Your favourite fruit flavoured pig shaped gummy sweet meets cheesecake

In the first instalment of Get Baking with Bulldog I'll be talking you through how to make one of our popular cheesecakes. Everyone's favourite fruit flavoured pig shaped gummy sweet (now that's a mouthful) tastes even better in cheesecake form!

You might have seen this cheesecake on our socials or in the Bakehouse, but if you fancy making it yourself at home here's how.

Things you'll need

• Microwave safe bowl
• Stand mixer with whisk attachment or a hand whisk
• Springform cake tin (ours is 22cm)
• Microwave

These amounts make a cheesecake big enough for at least 8 generous portions

Ingredients

• 600g soft cheese (we use supermarket own brand 200g tubs)
• 400g packet of those generic fruit flavoured pig shaped sweets
• 300ml of double cream
• 150g icing sugar
• 300g of biscuits of your choice (we use oaty biscuits & digestives)
• 100g butter
• Berry puree/sauce (Optional)

First things first, make your base:

1. Melt 100g of butter in the microwave while you crush up your biscuits. We use a food blender to do this but you can also bash away at the biscuits in a bowl using a rolling pin. 
2. Thoroughly mix the crushed up biscuits into the melted butter
3. Empty the buttery crushed biscuits into your tin and flatten firmly with the back of a spoon to give you a nice even layer of a biscuit base

Next make your filling

1. Divide up your piggy sweets, keep 8 aside for decorating later and roughly spilt the rest into 2 piles. Roughly chop 1/2 of your piggy sweets into small chunks and pop aside. Place the other 1/2 into a microwavable safe bowl with a small amount of water. Melt in a microwave in 30 second intervals until you get a thick sticky mixture. Be careful because these pigs get HOT, and incredibly sticky! Allow to cool for 5-10 mins before continuing
2. Into a big bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) add your soft cheese, icing sugar, melted piggies and chopped piggies. Whisk together starting on a slow speed and gradually increase until well combined.
3. Give this a scrape down with a spatula or spoon and add in your double cream before returning to the whisk. Start slow and gradually work up to full speed on your whisk. Continue whisking until the mixture holds it shape and looks similar to thick whipped cream
4. Spread the piggy cheesecake mixture on top of your biscuit base. Be sure to tap gently to remove air bubbles and push that mixture into the tin before smoothing off the top
5. Drizzle over your puree or sauce if using and use a cocktail stick or other small object to swirl the puree into the cheesecake mix
6. Place the full piggies on top so that each portion of cheesecake will have it's own little pig once cut
7. Chill in the fridge for at least 12 hours, if not longer.
8. Once thoroughly chilled remove from the tin and slice into 8 even slices. Serve as is or with some cream poured on top!

Well done! Let us know how you get on and please share pictures of your own Piggy cheesecakes