Winnie the Pooh Hunny Cheesecake Cupcakes

I can only imagine my Mother shuddering and reaching for her red pen to correct my typo in the title. So Mummy Dearest, you'll have to forgive me for sticking true to the story and making some Winne the Pooh Hunny Cheesecake Cupcakes.

I could have made a regular honey flavoured cupcake but I felt like something a little more rich and creamy. I decided to do a variation on the pumpkin cheesecake that I made the week previously so that the colour was true to Pooh but the sweetening was done through honey instead of sugar. The choice for a cheesecake cupcake was also due to a loathing of stale or expired food (it's a response I think to my parents having sauces in their fridge from 1984). I had 3/4 of a packet of biscuits left from the Pumpkin cheesecake as well as some Pumpkin and neither myself or husband eat biscuits much so it seemed fitting to use these up as soon as possible before staleness set in.

Winnie the Pooh was extremely hard to do, his body was fine, but his face with the upturned nose required several attempts. Indeed I had a range of different Winnie heads, some resembling pigs or dogs before I finally settled on the real Winnie. And I know, Winnie is not _that _orange but I was a little too eager with the red colouring and ran out of fondant. I also know that Winnie wears a red shirt but I couldn't muster up the energy to do a red shirt on top of his body given the struggle I had with his head I talked myself into figuring the Winnie must have had some naked moments every now and then.

Winnie the Pooh Hunny Cheesecake Cupcakes

• 100g digestive biscuits

• 60g soft butter

• 250g cream cheese

• 125g pumpkin, well drained

• 3 eggs

• 100g honey

For Winnie the Pooh

• Golden yellow fondant

• Chocolate fondant (a very small amount)

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160c fan forced. In a food processor process the biscuits and butter until the mixtures resembles wet sand. Using a spoon, press a thin layer down into patty cases.

Step 2 - Blend cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth then add eggs and honey and pulse until blended.

Step 3 - Pour into cupcake cases until a few mms below the edge. Then bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Meanwhile get on with the Winne the Pooh decorations

Winnie the Pooh Fondant decorations

• Golden fondant (mine was a bit too orange but I find that fondant colouring fades)

• a small amount of black or chocolate fondant for eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth

• A chopstick with a pointy end to make ear holes

Step 1 - Make the necessary pieces, 3 balls in a graduating size, two logs: one for legs and one for arms which are smaller than the legs plus2 small balls for the ears.

Step 2 - Place the middle sized ball on top of the largest sized ball and then cut the larger log into half and place legs around bottom ball.

Step 3 - Cut smaller arm logs into two and shape into arms and place them between the two balls resting on the top of the largest ball. You can position one arm to go up a bit further.

Step 4 - Shaping the head is the hardest part. Winnie has big cheeks and a slightly upturned nose so try and shape this as best you can. I found it helped somewhat to look at 3D pictures of Winnie using google images.

Step 5 - Press the small end of a Japanese chopstick into the small ear circle and press against the back of the head.

Step 6 - Now using very, very small amounts of chocolate fondant shape eyes (Winnie has small eyes), round eyebrows and a nose. This is intricate work and easy to lose pieces and your patience so take your time.

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