Raspberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

It was my daughter's 10th birthday this Wednesday. Wednesday is an awkward day of the week for celebrating your birthday, being not closer to one weekend than the other, making it difficult to decide when to have the main celebration. Last weekend we held a party of her, at Chiki Ceramiki, ceramic painting with her school friends. For this I made a rather spectacular birthday cake. Then this weekend I invited my parents over for a meal, but having already done the whole birthday cake and candles bit, it didn't seem necessary to make another one for this occasion. Instead, I made for her her favourite cheesecake recipe - Raspberry & White Chocolate. With the raspberries in full swing it seemed only appropriate. And to make it birthday-special, I topped it with a 10 made out of freshly picked raspberries. Needless to say, it went down extremely well all round.

White Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Cheesecake

For the base

150g digestive biscuits, crushed

75g butter, melted

For the topping

200g white chocolate

30g butter

1/4 vanilla pod

250g cream cheese

90ml whipping cream

100g raspberries

25g caster sugar

For the biscuit base combine the crushed biscuits and the melted butter in a bowl then press into the greased base of a 20cm circular tin or dish. Place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to solidify. Next, melt the chocolate, butter and the seeds from the vanilla pod in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool. In another bowl, mix together the cream and cheese and beat until smooth. Once the chocolate mix is suitably cool add it to the cream mix and stir thoroughly. Spoon onto the biscuit base. Reserve a few raspberries and place the rest in a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water and the caster sugar. Heat gently, squashing the raspberries with a spoon to break them down. After about 5 minutes remove from the heat and strain through a sieve to remove the seeds. Spoon the raspberry sauce over the cheesecake then gently swirl it through the upper surface of the creamy layer with a skewer or spoon handle. Return to the refrigerator to chill for a few hours or over night then place the reserved raspberries on top before serving.