One of my big food loves is carrot cake, another is cheesecake – pretty much any flavour, any kind – baked or chilled I’m not at all fussy!  Anyway, I had heard about this new craze for carrot cake cheesecake and decided to have a bash at it.  However, my eldest is not a fan of carrot cake (with my genes?? don’t know what happened there!) but she will eat anything if it’s in a flapjack so I thought I’d create a whole new dessert.

It was pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Here’s the recipe:

For the flapjack base

70g oats

40g brown sugar (white is fine if that’s what you have in the cupboard)

40g self raising flour

70g grated carrot (about 1 medium carrot)

30g walnut pieces

1 tbs golden syrup or honey

30g butter

1. Mix the first 5 ingredients together.
2. Melt the butter and syrup together and stir in.
3. Press into a pie dish and bake for 10-12 mins at 180° until golden.

Allow to cool completely and then pile on the cheesecake topping …

For the topping

200ml double cream, whipped

70g icing sugar

1 tub Philadelphia or own brand cream cheese

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla essence

zest of a small orange or clementine

1. Beat the cheese and add the icing sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and orange zest.
2. Stir in the whipped cream, making sure it is fully mixed in.
3. Plonk/bung/smooth it over the flapjack base and chill for a couple of hours.
4. Enjoy!  And try not to eat too much, like me, or you will feel sick (but it was worth it)!