The Baynhams

Today I set to work preparing for Valentines day.

I bought a cute Willow silicone cake mould with 6 heart shapes from a local supermarket earlier in the week. It was only $11 and I am sure I will use it over and over for parties and school cake-stall days. It was also donating towards Breast Cancer research which made it an easy choice.


I had a hankering for cheesecake. Mini raspberry cheesecakes to be exact. I did a quick on-line search for a recipe using my phone while wandering around the supermarket aimlessly. Whatever would I do without modern technology...?! I found a recipe for a baked cheesecake which was different from previous gelatine based chill-in-the-fridge cheesecake I had made in the past. I threw the ingredients into my basket, queued at the till, ran back for a box of frozen raspberries, returned to the till, paid and headed home.

I'm a bit of an impulsive person and not very good at planning ahead. You may have worked that out from the supermarket story. Instead of unpacking the general shopping or washing up and tidying away the kitchen I just got stuck into making the cheesecakes straight away. It might have been clever to actually read the sequence of steps first. If I had I would have worked out that they took 45 minutes to cook and that I was leaving for mass in 30.... Sometimes there are advantages to being married to a non-practising anything. Byron was not coming to mass with us so I called him into the kitchen for a quick cooking lesson and strict instructions to check my cheesecakes every 5 minutes until they "bounced back" in the centre when pressed lightly.

I prayed at Mass. Fervently and very directly.

"Dear Holy God, Please let Byron remember the Cheesecakes. Please don't let him get caught up in a Rugby game. Please don't let him push his finger hard into the centre of each one when checking them. Please don't let him eat any just to test if they are ready. Thank you Holy God, Amen"


When I got home there on the counter top were six perfect little heart shaped cheesecakes. Thank you God Byron!


Here is my modified version of the recipe...

10 Oz / 285gms crushed wholewheat biscuits.
1/4 cup of melted butter
24 Oz / 680gms cream cheese at room temperature (I wasn't patient enough to bother waiting!)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks

Mix crushed biscuits and melted butter. Put 3 big spoons of mixture in the base of each mini heart. Push the mixture down well so it forms a firm base layer.

Using electric mixer beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Pour mixture into hearts until almost full and then put about 5-6 frozen raspberries gently on the top of the mixture so they sink in slightly. Sprinkle the small amount of remaining biscuit mixture evenly over the tops.

Sit the silicone mould into a larger baking tin and half fill with warm water. Bake in the oven at 325 F / 160 C for about 45 minutes or until the centres are set.

1/3 of the volume of mixture from the above ingredients made the 6 small hearts and all the leftover 2/3rds went in a small loaf tin and made a generous rectangular slab of a cheesecake.

The rectangular slab got demolished as soon as we got in the door from Mass (just to make sure it was ok!) and the little hearts are going to be for a romantic family lunch we are planning for tomorrow. Actually the only thing planned so far is the dessert but I'm sure we can make sausages on the barbie sound fantastic and romantic if we tie a pink apron on the wonderful Mr B!