Cheesecake and water fights

The unexpectedly fabulous weather that hit London over the last week as us Brits in paroxyms of delight. We have all been running around in bikinis and cutaways. Unfortunately, we in the South East are still having to observe a hosepipe ban. My kids and I have circumvented this with water guns, filled every five seconds from the indoor tap or the water butt (slug ridden, unfortunately, and the kids are a bit squeamish). Water guns are notoriously badly made - OK, I do tend to come over a bit neanderthal with one in my hands but I've never yet used one that had a shelf life of longer than a week. So, we graduated pretty quickly to plastic bottles, mini watering cans and washing up bowls. Yup, we got soaked, and it was brilliant. Of course, the kids were at a huge advantage having two working feet each compared to my one and a half. When you have to hobble and cannot run, accuracy becomes crucial and I've never been a good shot, which meant that the lawn got a good old watering along with the kids. When we weren't finding creative ways round the hosepipe ban, we were making cheesecakes - chocolate ones, lots of them. A Jewish festival with cheesecake at its heart has my name written all over it, and I turned out cheesecake after chocolate cheesecake. Organic Green and Black dark chocolate which melts mesmerisingly, smoothly and creamily; digestive biscuit base; and, loads of low fat cheese and eggs/egg yolks, with golden caster sugar, sour cream and lemon juice. This started life as a Nigella recipe but I must have made it a hundred times and have played around with the ingredients so much that it's taken on a life of its own. All I know is, that the tart contrast of lemon juice and sour cream, to the sugar and intensity of the dark chocolate, produces a texture you would willingly sell your possessions to get a mouthful of. And the greatest thing about a cheesecake that uses yolks, is all that leftover egg white, subsequently whipped up, sugar and chocolate chips added, turns itself beautifully and obligingly into a mountain of meringues. OK OK, the festival didn't call for meringues. I did.