To make the crème pâtissière. Heat the milk in a pan until almost boiling. Meanwhile cream the egg yolks and caster sugar together in a medium bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of hot milk, flour and cornflour, mix thoroughly. Slowly pour in the remaining hot milk, beating as you go. Whisk in half of the sugar for about a minute until there are soft peaks, gradually fold in the remaining sugar. Warm these up in the microwave and serve with some ice-cream, a delicious dessert for any occasion! Return the mixture to the pan, slit the vanilla pod lengthways, remove the seeds and add to the mixture, stirring all the time. Remove from the heat, remove the pod then cover with cling film and leave to cool completely. Once chilled, beat until smooth.

I made these ever so slightly differently this time by using golden caster sugar and oh my days it was delicious. I much preferred the flavour, and I feel like it made it more fudgey. Honestly, it was worth it. Once the chocolate on top has set, you get the crunch of the chocolate, and then the gooey delicious perfect fudgey brownie underneath. I always set my cheesecakes in the fridge overnight otherwise they risk being a little runny still and slipping off the biscuit base but if you want to risk it then go for it! Put the double cream in a bowl and whisk in the ice cream stabiliser and salt. Leave it to stand for 15 minutes and whisk to soft peaks. Add the condensed milk and stir. I use the Opies jar of cherries in kirsch, as well as fresh cherries. You can use all fresh cherries, or even more cherries in kirsch (but it might take longer as they contain more liquid! I wouldn’t advise adding much more of the kirsch liquid however.Pass the flour, cocoa powder through a fine sieve and add to the eggs and sugar. Gently whisk the ingredients together until combined. Then mix in the melted chocolate and the vegetable oil to combine. Stir through the cherries and kirsch and pour the batter into the tin. In a saucepan, warm the liquid from the jar, squeeze the gelatine leaves to remove excess water and stir into the hot cherry liquid to dissolve. In a bowl, mix the cherries with their liquid and pour into six very small bowls. Put in the fridge to set. I obviously use the dark chocolate, but you can swap the chocolate chips that you fold through (Not the ones you melt for the batter) to milk chocolate, and the drizzle on top can also be milk chocolate, for these though I prefer dark! In a bowl, over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and the butter together until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and the eggs, whisk them until they’re light and fluffy.

shots of the Luxardo Kirsch which the cherries had been in How to make your Chocolate Brownies with Boozy Cherries: Bake for 35-45 minutes until the brownies have lost their wobble but are still a bit gooey inside. Take out and leave to cool. You want to almost under bake them so it’s still soft in the centre.Put the meringue in a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle, pipe rosettes all over the ice cream mixture. Here I used Opies Foods cherries to create two accompaniments to a chocolate dessert (a gooey chocolate pie or brownie is perfect with both these). I decided to also go a little bit further with these and give them a bit of a chocolate drizzle, and sprinkle on some chocolate curls as who doesn’t like more chocolate?! Decoration This is a simple and lazy dessert that can be served on its own or as an accompaniment to chocolate brownie, a gooey chocolate cake or a syruped halva even. I did have plans to make cherry chocolate brownie sundaes with them; layering them up with ice cream, whipped cream and drizzling more kirsch and cherries over the top. But I went out to work and when I came home they’d all gone, so you’ll have to use your imagination instead. The sundae sounded pretty tasty in my imagination!

Hints and tips: As an alternative to using the oven, a kitchen blowtorch can be used to brown the meringue. Also, you can drizzle the cheesecake with melted chocolate, cherry jam, or beaten down Cherry Filling instead of the spare Cherry Kirsch liquid if you wished! And you can easily just use Whipped Cream on top instead of the Vanilla Cheesecake but that’s up to you! Soooo Christmas 2016 is upon us… its less than two weeks away. TWO WEEKS. And I am buzzing. I adore Christmas; the lights, the food, the TV, the food, the family get togethers, the food, and the all round general happiness. But yeah, as you can tell, I LOVE the food so much more than normal food! Also, Christmas is a great excuse to bake! As you guys have already seen, I have posted a few already for this year, and I have many for last year such as my No-Bake Terry’s Chocolate Orange Cheesecake and Christmas Tree Brownies, so you aren’t short of Christmas Inspiration on my blog!Depending on your ovens, or how you mixed the brownies up, some can take up to an hour to bake successfully. I’ve never fully understood why, but don’t give up if they’re not done after 40 minutes – cover with foil and continue to bake for longer. I poke a skewer through them and wait till its mostly clean, and the mixture doesn’t wobble in the tin. Once they are cool, cut them into squares. I sprinkled my brownies with white chocolate stars and icing sugar to make them look a bit more festive. When reducing the Kirsch liquid down to drizzle on the cheesecake, be careful not to over reduce as it’ll almost turn to a caramel and go solid. I reduce my liquid to about 1/4 of the original amount by letting it boil constantly for a few minutes. Adding the cherries that had already been soaked in kirsch, some extra kirsch liquid, and then the fresh cherries gave it some moisture that made them even more fudgey! Honestly, they are SO DAMN GOOD.