Raspberry Cheesecake with Chocolate Cake

I have been contemplating for the past few hours how to name this cake. To call it a raspberry and chocolate cheesecake is not quite right. To call it a raspberry cheesecake with chocolate cake is possibly technically correct, but hardly a snazzy name.

I was inspired whilst combing Pinterest for some inspiration to make my love a birthday cake that is not the standard chocolate number. With a tight schedule at home and at work this week, I concocted something that wasn’t too difficult to make.

The end result is a beautiful layer of Varlhona chocolate sponge cake as my base, followed by a no bake lemony cheesecake (I tweaked the recipe slightly from a cherry cheesecake by Nigella. This is topped by a raspberry gelatin. I added some fresh raspberry finish the look and dusted some icing sugar on it. Icing sugar is to me like magic dust. Just a sprinkle of it will bring a blah looking cake to a chi-chi looking dessert.

Recipe

Chocolate sponge cake – any of your fav sponge will do. I got mine from a good friend and it is her specialty so I have been sworn into secrecy not to share the recipe. Sorry about that.

Cheesecake – from Nigella
Tweaks made – cream cheese was upped to about 400g. Cream reduced to about 120ml. Lemon juice was upped to the juice of 1 whole lemon. I basically wanted a lemony cheesecake that was still a tad dense but not overly dense. I reduced sugar to taste as well.

Raspberry gelatin
200g fresh raspberry
80-120g sifted icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons of gelatin powder
1/4 cup hot water

Purée the raspberry with the icing sugar in a blender. I added around 120g of sugar as my raspberries were really tart.
Once done, sieve it to separate the seeds and pulp. Pour half the purée into a saucepan and warm it through.
Add the gelatin powder into the hot water and stir quickly before adding the warm purée. Once mixed well, add the balance of the purée.

Assembly
I made a 7″ round chocolate sponge cake, about 1″ thick. Once cooled, I placed it on a cake base.

Using a 7″ round springform ring, I fenced it round the cake. This will be my “biscuit” base for the cheesecake.

After making the cheesecake mix, I poured it on top of the choc cake, making a smooth even finish with a spatula or the back of a warm spoon if you like. All this while, keep the ring on. Leave it in the fridge to chill for at least 3h or overnight.

Once the cheesecake has formed up, prepare the gelatin and pour it on top of the cheesecake. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Once it is firm to the touch, it is time to remove the ring, something that I do with bated breath. It will be easier to use a thin plastic spatula to loosen the sides of the gelatin first before you actually open up the catch of the springform ring.

I topped my cake with fresh raspberry and dusting some icing sugar on it. Serve and enjoy!

(No Bake) Green Tea Cheesecake

I had to use up the cream cheese sitting in my chiller very soon. Since I still had leftover matcha powder from my previous bake and frozen adzuki bean paste, I came up with the idea of a green tea cheesecake with a layer of adzuki bean paste and the biscuit layer typical of that in a standard cheesecake. Seriously, many of us probably enjoy the base more than the cheesecake itself. Right? At least I do.

The idea of a green tea cheesecake does yield a divided vote. Hubby and some friends think it is a strange combination. Whilst others say it rocks. The baker says the texture and mouth feel can be further improved. Note to self – thicker biscuit base next time.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can whip it up in no time. No baking required. Assuming that you have the adzuki bean paste made ahead of time, all that you need to do is blitz the biscuit base with softened butter together and press it down onto the base of your springform pan (or in my case, mini soufflé cases), then blitz all the cream cheese, matcha powder, some butter, cream and icing sugar together – voila!

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling
200g cream cheese
4 tablespoons matcha powder
150g icing sugar, sifted
100ml double cream or heavy cream for whipping

In a mixing bowl, cream everything together except the double cream till it is smooth. For the double cream, in a separate bowl, whip it till soft peaks form then gently fold it into the cream cheese mixture.

Adzuki Bean Paste
100g dried adzuki beans boiled with water till soft. Drain and mash or blitz with sifted icing sugar. Adjust your sugar levels to your taste. I say go with 50g first.

Biscuit Base
Blitz or crush 12-14 pieces of Digestive biscuits till it resembles bread crumbs. Add about 120 grams of softened butter and blitz till it clumps together. You can manually rub the butter into the crumbs with a spoon/fork. Press it into a 7″ springform round tin and let the sides come up a little.

Assembly
Spoon the adzuki beans on top of the biscuit base and press down till you get a compact layer.
Next, spoon the cream cheese mix on top of the bean layer. Chill in the fridge for at least 3h or overnight to set.
Let it sit out for 15-20min before eating/serving.