Black Forest Cheesecake: From My Little Brother

Thiss post is about the things I know about yummy Black Forest Cheesecake and my brother

Do the words ‘chocolate’, ‘cherries’ and ‘cream’ get your attention??

I have the recipe for you!! This absolutely delicious cheesecake has all the flavour of a black forest cake and it is really easy to make!

My Brother made this for our family to celebrate the new year!....

..Yes…My. Little. Brother…

The cheeky little red-head. The hyperactive troublemaker and constant annoyance of my teenage years. This photo, taken sometime in the 1980’s, pretty much says it all! (Kindly disregard the perm…)

Somewhat surprisinglyJ, he no longer uses his boundless energy and creativity to find innovative ways to annoy, tease and irriate his big sister! No, he is no longer sneaking around to catch me kissing my boyfriend, reading my diary or reading out-loud the last paragraph of the novel I’ve just begun to read. He is now channelling his creative energy into being a simply inspired and talented music teacher and an amazing cook…picture an Australian red-headed Jamie Oliver, with all the energy,  passion and pizzazz!

He is also an AMAZING  Dad and Uncle!

However, you should see the disaster area that once was his kitchen after he has finished one of his fabulous creations……some thing’s will never change….but the results are sure worth the washing up!! I absolutely recommend this his recipe for Black Forest Cheesecake…its YUMMY!!

This picture does not do justice to this fabulous cheesecake….it was the only bit left once we’d all stopped eating and I remembered to get my camera out!

 Black Forest Cheesecake

Cheesecake
250g plain chocolate biscuits
125g butter, melted
3 teaspoons gelatine
¼ cup water
250g packet of cream cheese, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
300ml thickened cream
425g can pitted black cherries

Topping
1 tablespoon cornflour
1tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon brandy

1.      Blend or process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter and process until combined. Press biscuit mixture over base and side of 20cm spring form tin, place on oven tray and refrigerate about 30min until firm.

2.      Sprinkle gelatine over water in a small heatproof jug; stand jug in a small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves; cool 5 minutes.

3.      Beat cream cheese, sugar and juice in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth; transfer to a large bowl.

4.      Whip cream until soft peaks form. Fold into cheese mixture in two batches; fold in gelatine mixture drain cherries, but reserve all the syrup for topping.

5.      Spoon 1/3 of cheese mixture onto crumb crust, top with half the cherries, repeat layering, ending with cheese mixture. Refrigerate until just firm.

6.      Meanwhile, Make topping: blend cornflour and sugar with reserved cherry syrup in a small saucepan. Stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens, stir in brandy; cool 10 minutes.

7.      Spread topping over the cheesecake; refrigerate cheesecake for at least 2 hours-overnight.

Today I'm linking this post up with The Good , The Bad & The Unnecessary For The Things I know. Come and see the things some great blolggers know!

Sibling Rivalry

My girls Flash and Muscles were born 18 months apart, and are 1 year-level apart at school. On occasion, they can be the best of friends. Sometimes it seems to me that they are mortal enemies! However, there is no doubt in my mind that my children love and care for each other very deeply and sometimes appear lost without each other. If one of them is lost or injured, the other will also be shaking with fear or crying in sympathy.

In some ways my girls are very similar; such as their love of sport, competitiveness and aptitude. However, my girls look, behave and act in completely different ways and each has a very separate, strong and unique personality.

A PE teacher at the girl’s school once told me that Flash had enormous athletic potential. She went on to say that there was one other child at the school with similar potential, a little girl in kindergarten…you guessed it…Muscles. The teacher had not realised that the two girls were sisters!

I find one of the most challenging aspects of being a parent of 3 is making sure everyone gets the attention they require. On some days I feel like I have given so much of myself to my children that I have NOTHING left of ‘me’! But even when I give everything I have, it does not appear to be enough. The girls especially, compete for my attention. No matter how many times I tell them I love them all, exactly the same amount, they seem to be convinced that they need to compete for my love as well. I tell them my heart is big enough for all of them but they don’t seem to believe me. I find this almost soul destroying, because I am always, acutely aware of giving my children equal and appropriate treatment.

While sport in general has been a fantastic experience for my family I sometimes can’t help but think the sibling rivalry feeds off their sport. In athletics both girls are high achievers in their club. The club keeps updated records information. Previously there were congratulations all-round when one of the girls set a new club record. Now Muscles seems to be taking records previously held by her big sister. I don’t tell them who’s record they taken, however, GrumpyDaddy appears to delight in keeping such statistics in his head. He happily informs the girls, other parents and neighbors within the girls ear-shot! I’ve attempted to impress upon him not to do this as it seems to make Flash feel insecure and cause the rivalry to worsen.

In general Muscles is supportive of Flash’s achievements however we often describe her as ‘me-too-girl’ because she is always striving to get everything and be everything her big sister and little brother are. Flash seems to be insecure about her own achievements and seems to belittle the success of  her sister’s.

I wonder how the parents of successful, high profile, sporting siblings such as tennis’ Williams sisters or the cricket Waugh brothers or the cycling Mears sisters, have dealt with their situations.

In a practical sense, it seems to help our family to have the girls participating in different sports. Flash does swimming, whereas muscles does gymnastics. However this puts an awful strain on family scheduling, especially when the training or competitions are in two different places at the same time.

I do realise that I’m not Robinson Crusoe here, and this is probably some sort of rivalry or competition between most siblings. So, rather than looking at sport as feeding their sibling rivalry, I will look at sport as a unique opportunity to build upon the character of my little girls. Part of my aims as a parent are to develop the qualities of good sportsmanship, kindness, appreciations of others achievements and humility in my children. Demonstrating these attributes through sports and using famous athletes that the girls look up to, as an example, is a unique opportunity to build upon the girls character. Not only will teaching these qualities help their sporting rivalry, but it may also lead the girls to understand that they also do not have to be rivals for my attention and my love.

Off course I will continue to reinterate to them that they are not competing against each other, but trying to do their individual bests. I will constantly tell them that I LOVE THEM NO MATTER WHAT! Maybe one day this will sink in. Maybe one day they will be mature enough to understand this. In fact, as I write this, all three of my children are in their bedroom practicing a xmas concert and singing ‘Jingle bells’ together….which I will no doubt be ‘forced’ to listen to later J.

Flash has an ACT Little Athletics carnival on tomorrow at the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport). I can guarantee you that her sister’s voice will be one of the loudest in the stands, as we all cheer her on! I will keep you posted on the sibling rivalry and  the results of the multi-event carnival.