Chocolate Cheesecake

This is a “new breed” of cheesecake – this baked chocolate cheesecake has the rich and smooth fudginess of a chocolate torte, and although baked, it does not create that dry peanut-butter mouth feel synonymous with baked cheesecakes.

Ingredients

Crust –

• 240g Chocolate coated digestive biscuits, crushed
• 125g Butter

Filling –

• 500g  Cream cheese
• 250g Mascarpone
• 175g Castor sugar
• 2 Eggs (extra-large), beaten
• 300g Dark chocolate

Heat oven to 180°C. Mix together the biscuit crumbs and butter (melt the butter if you are mixing by hand or blitz the biscuits and unmelted butter together in the food processor). Press the crumbs evenly into a 24cm spring-form cake tin/ deep tart dish. Bake the base for 10mins to crisp and then let it cool while you make the filling.

Turn oven down to 150°C. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Beat the cream cheese and mascarpone until smooth (use a mixer – it’s easier).  Add the sugar and eggs to the cheese, then add the melted chocolate and mix well, be careful not to over mix as the mixture might curdle.

Pour the filling over the baked base and bake for approx. 30 – 40 minutes. Bake the cheesecake until all but the very centre of the cheesecake is set (don’t worry about the wobbly bit in the middle as it will carry on cooking as it cools). Cool completely on a rack before chilling overnight.

TIP: Put a dish of hot water on the bottom rack of the oven – this will stop a skin forming on top of the cheesecake.

TIP: Run a knife around the edge of the tin to free the filling from the sides, do this as soon as you take it out of the oven. As the cheesecake cools and sets, it also shrinks, if the mixture is stuck to the side of the tin it will split in the middle.

We decorated our sublime cheesecake slices with polka-dots of white Heart Cake Confetti.