Bea, what have you started?

I am really sorry! Truly and deeply sorry for not keeping in touch and sharing my experience with food with you. Life gets in the way doesn't it? I know it’s no excuse. I promise to behave better in the future and I hope you encourage me to do so.

Even though I have been away for such a long time, my love for food hasn't faded. In fact judging from my waist line and the numerous transactions on my bank statement in food related outlets I must say it has become quite an obsession! My latest obsession is Bea’s of Bloomsbury.

My “wife” Chido stumbled upon her recently and couldn't believe that in all her 12 years in the UK, she was just discovering Bea. Bea’s of Bloomsbury is a restaurant in Chelsea, London that serves scrumptious food; from cakes to sandwiches. They have been voted by Timeout London as the best place to have thanksgiving meals two years in a row. That tells you something!  Here is a link to their website: http://www.beasofbloomsbury.com/.To Chido’s delight Bea also writes cook books. For days all I heard was Bea this and Bea that. If truth be told, I was getting quite jealous of Bea. I am  the obsessor of food in our relationship, I am the one that sends pictures of mouth watering food I have just made to Chido with the hope of a ‘pls send me a piece”, (I have been forced to send her all sorts of food packages through the post) or “I hate YOU, now I am hungry” response. This new dynamic was not working for me.

Last Friday I got a lovely surprise from wifey with an attached note: “I figured if I didn’t get you one, my copy would develop legs and follow his cousin to Aberdeen. I look forward to being your “Bea’s” official guinea pig!” (Yes I steal cook books! That's a story for another day). As I live in Aberdeen, I was over the moon that Bea was coming to me! If Muhammad can’t go to the mountain hey... I received this book around 3.30pm and it clearly marked the end of my working day as I simply couldn’t focus beyond Tea with Bea. The pictures alone drove me crazy. I leafed through the book several times, admiring the pictures, reading the recipes and the anecdotes.  What I love about the cook book is that I feel like Bea was my friend taking me through her favourite food; showing me how to recreate it. Oh and have I mentioned the pictures? You need to see it for yourself. I straightaway knew why Chido kept raving about it. I immediately I decided what version of her recipe I wanted to create and started jotting what ingredients I needed and what I already had in my pantry. Wow, I looked at the time, 5.29 pm. Armed with my list I hurried to the supermarket to buy ingredients for ‘Vanilla Cheese Cake with Berries’.

One of my colleagues parting words were ‘shall we expect treats on Monday?’ I always take cakes to work when ever I bake.

I decided to make the vanilla cheese cake as my past experience making cheesecake has not been great! I enjoyed crushing the digestive biscuits for the base and mixing it with melted butter. This cheese cake calls for a thick biscuits base (all 400 grams of biscuit!) to go with an equally thick cheese cake, which I think is selfless and generous. I find that thin biscuit base get soggy and ruins the entire cake. The smell of melted butter does something to my sense of smell that I cannot explain to you guys. As in! The way it fills up the entire room with this "just baked" smell is just pure temptations. I challenge anyone to walk past a bakery very early in the morning (especially Marks and Spencer) without going in. Anyone! I. JUST. CAN’T. RESIST! 

Bea is not shy of full fat butter or cream. A woman after my own heart! For the cheese cake itself, a cup of whipping cream and a cup of caster sugar plus an obscene amount of cream cheese is required amongst other ingredients. You will need to refrigerate overnight before making the topping. Because I knew I would be too eager to finish it off I baked at night so I had no choice but to leave it in the fridge as I had work the next day. Once, I baked a chocolate cake and layered it with fudge icing too soon as I was too impatient, all the fudge melted onto the plate – lesson learnt! I rushed home the next day after work and mixed yet another cup of whipped cream, Mascarpone, more sugar vanilla extract and some fresh berries to make the topping. What do you think?  Does it look good to eat?

what it looks like inside...

I am in love with this cake (I was never a cheese cake fan). There are four different textures in this cake. The sweet juicy berries (at least you get one of your five a day); the creamy topping, the smooth and moist cheese cake and the crunchy biscuit base. LORD!  
 
If you are attempting to bake this cake I encourage you to share, share, and share. An uncle once said to me "if you eat alone, you will die alone!" I truly believe this statement. I made sure I offered everyone that came to visit me; I took more than half of it to work to share amongst my colleagues. I even posted some to my loved ones. Who wants to be fat and die alone? Oh and lets not forget that hips don't lie! 

P.S. All photographs are taken by me unless otherwise stated.