Ginger cheesecake

The perfect pudding for Valentine's Day. You hated the ginger, but decided that cheesecake in general was rather nice.

I can't claim credit for the recipe - I pinched it from a little booklet that came with Olive.

Makes enough for 8 greedy people. You'll need

10-15 ginger biscuits, smashed to pieces
25g melted butter
600g cream cheese (I used Quark, which is virtually fat-free)
1 tablespoon flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g caster sugar
284ml soured cream
100g crystallised ginger, finely chopped (you could also use the stem ginger in syrup, I guess, as long as you drained it really really well)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C. You'll need a 20cm tin - preferably one of those springform ones, where the sides come apart. Grease it well.

Mangle the biscuits with a rolling pin, until they look like breadcrumbs. Mix with the melted butter, press into the base of the tin, and bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

Sling the cream cheese in a mixing bowl, and add the flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and half the soured cream. Beat everything together until it's smooth - you loved this bit.

Chuck in the chopped crystallised ginger, and stir. Pour everything into the tin, and smooth it out carefully. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes - take the cheesecake out near the end, and give it a little shake. If it's still wobbly in the centre, bung it back in for another 5 minutes.

Once you're happy with it, pour over the rest of the soured cream, and stick back in the oven for 5 minutes. Bring it out, and then leave to cool in the tin.

You might want to sprinkle a little icing sugar over the top, if you're being truly decadent. But otherwise just dig in.

Lemon, raisin and sour cream muffins

We made these in the morning, and then spent this afternoon at Whitburn, marvelling at the stripy lighthouse and the beautiful pebbles on the beach.

Makes an enormous amount (26 small cupcakes, or presumably about 13 large muffins). You'll need:

180g raisins
375g self-raising flour
220g sugar
rind of a lemon, finely grated
90g butter, melted
180g creme fraiche or sour cream
125ml milk
2 eggs

Stick your oven on at 180 degrees C, and line a cupcake pan with some paper cases.

Mix the flour, raisins, sugar and lemon rind in a bowl. Add the melted butter. In a large jug beat the milk, creme fraiche and eggs together, and then tip in. It'll look like an unholy mess - give it all a swish about, until all the flour has mixed in properly. It'll still look lumpy (that's the raisins for you), but will smell amazing.

Decant the mixture into your paper cases, trying not to drop it all over the floor. Bung in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they've started to go golden brown.