Red velvet blondies

Make some gorgeous red velvet blondies with a cheesecake swirl. They're ideal for the cake tin over the Christmas period when you may have guests dropping by

Ingredients

• 175 g butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for the tin
• 200 g light brown soft sugar
• 100 g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or bean paste
• 200 g plain flour
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 200 g white chocolate, chopped, or use white chocolate chips
• red food colouring gel
• 100 g soft cheese
• 1 egg yolk (freeze the white to use in another recipe)
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp caster sugar

Steps

1. Melt the butter and both sugars together in a pan over a low heat, adding a pinch of salt if the butter is unsalted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 mins. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter a 23cm square tin or 25 x 20cm baking tin and line with baking parchment.
2. Beat the eggs and vanilla into the cooled butter and sugar mixture until well combined. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then gently fold in until smooth. Fold in the white chocolate chunks and enough of the red food colouring to make the batter a deep red colour. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin.
3. Whisk the cheesecake ingredients together in a bowl, then spoon this randomly over the blondie batter. Use a skewer to gently swirl the cheesecake mixture into the batter for a marble effect.
4. Bake for 35-40 mins until the edges come away from the sides of the tin, the top has a papery crust and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it, but no wet batter. (They’ll firm up as they cool.) Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully. Will keep in an airtight container for three days.