Why I'm Never Ordering from American Apparel again

My first and only experience with ordering online with American Apparel was disappointing - read on to discover how it ruined my plans to be a decent sibling on my sister's 21st birthday.

It's April 28th - and my sister tells me that for her birthday she would very much like the Glow in the Dark nail polish from American Apparel. I'm familiar with the brand but I've never ordered anything from them before, though I do like their clothing. 

I look it up, and despite being priced a little steep for a nail polish, it's for my sister's 21st on the 18th May and I knew she'd never buy it for herself at that price. I know she wants to wear it on her actual birthday - so I place the order then and there on April 28th.

I got it delivered to my sister's address directly, and stopped thinking about it after that. I figured it was on its way - job done (remember how I was going to be a decent sibling?). A week or so later my sister queries where it is. I tell her it's ordered and on its way. The week before her birthday she asks again and I decide to phone customer services.

"Oh," the representative says, "It looks like we didn't have stock of this item in our warehouse and we made a request to a local store for their stock. As far as I can see, we're still awaiting a response." 

I wasn't about to have a go at the woman, I know it's not her fault, though I asked her to chase it up. "I'll put another request in for the item today, but be advised it may take 2-3 weeks to arrive."

WEEKS?! Now I was frustrated. I politely muttered my thanks and quickly told my sister to expect disappointment.

The next day I see an email in my inbox to confirm the item has shipped - it's estimated delivery date was a week later, and unfortunately it was estimated correctly so it missed my sister's birthday. I began to wonder what would have happened if I'd never called customer services about the missing item. I thought that ordering 3 weeks prior would have been sufficient plus some, and I'm disappointed to have been wrong.

I'm not unrealistic, I know these things do happen with deliveries sometimes and perhaps I was just unlucky with American Apparel on this occasion. This blog post is more a commentary on how one bad experience can put a customer off from ever ordering again. Looking at their website, I did like a lot of stock - but I think I'll be putting money towards efficient services in future.

Gorgeous Honeycomb Cheesecake

I am very good at cheesecakes - as such, when it was a friend of mine's birthday recently, I decided to make a cheesecake in celebration of this, also because it's a shared favourite of ours.

The finished product - isn't it just beautiful? :-)

It's a fantastic recipe which I thought I'd share, especially when it's so easy to follow. Bear in mind though, this is a very rich and creamy cheesecake - so after about 30-40 minutes out of the fridge it does start to melt. You can see the strawberry version of this same recipe on the BBC website here

Ingredients:

250g digestive biscuits (the smaller packs are this size exactly!)
100g butter, melted
1 vanilla pod (or two teaspoons of vanilla essence will do)
600g soft cream cheese
100g icing sugar
284ml pot double cream
+ toppings of your choice

Equipment:

23cm loose-bottomed tin
Baking parchment
Plastic sandwich bag
Rolling pin (or similar solid object for biscuit-bashing)
Large mixing bowl
Dessert spoon
Electric Whisk

Steps:

1. Start with the base - butter and line a 23cm loose-bottomed tin with baking parchment. You could also make this in a foil tin if you wanted it to be portable and didn't mind bits sticking. Put the 250g of digestive biscuits inside of the plastic sandwich bag, seal the bag and crush the crumbs until they're fine using the rolling pin. Put the crumbs into a mixing bowl then pour over your 100g of melted butter. Using a spoon or fork, mix these thoroughly until the crumbs are completely coated in the butter. Tip them into your prepared tin and press down firmly with your spoon or fork to create a dense and even layer. Put this into the fridge to chill for at least an hour to ensure it is firm.

I use a spring-form tin - it's just my personal preference and what I have in the cupboard!

2. Vanilla pod time - if you (unlike me, ever) managed to find a genuine vanilla pod then slice it in half lengthways. Leave the tips in tact so that these two halves remain joined. Holding onto the tip of the pod, scrape out the seeds using a kitchen knife and keep them on a chopping board.
Now, if like me you live in England and are surrounded by supermarkets that barely provide different types of flour, then this step might be tricky. I have done this recipe several times just using vanilla extract (two teaspoons). If you're really lucky you might find a seeded vanilla extract which I used on this occasion for that speckled vanilla effect.

3. Make the filling - Put 600g of soft cheese, 100g of icing sugar and your vanilla (in whatever form it takes) into a large mixing bowl and beat together with an electric mixer until it's smooth. Now tip approximately 284ml of double cream into the bowl and continue to beat this until the mixture is combined and smooth. Take your pre-prepared base out of the fridge and spoon your cream mixture on the biscuit base. Tip: if you work from the edges inwards you can minimise air bubbles.
Smooth the top of the cheesecake down with the back of your spoon, making sure it's nice and level. Now put this in the fridge and leave it to settle overnight (the longer the better).

4. Un-moulding - Bring the cheesecake to room temperature about 30 minutes before you intend to serve it. If you're using a loose-bottom tin, put the base on top of a can and slowly pull the sides of the tin down. Now put the cake onto your serving plate, removing the baking parchment and base.

Personally, I would usually prefer the filling to be a little bit deeper but it is a VERY rich filling already so this recipe is perfect

5. Topping - this is where you can be creative. This cheesecake is a great base for a variety of flavours. In this instance, I got some milk-chocolate sauce and drizzled it across the entire surface of the cake. Using another sandwich bag, take a normal sized Crunchie bar and give it a decent bashing. For the large chunks in this instance I did use a sharp kitchen knife but it got a little messy with the honeycomb crumbs. Originally I would have liked to have used toffee sauce instead - but again with the lack of variety in my local supermarket (!). Still, this turned out very delicious and I was very proud!

Always a good idea to tidy up the edges before serving

Anyway, this is one of my all-time favourites that I thought I'd share as it can be really tricky to find a nice creamy cheesecake recipe. Enjoy!