Birthday wishes and cute creations

It was my dad's 70th birthday yesterday and (due to lack of funds) I decided to create a feast for dinner instead of buy him something. Being adventurous, I decided to let him choose the menu and was met with the least likely dinner choice for a balmy January eve: Slow-cooked lamb shanks. Luckily we woke to an abnormally cool morning, and I headed to town feeling a little bit better about my mission. For dessert he decided on cheesecake which, for my first ever attempt, I think turned out pretty good:

I'm not a fan of cheesecake but the plates were all but licked clean, so I'm guessing it tasted ok. I took the crust recipe from Canelle et Vanille's bakewell tarts and baked it for half an hour. It turned beautifully sweet tasted like basic shortbread. The filling I made up as I went along, so the measurements are guessed to the closest degree.
Mixed Berry Cheesecake
250g cream cheese
250g mascapone
1/2-3/4cup icing sugar
3tbsp lemon curd
5tbsp Berry compote
mixed berries to decorate
Beat cream cheese and mascapone until soft and light. While mixing slowly add icing sugar and lemon curd alternately. Fold in bery compote to form swirls through mix. Spoon into cooled pastry base and top with berries.
I served mine with extra compote, icecream and chocolate shavings.


I've been doing quite a bit of crocheting lately too. Procrastination while packing last week led to these two, both of which I gave to my friend K as part of a belated Christmas pressie:

My first ever doily, randomly selected from here. Still need to do a bit of work on my tension I think.

A cute little bowtie. Another pattern found on Creative Yarn.
I'm working on my very first amigurumi at the moment. Cross fingers it works.