I had some friends over for dinner recently and I relish the chance to cook for people so I planned a three course meal. I wanted to make things that I could prepare in advance, so that while my friends were there I could concentrate on good conversation and enjoying the night. I started with a butternut squash soup, which I could easily prepare in advance and heat up to serve. I used this recipe, I omitted the chilli and added an extra garlic clove. It was delicious! I will definitely make this again. For the main course I homemade some chicken kievs and served them alongside sweet potato wedges and salad. Again, I prepared this in advance and simply popped into the oven whilst my guests enjoyed their soup. For desert I decide a cheesecake would be perfect as I could make it the day before and serve it up without any hassle on the night.
I started by crushing 150g digestive biscuits in a bowl with the end of a rolling pin. You can also whizz them into crumbs using a food processor if you have one.
I melted 90g butter in a pan on a low heat, and greased and lined the bottom of a 24cm springform cake tin.
I mixed the butter and crushed biscuits together and pressed them into the cake tin. I made sure they were compact and evenly spread.
In a bowl over some heated water I melted 200g dark chocolate.
While this was melting I used my food mixer to mix together 400g cream cheese, 2 eggs and 60g caster sugar. I then added 200ml double cream and mixed again. Finally I added the melted chocolate, 2 tbsp orange liquor and the zest and juice of 1 orange and mixed until smooth.
I poured the mixture into the tin over the biscuit base and baked on 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 for 45 minutes.
When the cheesecake was baked I let it cool completely, before putting it in the fridge overnight. The next day I made a chocolate buttercream using 60g butter, 30g cocoa powder, 100g icing sugar and 2 tbsp orange liquor. I piped swirls onto the cheesecake and added a slice of Terry's Chocolate Orange to decorate.
When my friends were ready for desert I just took this out of the fridge and served it straight away! It was so creamy and delicious, with a great orange flavor. Do you have any dinner party cooking tips?
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.
