Necrophenia and Cheesecake.

Are two things that i have been spending the last couple of days occupied with. And what a lovely pastime they make for those lazy days following Christmas. Before dubious images of what that may entail fill your mind, i’ll elaborate that Necrophenia (for those of you who have yet to be acquainted with it) is in actual fact a book written by one Robert Rankin, and cheesecake is actually something i baked for Christmas dessert.

In terms of goodness, the two are far from evenly matched. It seems now that i’ve gotten halfway through both (getting through the cheesecake has proved far easier, not to mention more enjoyable) i can justifiably conclude that the book (which features a rock band, Aleister Crowley, the summer of love, an army of zombies and the end of the world) cannot surpass the cheesecake (which features fresh mint, after eight chocolate filling and lemony raspberry-mint sorbet).

I think this is probably because of Rankin’s style of writing, which I find arch to the point of being supremely irritating, and the fact that halfway through the book, I remain oblivious to any kind of masterful plot it might contain. My disregard or lack of understanding for said book has nothing to do with the sugar high-induced attention deficit state in which I’ve so far been reading it.

I originally picked up the book because someone compared Rankin to Gaiman, who is the author of one of my all-time favourite books (that, and the fact that it had a neat skull design on the cover), which in itself sets the standard rather high. Yet to be impressed by Necrophenia, I think I’ll plough through till the end and hope it gets better.

This cheesecake, on the other hand, is pretty good. It’s a spin on the classic baked, cream cheese version, with melted after eight chocolates and fresh mint thrown in the mix for some extra minty goodness. Unfortunately this isn't a vegan version, but you can easily substitute the egg with an egg replacer and use vegan mint chocolate instead. I tend to stray from recipes when i bake, which is why the amounts are approximations, and i encourage you to adjust them as you go along, if need be. As the cake is quite rich, it's complemented nicely by a zesty raspberry sorbet, which is super easy to make. This cake will happily feed six greedy eaters, or eight normal ones. 

After Eight Cheesecake 

For the base

• about 200g (half a pack) of digestive biscuits
• handful of rice krispies (optional, but they add a nice crunch)
• 3 tablespoons of margarine

For the filling

• about 600g of vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand is pretty good)
• 3 organic eggs (or your choice of egg substitute)
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• about 200-250g of after eight chocolates (depending on how much mint chocolate you fancy)
• about 1dl of sugar (give or take, as much as you feel is needed)
• chopped fresh mint (a handful, or as much as you like)

Crush digestives, add rice krispies and melted margarine. Line your cake tin (ideally 23cm in diameter) with the mix and pop into a 180 degree oven for ten minutes.

Whisk together cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs one by one, whisking only until consistency is smooth. Throw in chopped mint. 

Melt most of the after eights in a water bath, adding a little water and the vanilla sugar. Chop remaining after eights into chunks. 

Mix melted after eights, chocolate chunks and whisked cream cheese together. 

Pour into cake tin, and place onto lowest level of oven. Place a dish of hot water underneath the cake tin to achieve best cheesecake baking results.

Bake at 165 degrees for about an hour and ten minutes. 

Raspberry-Mint Sorbet

• Raspberries (frozen work well for this)
• Juice of half a lemon
• Chopped fresh mint

Throw all ingredients in a food processor. Add lemon/lime/sugar to taste. When pleased with result, put mix into a freezer proof container and leave in the freezer until it has set, but isn't fully frozen. Use an ice cream scoop to serve sorbet with cheesecake. 

Enjoy. I recommend enjoying a slice (or seven) with a really good book.