Chinese and Cheesecake

Posted by Rosie

To celebrate his birthday Tom asked if his friend Matéo could come over for a Chinese meal.  Matéo had never eaten Chinese but was keen to try and excited about trying to eat with chopsticks.  To finish the meal, Ben wanted to make a cheesecake - OK, not Chinese in any shape or form but something he had had on his "To Make" list for a while, so now seemed as good a time as any.  Tom was more than happy with this so when he was at athletics in the morning, Ben set to preparing the cheesecake:

First there was the base.  Biscuit bashing (fun for anyone but especially 10 year old boys!), butter melting and remembering to grease the flan dish.

The base was put aside in the fridge to harden and it was on with the filling.  Ingredients were gathered including lemons that were zested and juiced.  Guess what - it's going to be a lemon cheesecake!

Finally it was on with mixing the mascapone, lemon zest, juice and sugar which was added to the biscuit base.  Shortly before it was to be served Ben added a topping of bottles blackcurrants which I had in the store cupboard.

But the tasting of the cheesecake would have to wait a bit longer as there was the important business of eating the Chinese.  Simon did most of the cooking whilst I was chief washer-uper and mopper of spilt soy sauce, most of which seemed to land on Poppy's "Lampshade". (oops - sorry Poppy).  Simon did us proud and for his first taste of Chinese cuisine Matéo tucked into Sweet and Sour Pork, Fish and Prawns in Oyster Sauce and Mixed Chinese Vegetables all served with noodles.  He tried everything and whilst he didn't particularly like the fish or the baby sweetcorn in the vegetable dish, he loved everything else.  He did attempt to use the chopsticks but found them too hard so had to resort to a fork to ensure he got his fair share of the meal eaten!

Matéo and Tom (NB - the wine is mine!)

At last, it was on to Ben's cheesecake -  this was something else Matéo had never eaten but he was once more happy to try.  Three slices later I think we can safely say he liked it.  Thank you Simon for our main course and thank you Ben for our pudding.  It was a lovely meal, perfect for the celebration of Tom's 12th birthday.

Click here for the recipe if you fancy making lemon cheesecake.

I am joining Corinne at Motherhood Journeys on her new Blog Linky - Cooking with Kids.  If you are writing a cooking with kids type blog do think about joining in.  It runs from Thursdays for 6 days. Click on the image below to see the first Cooking with Kids blog or here to see her second. (You can also link to an old blog!)