Cherry Almond Cream Cheese Treats (For Red Nose Day)

It’s Red Nose Day on 24^th March and with that in mind I thought I would share a couple of recipes this month that can be knocked up quite easily for a bake sale on the big day.

I remember the first Red Nose Days back in the late 1980’s – I was at school and it was always a huge event, as it is nowadays.

I got my red nose in Woolworths and back then they were made of hard plastic. You wore it as long as you could before the pain set in – it was like having razor blades clipped to your nose. Thankfully now they are made of a much kinder soft rubbery material and are much more comfortable.

I also remember the singles released. In 1989 it was Lananeeneenoonoo along with Bananarama.

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Lananeeneenoonoo was comprised of Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke acting a lot like a badly behaved Bananarama. Both groups were on the single, which was a cover of The Beatles ‘Help’ – I still have my copy on 7” vinyl!

Back to 2017 however and whilst we may still being doing something funny for money, a lot of folk are embracing that favourite pastime of the UK – baking. And Bake Sales are happening all over the place.

This recipe is super-simple as it only has 4 ingredients – cream cheese, icing sugar, almond extract and cocktail cherries. The icing sugar and cream cheese are whipped into a dough and made into small discs. They are chilled and then with a utensil (I used a wine cork – red wine of course!) a small dent is made in the disc. To this half a cocktail cherry is added.

At this stage you can add eyes or a mouth. I used some shop bought candy eyes (this does make it 5 ingredients I’ve just realised) or you could get some black icing, or melted chocolate to add on the fizzog.

These treats need to be chilled before serving. They are soft and pillowy mounds of almondy tasting sweet cream cheese with a tangy fruity burst from the cherry. I used cocktail cherries as they are really bright in colour and they were perfect for a red nose. You could use glace cherries too, but they wouldn’t be quite so bright.

These are a great item to sell at a bake sale and raise cash for a very worthwhile cause – to help disadvantaged people here in the UK and also across in Africa.

Give these a try and let me know what you think. Stay tuned for more Red Nose Day treats soon.

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Cherry Almond Cream Cheese Treats

by S Vettese March-08-2017

almond flavoured cream cheese fondant topped with a cherry

Ingredients

• 115 grams full-fat cream cheese
• 560 grams icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 225 gram jar of cocktail cherries
• Embellishments such as candy eyes, chocolate etc. for making eyes and a mouth (optional)

Instructions

In a food mixer beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar and almond extract (slowly at first or the sugar will go everywhere) until a dough forms.Pinch little mounds, just less than a tablespoons worth and with hands dusted in icing sugar roll them into a ball then flatten slightly into a disk.Place these on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and when all are done, place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.Take the jar of cocktail cherries and remove half the amount of cherries as there are cream cheese discs.Dry these with some kitchen paper and with sharp knife cut each cherry in half.Make an indentation into each disc (a wine cork is an ideal size) and add the cherry into the hole, curved side up.Add eyes or a mouth at this point if doing so. Refrigerate again until ready to eat/sell!

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Chill time: 2 hrs Total time: 2 hrs 15 mins Yield: 40 treats approx.