Cherry Cheesecake Trifle for One & Liebster Award

One of my favorite quick snacks when I'm hungry but lazy is to spread cream cheese on a digestive biscuit and add a dollop of jam on top. What you get out of this is a mouthful that tastes almost exactly like cheesecake. I thought posting about that would be just too little effort for this blog, even for me, so I fancied it up a little bit to get this cherry cheesecake trifle.  

It has been a busy busy week for me with barely time for any baking at all, and in all honesty I made this two weeks ago. But if I hadn't run out of cream cheese this week I would have definitely made it again, cause I could have used it. Sometimes you just need a little something for that solitary moment of pleasure amidst the craziness of everything else. It helps, of course, that it can be made in 5 minutes flat.

Cherry Cheesecake Trifle 
(For one... or I suppose if you're feeling generous, you could share)

2 digestive biscuits (or graham crackers)
3-4 tsps of good quality cherry jam
4 tbsp of cream cheese (spreadable one works great here)
2 tsps icing sugar

Crush the digestive biscuits in a ziplock to fine crumbs.  Stir together cream cheese and icing sugar with a fork until no lumps remain.

In a glass, layer a third of the biscuit crumbs at the bottom.  Follow this with half of the cream cheese mixture.  Add half the cherry jam on top.  Repeat with crumbs, cream cheese and jam, finishing with a final crumb layer.  Eat immediately.

In other news, the lovely Sonali has nominated me for the Liebster Award! I am so pleased that my little six-month-old blog has been nominated. In case you don't know, Sonali's blog Sugar et al is a goldmine of sweet things, and I have a secret crush on all her cupcakes. She's got some serious skills with a piping bag. But my favorite would have to be her Persimmon Creme Brulees, the photos in that post are breathtaking. Thank you so much, Sonali!

About the award

The Liebster award is given to encourage up and coming blogs, less than 200 followers, to continue blogging. Liebster is a Deutsche word meaning 'dear' or 'beloved'. So basically here, it means your favourite blog award.

Rules of the award 

1) Acknowledge the nominating blogger 

2) Write 11 random facts about yourself 

3) Answer the 11 questions posed to you by the nominating blogger 

4) List down 11 bloggers (with 200 or less followers) who you feel deserve to be recognised (you cannot nominate the person who nominated you). 

5) Post 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate 

6) Inform all the bloggers you nominated that they have been nominated. 

11 Random facts about me

1) I watch TV obsessively... but never on an actual TV. Shows I love at the moment include Sherlock, Suits, Downton Abbey and Nashville.

2) I can speak three languages: English, Cantonese and Mandarin. I tried learning French once and failed miserably.

3) Sometimes, I wish I had a British accent.

4) My favorite poet is Emily Dickinson. 

5) I have a deep fear of cockroaches. I blame this on my mother for letting me inherit her irrational fears.

6) I know how to play the guitar. Well, sort of.

7) I am a total bookworm and I hoard books shamelessly. Books are often the things that deplete whatever sad amount there is in my bank account.

8) I like to color code things. Clothes, books, post-it notes. 

9) When people ask me if there is a specific person who inspired me to study law, I answer with Atticus Finch and Sandy Cohen. They are indeed both fictional.

10) I don't have my ears pierced and I like it. This befuddles people.

11) It took me two years after creating this blog to actually start using it. Fact: I am indecisive.

Answers to Sonali's questions

1) What do you enjoy the most about blogging?

I can't possibly just say one thing here, so I'm going to give you a list: having an outlet to write, a better excuse to bake more, stepping out of my kitchen comfort zone, getting to know other food bloggers and learning so, so much about food and food photography. Better than any class I could have taken.

2) Sweet or Savory?

Sweet. Always.

3) Your favourite kitchen tool?

I'm going to go the old fashioned way and say my trusty wooden spoon, because it always gets the job done. 

4) Your most prized possession?

Hmm... my grandparents have given me bits of jewelry that are among my most prized possessions, one of my favorites is a pearl necklace that I received a few years ago. And old photographs are priceless, I keep them in a little box on my bookshelf.

5) Your biggest 'purchase' regret?

I bought this hair braiding mechanism when I was 11 that I think I used once and never touched again. I'm still not quite sure how it works, actually, but it remains in my room gathering dust. It was shiny and pink and purple and so naturally I clamoured to have it at the time.

6) Your favourite memory?

Food-related wise, one of my favourites would have to be the first time I baked together with my friends, which was when two of my best friends in high school came over to my house and we made chocolate banana cupcakes and baked alaska. I remember we couldn't quite decide on what to put on the cupcakes so we put a layer of melted chocolate, then a layer of chocolate frosting and topped it with chocolate sprinkles. We made a complete mess of the kitchen and the living room but it was worth it.

7) If you were told that you could live for one more day only, what would you like to do?

Eat luxuriously. With my closest friends and family. On a beach. Under the sun. 

8) Your dream holiday spot?

This changes whenever someone tells me of a new place I haven't heard of yet! But I've wanted to go to Venice in Italy for years, that would definitely be a dream spot.

9) If you were a season, which one best describes you?

Spring, maybe? I like to look at the bright side of things, and I like that spring signifies a new start and the change in color and mood that it brings along.

10) Something you carry with you all the time?

My phone, but that just seems boring and obvious. I also pretty much always have a book with me (yes, I'm that girl), currently I've been carting around M.L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans, which is proving every bit as good as recommended.

11) Your ideal 3 course menu?

Oh dear. I have no idea. How do you plan a 3 course menu?

My 11 questions to the nominated bloggers

1) What is your guilty food pleasure?

2) A cookbook that you can't live without?

3) What's the one kitchen tool that you don't have but you're dying to get?

4) Who inspires you the most in life?

5) Where did you go for your most recent vacation?

6) Biggest pet peeve?

7) When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

8) If you were given the opportunity to spend the day with a celebrity, who would you choose?

9) How did you come up with your blog name?

10) What is one thing you can't leave home without?

11) Three words to describe yourself?

My nominations

These are all blogs I love to visit, check them out if you haven't before!

(I've tried to check follower numbers but they're not all that obvious for every blog. Apologies if you've already gotten this or if you have more than 200 followers, I have honestly no idea.)

And the Liebster Award goes to....[drumroll, please]:

- Rosie from Blueberry Kitchen

- Sandie from Crumbs of Love

- Jharna from Baking Myself Happy

- Keely from Gormandize

- Lola from Figs & Brie

- Stephanie from The Dessert Spoon

- Adriana from Food Cocktail

- Bourbonnatrix from Bourbonnatrix Bakes

There are only 8 here, evidently I have to go and get to know more bloggers. But that's my list for now - congratulations to all!