This makes a great change to all the usual Christmas desserts and best of all it uses up any Christmas cake leftovers you might have after the big day. This recipe works well as a normal cheesecake mixture if you drop the cinnamon and baileys, so you also make it with a regular digestive biscuit base also.

Makes 1 large cheesecake

Serves 6-8
50g of butter, melted
250g of leftover Christmas cake, crumbled
250g mascarpone cheese
250g cream cheese
250ml of double cream, whipped
75g of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of baileys
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
100g of dark chocolate, in shavings

Combine the Christmas cake crumbs and the melted butter in a bowl with a wooden spoon.

Press the mixture into a springform baking tin with a removable base and place in the fridge to set while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Beat the mascarpone and cream cheese and fold in the icing sugar, cinnamon powder and baileys.

Gently fold in the whipped cream and spread over the top of the chilled base.

Place back in the fridge for at least two hours. Serve with the chocolate shavings.

The post Christmas Cheesecake first appeared on Donal Skehan | EAT LIVE GO.

Desserts that can be made ahead are lifesavers when it comes to entertaining and ones which only take a few minutes to put together are even better! These individual cheesecake pots are perfect to pull out of the fridge at the end of a meal and with an extra kick from the ginger your guests will be singing your praises!

Serves 6
200g of gingernut biscuits
100g of butter, melted
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
450g of cream cheese
200g of white chocolate
100ml of cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of icing sugar

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until you have fine breadcrumbs.  Pour in the melted butter and ginger and process until everything is mixed through. Gently push the biscuit base into individual serving pots and set aside.  Don’t press down too hard as you want nice loose spoonfuls of biscuit with the cheesecake mix.

Slowly melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a small pot of simmering water. Put the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and add the white chocolate, cream, vanilla extract, and sugar. Beat all the ingredients together until you get a nice light mixture. Spoon the cream cheese mix into the serving pots, smooth the top and garnish with a sprinkling of thinly sliced white chocolate. Place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

The post White Chocolate Ginger Cheesecake Pots first appeared on Donal Skehan | EAT LIVE GO.