Genuinely can’t tell if I’m into this or not.
The end of 2020 may be less than 50 days away, but you can bet the year still has a couple of curveballs to throw our way. And whilst most of them have been pretty nasty ones, today’s curveball is equal parts baffling and (potentially) delicious. Pleesecakes, the online bakery who’ve whipped up deliriously OTT cheesecakes for the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, are gearing up for the winter season with a cheesecake version of a festive classic. Yes, mark your diaries, for today is the day the world was gifted the knowledge of pigs in blankets cheesecake.
Guaranteed to inspire a Marmite-like split of opinion, the cheesecake – dubbed ‘The Notorious P.I.B’ (props for the name guys) – is happily acknowledged as Pleesecakes’ “most controversial cake to date”, and really does break all the norms of cheesecake. For starters, it’s a savoury cheesecake, which many cheesecake devotees might regard as a cardinal sin. Still, when that savoury cheesecake includes a cheddar cheese, oatmeal, and thyme base and builds festively from there, we’re more than willing to give it a chance.
The Notorious P.I.B filling is herbaceous, using fresh thyme, sage, and – in a sign of things to come – pigs in blankets. It’s then topped with a sweet caramelised onion chutney, and garnished with crispy pigs in blankets and sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Pleesecakes suggest it as an alternative to a festive cheeseboard, but your agreement with that probably rests on whether the pigs in blankets cheesecake is saintly or sacrilege.
Luckily for cheesecake traditionalists, Pleesecakes have some less divisive options to order this Christmas; try the ‘Rebel Without A Claus’, a chocolate orange cheesecake wrapped in a dark chocolate and praline feuilletine sphere, and topped with chocolate orange Kit Kat, Lindor, and Terry’s segments. Of course, if you’d prefer a more hands-on approach, you can order their festive DIY kit (‘Saint Nick’s Surprise BYOAH!’), which drops a readymade frozen pecan and fudge cheesecake at your door, with a mountain of toppings you can add to zhush it up, including homemade pecan fudge, caramel pecan cookie dough, and chocolate shards.
It’s at this point that I feel compelled to point out that with a savoury and a sweet option, you could now have cheesecake twice in the same meal come Christmas Day. And if that isn’t the literal dream, then I don’t know what is…
You can order Pleesecakes’ Christmas creations from their website. Do bear in mind that all cheesecakes need collecting from their HQ in Redhill, Surrey, or can be delivered within a 70-mile radius of RH1. The Festive BYOAH can be delivered nationwide if ordered via pre-sale.