Hello, Fiery Forest Dweller,

🧁 The hubs turned 66 on Saturday 🎉

[Image Description: Man with blond hair and glasses sits at an outdoor table with a flight of four beers in small glasses in front of him.]

So, while I should have sent a newsletter last week, I (with the hubs, of course) was busy cleaning, dusting, and moving furniture around to make sure there was enough space for everyone.

Did I mention my husband has six siblings?

No? Well, you can imagine our living room was filled to the brim with people—warm, welcoming, (loud) chatty people. And all of them arrived around the same time! We barely had time for a chat—or a breath—that first hour. Hubs poured drinks while I cut cake.

Talking about drinks, in the picture (taken this summer), he's enjoying a beer tasting—his ideal day out. He also brews his own. He turned his birthday into a beer tasting by printing out a list of his beers, complete with description of ingredients and/or taste profile, so our guests could choose which one(s) they wanted to try. It was a hit!

🧁 Let there be cake!

So was my cake, that I'd made for the first time since Covid. My personal favourite: MonChou cheesecake.

It was the hubs's family, actually, who introduced me to this cake. It's made with a soft cream cheese, doesn't involve baking, and my favourite biscuits form the base. What's not to love, right? Needless to say, it quickly became a staple of every birthday.

I'm so glad I finally had enough energy again to make it.

And now, I'm sharing it with you.

[Image Description: A round MonChou cake topped with a glossy layer of dark red cherries on a creamy filling and biscuit crust.]

🧁 MonChou cake recipe

Ingredients:

400 grams MonChou = soft cream cheese (taken out of the fridge well beforehand)
1.5 boxes of Bastogne biscuits (biscuits with rock candy/candy sugar) = 390 grams. Any sort of biscuit will do, really.
200 grams unsalted butter (taken out of the fridge well beforehand)
120 grams palm sugar/soft white sugar/soft brown sugar (I prefer brown sugar, but use whatever you like best). If you want the cake to be sweeter, just add more 😄
26 cm spring form cake tin (with loose base)
2 tins (430 grams) cherry or strawberry flan filling, or fresh fruit.
0.5 litre double cream (whipped cream?)
2 packages of klop-fix (not a necessity, but it helps whipped cream stay firm)

Method:

Melt the butter in a small pan or microwave
Meanwhile crumble the biscuits into crumbs: put them in a strong freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin.
When the butter has melted, add it to the crumbs and combine well. If you feel there's not enough butter to cover all the crumbs, you can easily melt some more and add it. (Don't pack it too tight, your teeth will thank you.)
Press the butter/biscuit mixture into the tin with a spoon/fork, making sure the base of the tin is covered evenly. Put the tin in the fridge to cool, while you get on with the rest.
Mix the cream cheese with the sugar in a bowl, until you have a smooth mixture.
In a separate jug or bowl mix the double cream with the klop-fix (if you want) until it's very stiff. (Since there's already plenty of sugar mixed in with the cream cheese, you don't need to add sugar to the cream)
Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
Spread this mixture over the biscuit base.
Spread the flan filling or fresh fruit on top of this.

And voilà, one yummy MonChou cheesecake. No baking required. 😉

What is your favourite cake? Feel free to hit reply. I'm always open to try something new.

Until next week,

Blaine

ps:A Snowmonster for Midwinter is FREE at Payhip until the 29th for subscribers only with coupon: Cake0day