MNM's Bake: Vanilla and Raspberry Cheesecake

Cheesecake. Cheese-cake. Cheese cake. The name, for me, doesn't really do the exquisite triple taste sensation much justice. This is the first time we've made this delightful version, and believe me it won't be the last.

Ingredients:
150g butter
200g digestive biscuits
100g rolled oats (or milk oaties)
1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla essence
500g cream cheese (2 x 250g pots)
150g caster sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
300ml cream (whipped)

For the raspberry topping
50g caster sugar
250g raspberries

TO MAKE THE BASE:
1. Grease a 23cm springform cake tin.
2. Wrap your biscuits in a clean tea towel and then using a rolling pin, bash them up until you have fine crumbs.
3. Put a pan over a low heat, add the oats and toast them until they turn darker in colour
4. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the pan with your biscuit crumbs. Gently stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture combines.
5. Remove from the heat and spoon the mixture into your cake tin, smoothing it out evenly.
6. Gently push down on the biscuit base using the back of a metal spoon, or your hands - you want to pack it down flat and even
7. Put the base in the fridge to chill and set for 1 hour.

TO MAKE THE FILLING:
1. If using a vanilla pod, cut in half lengthways and gently drag the edge of your knife along the insides of hte pod to scrape out the seeds
2. Put all the cream cheese in a mixing bowl, add the vanilla seeds (or essence), and the caster sugar
3. Grate over the zest of the lemon and orange, and then squeeze in the juice from the lemon
4. Give it a good stir until nice and smooth
5. In another bowl, whisk your cream until it gives you soft 'peaks'. Add half of it to your cream cheese mixture and fold it in. Then fold in the other half gently.
6. Once everything is blended, spoon the mixture over the biscuit base and use a spatula to smooth it out.
7. Place the cheesecake back in the fridge for at least an hour.

TO MAKE THE TOPPING
1. Place the cheesecake on a serving plate.
2. Mix the sugar and raspberries in a bowl - use your hands and scrunch them together.
3. Pour this mixture over the top of the cheesecake and smooth it out to the edges using the back of a spoon.

Serve and enjoy!

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