The cheesecake recipe uses a mixture of cream cheese and sour cream, which makes it lighter and creamier than straight cream cheese versions, and has more lemon zest and juice than most (just my preference). The cheesecake also has a biscuit rather than a pastry  base, which is much easier and quicker to make.

You can see in the picture it has a raspberry glaze (recipe below), but equally you could leave this off if you just wanted a plain baked lemon cheesecake.

Baked Lemon Cheesecake Recipe Ingredients

Serves 8-12 people

• 250g packet Nice biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs (blitz in a food processor, or place them in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin until you get fine crumbs)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 125g butter, melted
• 375g cream cheese (I use Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
• 300mL sour cream (don’t use light sour cream as it can be runnier than the full fat version)
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Baked Lemon Cheesecake Recipe Method

Make sure you take your cream cheese, sour cream and eggs out of the fridge before you begin, to bring up to room temperature.

Grease a 20cm spring form tin with butter, and then line the tin with baking paper.

Combine the biscuit crumbs, cinnamon and melted butter in a medium bowl. Pour the base mixture into the prepared spring form tin. Press an even layer of the mixture into the base and sides of the tin to form the base. You can use a glass to compact the crumbs. Place the tin into the fridge to firm up while you prepare the filling.

Preheat the oven to 160°C. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on a low speed until creamy. Beating the mixture on low speed will prevent the mixture from aerating too much, which can cause cracking. Add the sour cream and sugar and beat until just combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Finally, add the lemon zest and juice and beat until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared base and bake in the preheated oven for 40-60 minutes until pale golden and slightly wobbly in the centre. Turn the oven off, leave the cheesecake in the oven and leave the door ajar for a further 30-40 minutes. This step will help prevent cracking.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool completely. If using raspberry glaze, top the cheesecake with the glaze and then refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Serve with clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

Raspberry Glaze Recipe Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
• 2 tbsps caster sugar
• 1 tsp gelatine

Raspberry Glaze Recipe Method

Place the raspberries and sugar in a small saucepan and heat gently over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Sprinkle over gelatine and stir to dissolve.

Allow to cool slightly and then pour over the top of the cheesecake.

And, as a bonus, there is no double boiler or straining through a sieve which will save you time, and washing up!

Egg Custard Recipe Ingredients

• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 2 eggs
• 300ml carton pure cream
• 500ml milk (I prefer full cream as it gives a creamier flavour)
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract

Egg Custard Recipe Method

Whisk the eggs and cornflour together in a medium sized saucepan until smooth (you don’t want any lumps), then whisk in the cream and milk. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking often (don’t take your eye off it!). This should take around 5 minutes or so.

Once it comes to a boil the mixture will start to thicken. Keep whisking and allow to thicken until desired consistency has been reached. I prefer custard to be the same consistency as double cream.

Remove from the heat and whisk in sugar and vanilla. You can serve immediately, or if you want to cool it down a little, remove the whisk and press cling wrap onto the surface of the custard (so none of the custard is exposed to air). This will prevent a thick skin from forming as the custard cools.

Custard Cream Recipe

You can use the above recipe as a base for an easy custard cream to fill shortcrust pie shells. Ensure that you cook the custard until it is quite thick, and then cover with cling wrap as outlined above and allow to cool completely.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk 200ml of pure cream until thick, and then gently stir through the custard until combined. Refridgerate the custard cream until needed.

Carrot Cake Ingredients (serves 12)

• Olive oil, to grease
• 3 carrots
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup crushed tinned pineapple
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup golden syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing

• 250g cream cheese
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup icing sugar (check for sweetness)
• Rind 1 lemon
• Lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 20cm (base) round cake pan lightly with oil, and line with non-stick baking paper. Peel and grate the carrots, and set aside. Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large bowl.

Put the brown sugar, oil, golden syrup, eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Use a balloon whisk to mix until combined.

Pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to stir gently until just combined. Stir in the grated carrot, walnuts & pineapple. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Set aside for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, place the cream cheese, icing sugar and zest in a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to mix until well combined. Spread the icing over the cake.

Or thin the pesto with extra olive oil and use it as a dressing for a salad of ripe juicy tomatoes and fresh buffalo mozzarella.

Pesto is best used immediately, but can be stored in the fridge in an airtight jar with a thin layer of olive oil drizzled on top to stop the pesto from oxidising.

Basil Pesto – “Pesto Alla Genovese” Recipe Ingredients

• 1 large bunch fresh basil, leaves removed from storks (equals approximately 2 cups packed basil leaves)
• 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped, or pressed through a garlic press
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted*
• 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 50 ml olive oil

Basil Pesto – “Pesto Alla Genovese” Recipe Method

Wash and dry the basil leaves in a salad spinner. Roughly chop the leaves and place in a food processor with the garlic, pine nuts and cheese. Pulse for a few seconds to roughly combine.

Add the lemon juice and half of the olive oil and pulse again for a few seconds. If the pesto doesn’t look wet enough, add the remaining olive oil and pulse to combine. You may wish to add a bit more oil than the recipe states, if you prefer a slightly more liquid pesto.

Try not to over process the pesto in the food processor, it is better to leave some chunky bits in for texture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

*NB, you can toast pine nuts in a small frypan over low heat (dry fry), stirring constantly, or place on a tray and toast in a moderate oven (approximately 160ºC) for 5-10 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on them no matter what method you use, as they have a habit of turning from golden brown to burnt in no time!

We both love cooking, and love fresh food, so we decided about a year ago to grow some of our own food, to try and save money, and also have fresh herbs on hand.

Pity that neither of us really have a clue on gardening, or much of a green thumb! The other problem we had was living in an apartment, with only a balcony to grow things on. After a bit of research, we came across a site that delivers prepared half wine barrels (http://winebarrelgardens.com.au). They delivered us a half wine barrel fitted with caster wheels and all we had to do was visit the nursery and choose some plants!

We started small with herbs and agreed that if they worked, we would try something a bit more adventurous.

We planted out basil, parsley, coriander, thyme and rosemary (will leave he cooks to tell the story about finding ‘broad leaf’ basil!) in our new barrel, watered them every day (well HC did anyway!), and surprisingly we were successful in growing plants!

The biggest success of the experiment was definitely the basil. Whilst everything else did well, we had so much basil we didn’t know what to do with it all, and every time we cut some for a recipe it grew back even stronger!

So, we made basil pesto, put basil into pasta sauces, pizza sauce, and even sprinkled finely chopped basil into salads.

The experiment has gone so well that we have had another barrel delivered and are trying out lettuce and mini tomatoes.

He cooks

SC loves to get me to tell the story of the ‘broad leaf’ basil, because she thinks it is hilarious. It’s not really… I didn’t know any better!

HC junior and I leave SC at home and go hunting and gathering to find some herbs to plant in our new wine barrel. When we get to the nursery, we manage to find the parsley, coriander, thyme and rosemary, but can only see these ‘mini leaf’ varieties of basil.

I’ve seen basil before, so I know that it doesn’t look like that and try and find someone to help out. I show her the ‘mini leaf’ basil plants I have found, and ask if they stock any broad leaf basil. She looks at me strangely, and says, that no, these are the only basil plants they have. They are… seedlings. Of course! Seedlings… that grow into ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Junior HC rolls his eyes, slinks off and is very embarrassed to be seen with me! Anyway we take home the ‘mini leaf’ basil, and Junior HC very excitedly tells SC of my ‘problems‘ trying to find the ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Needless to say, I give all of the plants plenty of TLC and we end up with huge amounts of ‘broad leaf’ basil!

Click here to try our basil pesto recipe!

Quick & Easy Mayonnaise Mussel Recipe Ingredients

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp dijon or French mustard
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 150ml olive oil
• 50ml vegetable oil
• 4 green shallots, finely sliced
• 1 kg black mussels, cleaned and debearded (you can now buy ready prepared live mussels in 1kg packs)
• 1/2 glass dry white wine
• 1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped

Quick & Easy Mayonnaise Mussel Recipe Method

Place the egg yolk, mustard, lemon juice and vinegar in a bowl and give it a whisk to incorporate and slightly thicken.

Then, whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in the oils until you end up with a thick mayonnaise (definitely don’t add all of the oil at once as this will cause the mayonnaise to split). You can also do this step in a food processor, but whisking is better for you!

In a large saucepan with a fitted lid (we use our 10 litre stockpot for this recipe), gently saute the shallots in a bit of extra olive oil until golden. Turn the heat up high and toss in the wine, it should bubble up quickly. Add the mussels, give the pan a shake and then stick on the lid to steam them for around 5-7 minutes.

While the mussels are steaming, toast the bread on both sides under the grill.

Take the lid off the mussels, then pour in the mayonnaise and parsley. Give the mussels a quick stir to combine the juices and mayonnaise and serve with the bread and salad. Enjoy!

NB. This bircher muesli recipe needs to stand overnight to soften the oats, so you will need to make this in advance.

Bircher Muesli Recipe Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup natural yoghurt
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 granny smith apple, grated

Bircher Muesli Recipe Method

Mix the oats, water and lemon juice together, cover and pop in the fridge to stand overnight. The next morning, stir through the yoghurt, honey and grated apple until well combined. Serve with thick, sweet greek yoghurt and any fruit that is in season (we have used stewed plums). You may also like to sprinkle with some toasted almonds or other nuts for crunch.

He cooks

As a child growing up in the country, seafood was a bit on the scarce side.

Every country town has the local fish and chip shop, but it could hardly be considered ‘gourmet’. Some are better than others of course; but I’ve been to some where you honestly don’t know what had been deep fried in batter and whether or not it actually came from the sea.

After being in the city (Sydney) for just under 20 years I have become a bit of a seafood-a-holic, I love the stuff. At first it was in restaurants; trying all the (to me) weird and wonderful things was a lot of fun and very tasty.

However, even after a number of years of eating it out, I still didn’t let it venture much into my domestic diet. Sure there was the odd pan fried fish but nothing with antennae, shells or claws.

Then I met she cooks (SC), and we started doing the mussels. They are amazing and you really do feel a bit special turning out these kinds of things at home.

Suffice to say SC does most of the hard work (read: peeling the prawns & debearding the mussels) so I am usually on the chopping board or similar.

We turn the mussels out really quickly and enjoy them with a glass of crisp sauvignon blanc. I know SC is going to enlighten you on the ‘where are the eggs’ incident, whereas I am going to stick to encouraging you to try this yourself. How was I supposed to know that you need eggs to make mayonnaise!?!

She cooks

‘I thought the eggs were optional’, he cooks (HC) says with a dejected look on his face.

HC was so proud that he had done all of the food shopping and had done it under budget, even if it meant not getting the ‘essentials’, like eggs. Eggs, of course, that are one of the main ingredients in mayonnaise mussels!

‘Can’t we just use the jar stuff?’ HC asks.

No HC, we can’t use the ‘jar stuff’ because it just doesn’t taste the same as making your own, and as mayonnaise is the main ingredient in this recipe, it is important to get the base right.

We’re not really off to a great start with our mayonnaise mussel dinner but at least HC knows (now anyway) that eggs are definitely not optional when making mayonnaise!

So off to the shops we go and pick up the eggs, with a hungry growling tummy and a stroppy HC. Good thing these mayonnaise mussels are quick to make and can be eaten out of the pot, in front of the telly, perfect for a decadent night in.

HC chops the spring onions and parsley, then the bread. I make the mayonnaise that forms the base of the sauce, whilst he dips his finger in it and declares it delicious!

We whip up the mussels in 15 minutes and then feel quite proud sitting on the lounge eating the delicious mussels straight from the pan whilst dipping our bread in the sauce.

And, it only cost us $10 for the mussels, and a few dollars for the other ingredients (less if you already have the shallots, parsley and other staples on hand).

Click here to try out our mayonnaise mussels recipe!

We had an amazing Christmas period, visitors to the site went through the roof, with our fabulous Rum Balls Recipe the absolute clear favourite. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, literally thousands of users a day were googling rum balls and coming to our recipe. So hopefully loads of people made some great Christmas food using our recipes.

Which brings us to the point “Show us your cooking successes”! We  had many readers commenting on our site, asking questions etc, which was terrific, and we’d like to encourage readers to share some of their cooking successes with us.

So if you’ve got a photo of something you’ve cooked, either from our recipes or others on flickr, photobucket, your own web site etc.. it’s time to share!

Please send a comment on this post, linking to your photo or video and show off We would love to hear from you.

Happy New Year!

There is no baking involved, the only thing that you need to factor in is the time to let it set in the fridge (best left overnight before serving).

Pineapple and Passionfruit (Fridge Set) Tart Recipe Ingredients

• 2/3 packet (150g) plain sweet biscuits (Nice, Arrowroot, Marie or Wheatmeal Biscuits), crushed finely
• 90g butter, melted
• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk (I use Nestle brand, tin size 395g)
• 1 tin crushed pineapple (I use Golden Circle brand, tin size 450g)
• 4 passionfruit pulp
• 3/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 tbsp warm/hot water
• 1 tsp  powdered gelatine

Pineapple and Passionfruit (Fridge Set) Tart Recipe Method

Mix together the biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press into the base and sides of a 25cm diametre (3cm high rim) round pie plate or loose bottomed flan tin.

Add the gelatine to the hot water and stir briskly to dissolve. In a bowl mix remaining ingredients, then pour in dissolved gelatine and liquid and stir.

Pour mixture into prepared base and allow to set in the fridge overnight. Serve with fresh berries and cream (although it is perfectly good on its own!).