#englandsgray

Super simple recipe that I’ve been making for years.  I always get positive responses and requests to make more.😊

Thank you again to @thegreatbakerstreetbakeoff for such a fun event!

Ingredients

2 cups (200 g) of ginger snap cookies

4 Tbsp (57 g or 60 ml) salted butter-melted

16 oz (452 g) of cream cheese (Neufchatel cheese) warmed to room temp

1/2 cup (100 g) sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) vanilla extract

1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) lemon juice

cherry pie filling

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C)

Line cupcake pans with foil liners and set aside

Crush (in a bag) or grind (in a food processor) the cookies into crumbs

Combine crumbs with melted butter and mix well

Fill the bottom of each liner with crust mixture and press down to compact

In a bowl, blend together cream cheese and sugar

Blend in eggs by adding one at a time and stirring (mix on low speed) until just incorporated

Add vanilla extract and lemon juice and stir until incorporated

Pour mixture into liners on top of crust and fill 1/2 to 2/3 full

Bake for 12-20 minutes until centers are almost set

Remove from oven and cool (tops will shrink and crack)

When cool, spoon cherry pie filling on top of each

Recipe makes 16-20 mini cheesecakes

Guidelines: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all.) Choose your favourite opening line, tag some friends.

Here are the opening lines from my top 20 Sherlolly fics by kudos (because why not?)

1. Life Interrupted: By the time 22-year-old Molly Eleanora Hooper realized she was pregnant, it was too late to do anything about it.

2. Arranged: “This is an incredible waste of time.” [Sherlock speaking to John]

3. The Side of the Angels: His wings were black, edged with silver that glowed faintly even in the brightest sunlight, matching the silver sigils etched into his skin, the scripture he’d elected to carve into his flesh in one of his few concessions to the traditions of his kind.

4. The Fire In Which We Burn: The dream is always of fire, the nightmare that jolts her awake at least once every few months, starting at the onset of puberty.

5. First Night: “Your majesty, where are you going?” [John, speaking to Sherlock]

6. A Question of Honour: Captain Sherlock Holmes, officer in His Majesty's Army, swung wearily down from the saddle before handing the horse off to the private waiting to assist him.

7. Torn: Christmas Eve, 2011. Sherlock and John’s flat, 221B Baker Street. A Christmas party, to which Molly Hooper, St. Bart’s youngest staff Pathologist, had been invited. [Just the one sentence seemed a bit anticlimactic so I included the first paragraph instead]

8. The Ruination of Miss Molly Hooper: “Sherlock, your mother and I have decided it is time for you to take a wife.” [Sherlock's father, Tarquin]

9. Parva Victoriis (Little Victories): Mariana Tullia Hortensius [Molly] had never bought a slave before, that duty having always fallen to her parents while they still lived.

10. The World As We Know It: It shouldn't have been possible for so small a number to suddenly be ruling the world, but the Vampires had been smart...and patient.

11. A Study In Ink: She can't help staring at the yellow-and-black tattoo so neatly inked on the inside of his right wrist.

12. Blame It On The Dress: The party was John’s idea, but Sherlock allowed it because what difference did it make?

13. Death Becomes Her: She’s helping her father when she sees him, the Alpha she’s positive is destined to be her mate.

14. Lesson Plan: Professor Sherlock Holmes idly flipped through a book of romantic poetry he’d pulled at random off the shelf behind him.

15. Writ In Thy Flesh: It was a rhyme every child in the UK knew, had heard since earliest childhood. [Be he worthy of ye, his name shall appear/Soulmates forever, eternal held dear.]

16. Bride of the River God: The River God was angry, so the Wise Woman announced to the tribe as they huddled on a hilltop, far from the raging waters that had cascaded over their banks in the wake of a series of storms the likes of which no one living had ever seen.

17. Proving You Wrong: Sherlock knew he was wrong - so very, very wrong - to eavesdrop on Molly and her friend Meena, but as soon as he heard his name mentioned his interest was piqued.

18. Return to Me: The steady beeps and pings of the machinery were the only sounds in the room besides the soft aspirations of the respirator.

19. Inferno: Sherlock wasn't stupid enough to bring Molly to the Holmes family estate, although it was closer than his flat in London. [Gosh, can anyone tell this is a sequel to another story, lol?]

20. Skógarhunang (Wild Honey): She was tending to her bees when it happened; one minute she was carefully removing a dripping honeycomb from the hive of bees she’d put into a smoke-induced stupor, and the next a large hand had clamped itself over the lower part of her face, effectively smothering her cry of alarm.

Welp, these are certainly all over the place in length! This was a fun exercise. I tag any and all other Sherlolly writers who haven't already done this to join in the fun!

I don’t believe this is what Lestrade baked in the story, but they looked yummy and I’d never made or tasted them before.🤷‍♀️

They were SUPER sweet and yummy and approved by two tasters who had eaten them before.😊

Thanks again to @thegreatbakerstreetbakeoff

Macaron recipe:  www.bromabakery.com/foolproof-macaron-recipe-step-by-step/

*Buttercream recipe:  www.allrecipes.com/recipe/174347/quick-and-almost-professional-buttercream-icing/

*I used heavy cream instead of milk in the recipe.  This was also the buttercream I used with my cupcakes.

Another Sherlolly inspired recipe selection-cherries for Molly and ginger for Sherlock.

My kids weren’t thrilled when they tasted the candied ginger so I only used half the amount listed in the recipe, however they loved the cookies.  These cookies were absolutely delicious and ended up being a big hit with both my children and my other taste testers.  I’m going to bump the candied ginger up to full strength for my next batch.

Recipe from www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/10/cherry-ginger-cookies.html

Thank you @thegreatbakerstreetbakeoff

Butterfly Cakes and Cherry Surprise Honey Cupcakes

I selected the cupcake recipe below because it included the cherries for Molly and honey for Sherlock. This recipe was also used for the Butterfly Cakes however I used raspberry filling instead of cherry.

The cupcake is not as sweet as a traditional cupcake (it uses honey instead of sugar) but it is a nice balance to the fruit filling and homemade buttercream frosting.

Thank you @thegreatbakerstreetbakeoff for organizing this fun event!

Recipe from www.natashaskitchen.com/cherry-surprise-honey-cupcakes-recipe/