RASPBERRY CHEESECAKE CUPCAKES WITH SPECULOOS BISCUITS AND WHITE CHOCOLATE BASE

The only way to top a cupcake in my eyes is to make it a CHEESECAKE cupcake. (I was going to try to join the two words a la cronut but it doesn’t work. Cheesecupcakes isn’t so catchy).

These little desserts are perfect for a dinner party –make ahead and chill in the fridge.

For those outside Belgium, Speculoos is a spiced biscuit you’ll very often receive with your coffee and it’s pretty much Belgium’s national biscuit. They also do a ‘speculoos flavoured paste’ which sound dubious but is almost certainly the tastiest thing you can get in a tub.

I’ve only bought it once. Mostly because I can’t trust myself not to finish it with a spoon again.. If you’re into biscuit pastes (and you should be), this one is for you. Fer reeeal.

Anyway, the speculoos with the nuggets of white chocolate make for an amazing cheesecupcake (I’m making this a thing) base

Makes 8 cupcakes

300g cream cheese

90g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp plain flour

3tbsp crème fraiche

1 egg

1 egg yolk

50g butter

100g-120g raspberries

4 digestive biscuits

4 speculoos biscuits

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Place the biscuits in a food processor and whizz (or if you need to de-stress…put them in a freezer bag and bash). Add the white chocolate and pulse for a couple of times so they’re broken up but the chunks are still sizeable enough.

Melt the butter and mix into the whizzed biscuits.

Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl to ‘loosen’ it up a bit. Line each cupcake case with a few spoonfuls of the butter biscuit mixture.

Add the sugar, vanilla, flour, egg , yolk and crème fraiche and beat until smooth.

Line each biscuit base with a layer of raspberries. I use frozen raspberries because FIVE EUROS FOR A PUNNET OF RASPBERRIES-WHAT THE FUP!? You can’t tell the difference. Promise

Spoon the mixture in to the cases right to the top.

Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes or until the cupcakes are baked but with, as Ms Lawson puts it, ‘a thigh wibble’ in the middle.

Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Remove from the cases and serve with a couple of raspberries if you like!

xx