Cheesecake recipe for River.

River, who makes awesome comments that often make me laugh, asked for my apricot nectar cheesecake recipe. Jordan's been hoeing into the one I wrecked and couldn't take to our faculty party, and I had a piece yesterday when I came home for lunch and there was nothing quick to eat. Even the 'wrecked' one is still yum. There's only a quarter left. The recipe is an old one from the Australian Women's Weekly. Tried and true recipes are always the best.

APRICOT NECTAR CHEESECAKE.

Ingredients:

Base:

155g (5oz) plain sweet biscuits.

75g (2.5 oz) butter.

Filling:

470g (15 oz) can apricot nectar.

1/2 cup castor sugar.

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

1 tablespoon gelatine.

375g (12 oz) packaged cream cheese.

1 1/4 cups of cream.

Topping:

1 tablespoon of sugar.

3 teaspoons Arrowroot.

2 teaspoons rum. (Don't let your 11 year old help, as you'll get a lot more rum than you bargained for in the topping! Still tastes ok though...)

Instructions:

Combine finely crushed biscuit crumbs and melted butter, mix well. Press mixture firmly onto the base of a 20cm (8 in) springform tin, refrigerate 1 hour.

(I'm adding an extra step here for ensured success with this recipe. Shake the tin of apricot nectar before you open it. Trust me on this one. You want all of that lovely apricot taste in your cheesecake, not left in the tin.)

Measure 1 cup of apricot nectar from the can (reserve the rest for the topping.) Pour the nectar into a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatine over.

Place over low heat and stir until gelatine dissolves; allow to cool and thicken slightly.

Beat softened cream cheese and sugar until the mixture is smooth and creamy, add lemon juice.

Beat in apricot mixture, then fold in whipped cream.

Pour mixture into the crumb crust, refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

Topping:

Place the sugar and arrowroot in a small saucepan, gradually stir in the reserved apricot nectar. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly; then remove from the heat and add the rum. (Yo ho ho.)

Continue stirring to allow the mixture to cool slightly. Spread the topping over the cheesecake and refrigerate until the topping sets.

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There you go. Great for dinner parties because you can make it a day or two before and there's one less thing you have to prepare on the day.

I'm planning a very self indulgent day today. The kids are at their Dad's, so I'll be baking, knitting (a bit) and quilting. I bought some really cute (yet manly) owl fabric for Brennan's quilt to make it darker like he said he wanted. Is he going to turn emo on me? So I'll be rotary cutting and sewing away, singing along to my ipod because MY music can now be played without any ill-informed adolescent judgements. I hope everyone else has a lovely Saturday too.

I leave you with Connor enjoying Christmas.