Creme Egg Cheesecake

Simple, yet eye catching Chocolate Creme Egg Cheesecake, definitely not for the faint hearted!

It’s Good Friday and I’m starting this four day weekend right, with a deliciously indulgent slice of no-bake chocolate cheesecake including a few hidden Creme Eggs. After all, it is Easter so a chocolate packed cheesecake with the naughtiest of all Easter treats had to be done! Am I right or am I right?!

Living in the countryside has its ups and its downs, sourcing white candy melts this week was definitely one of the downsides of living in the middle of nowhere! I only decided to make a Creme Egg Cheesecake at the beginning of the week, which left me with little time to source my more exotic ingredients (yes, candy melts are exotic in Northamptonshire, apparently). After returning home a couple of times empty handed from local towns resulted in me forking out 8 bloomin’ pounds for next day delivery from Hobby Craft! That’ll teach me for not forward planning recipes, but I did make it worth the postage by treating myself to some new piping nozzles.

If, like me, you live in the wilderness and don’t fancy an 8 pound postage charge, then this easy Chocolate Creme Egg Cheesecake can certainly be enjoyed without the simple decoration. However, I’m pretty sure white chocolate and white food colouring would work just as well (but, don’t hold me to that!) If you don’t mind your egg white looking a bit yellow and you don’t want to buy white food colouring, then just use white chocolate.

How are you celebrating Easter? Maybe with a Chocolate No-bake Creme Egg Cheesecake too? Oh you are, well you’ll find my recipe very useful then. First, you will need to make sure you have a lined 6 1/2 inch loose bottom tin, a lined baking tray, two piping bags and a palette knife!

Ingredients

For base:

125 grams of digestive biscuits
50 gram of unsalted butter, melted

For filling:

150 grams of dark chocolate, melted
100 grams of milk chocolate, melted
400 grams of soft cheese, room temperature
50 grams of icing sugar
250 ml of double cream, chilled
2 tbsp of creme fraiche
1 bag of mini Creme eggs, chopped into quarters

For decoration:

50 grams of white chocolate, melted
orange food paste
100 grams of bright white candy melts
75 ml double cream

Method

Step 1: Place the digestives into a large mixing bowl or zip lock bag, using the end of a rolling pin bash the biscuits into a fine crumb. Next, pour the melted butter into the crushed biscuits, and mix together. Tip the buttery biscuit mix into the prepared tin, using the back of tea spoon press the biscuits down. Place in the fridge until the filling is ready to add.

Step 2: Put the room temperature soft cheese into your mixer along with the icing sugar, and mix on a low speed. Wrap a tea towel over the top of your mixing bowl to prevent a cloud of icing sugar escaping. Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer, pour in the chocolate, using a silicone spatula mix in the chocolate quickly. This prevents it from splitting.

Step 3: Place the mixing bowl back in the mixer, and add the double cream. Whisk on a medium speed until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove the bowl from the mixer once more, and fold in the chopped cream eggs, using a silicone spatula. Pour the mixture into your loose bottom tin and smooth with a spatula. Set the tin back in the fridge for 4 hours or over night.

Step 4: Once the cheesecake has set, remove it from the tin and place on a plate, then put it back in the fridge. Before you make the chocolate yolk, place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray, then draw around a circular glass or dish that you want the size of your yolk to be, using a pencil. Make the yolk by adding orange food paste to the melted white chocolate. Once you’ve got your Creme egg yolk colour, pour it into a piping bag, and snip of the end. Place the tip of the piping bag in the centre of your drawn circle and squeeze until the orange coloured chocolate reaches the edge of your circle. Place in the fridge to set.

Step 5: To make the egg white, place the candy melts in a small heat proof bowl and set aside. Pour the double cream into a small saucepan and heat on a very low heat. Keep stirring the cream to stop it from burning to the pan. Remove it from the heat immediately when it starts to boil and pour over the candy melts. Keep stirring until all the candy melt lumps have gone. Leave for 10-15 minutes to thicken. Pour some of the mixture onto the top of your cheesecake keep adding more until you have your desired egg shape, use a small pallet knife to aid you. You might have some mix left over.