feathers and glue down, and continue doing this to the whole dress.

Once the dress is done, time to move onto the wings! The size of the wings will depend on how long your arms are, what shape you want your wings and how low you want them to go, so my wings were 80cmX70xm (at the widest points), which allowed them to reach from my wrist to between my shoulder blades. After you've marked and cut out your wings from your fabric, glue your feathers on the same way as the dress in the pattern of your choosing. I did a different pattern to distinguish between the body and the wings, as well as to make them more wing like. Once they were dry, I stitched some elastic onto the wrist ends so I could wear them and they would stay in place without me holding them, as well as stitching them into the dress under a feather to hid the stitches.

Almost complete! I had some leftover felt, so I made myself a mask. Using a mask template, I cut out the dark brown felt to make the shape of an owl face and cut two eye holes so I could see. With the lighter browns, I cut them in circles around the eyes to highlight them, and cut a yellow bit of felt I had into the beak, and glued it altogether with the glue gun. This isn't essential, but it does add a little something to the costume.

So there you have it, a guide on how to make an owl costume! I hope you enjoyed with tutorial and are able to understand it, and are inspired to make your own costume for a party or Halloween. Thanks for reading and visiting, comment below if you have nay questions or comments, and see you next time!

xxx

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xxx