Baking Mad! Valentine's Cheesecake

We entered a Baking Mad Valentine's bloggers competition, and were ecstatic to be selected as one of 15 blogs to receive an assortment of Silver Spoon and Nielsen Massey baking goodies with which we had to create a baked Valentine's spectacle. We found out on the afternoon of our February meeting that our blog had made it through to the "final 15", and the very next day the following wonderful goodies arrived:

We had to use at least three of these lovely products to make something we'd love to receive for Valentine's Day, so each of us dug around our recipe books and the interwebs to put forward our suggestions. Everyone in the club was offered the opportunity to vote for the recipe we entered into the competition, and the very clear favourite was a cookie dough cheesecake which included two types of ganache and Oreos; all the trimmings a good cheesecake should have! (We found our inspiration at the Willow Bird Bakery). We chose this because it's a really indulgent treat, which should only be eaten on special occasions, and which we'd all LOVE to receive on Valentines Day! 

The recipe might sound complicated, but that's simply not true; it was fun to bake and contrary to popular belief too many cooks do not spoil the broth, (5 of our club members got together to bake this special treat!) We christened our version the Baking Mad Cheesecake, as it contains a bit of everything, and - just like love itself -  is a bit mad.

You'll need a bit of room in your fridge or freezer before starting, a 6" springform tin - trust us a 6" cheesecake is enough - some tin foil and a baking tin to fit the cheesecake in for when it's in the oven (a lil Bain Marie so it cooks evenly).

Ingredients:

Base:

2 packets of Oreos (28 biscuits in total)

50g butter, melted

pinch of salt

Milk Chocolate Ganache:

300g Silver Spoon milk chocolate cake covering

100ml double cream (or elmlea)

Filling:

500g cream cheese (full fat if possible)

200g caster sugar

75g plain flour

1 sachet Silver Spoon vanilla paste

2tsp golden syrup

3 large eggs

Cookie Dough:

100g butter, softened

150g light brown sugar (although white caster will do)

125g plain flour

Silver Spoon Giant Snownies, broken
white chocolate chips

White Chocolate Ganache:

100g Silver Spoon easy melt white chocolate

50ml double cream (or elmlea)

You'll also need some Silver Spoon duo chocolate hearts and Silver Spoon white chocolate letters for decoration.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and make sure your shelf is in the middle; you don't want it too high up.

It's best to start at the bottom, so crush up the Oreos in either a food processor or just attack them with a rolling pin (I'd advise you put them in a food bag first). Then pour in the melted butter and a pinch of salt, and mix til they're all combined. Press into your well greased springform tin, being sure to make sides for the cheesecake too so you get more of that tasty biscuit base. The Willow Bird Bakery provided a great tip to use a glass to press in the corners of your biscuit base, which worked a treat! Then pop the tin in the fridge whilst you make the milk chocolate ganache.

Break up the Silver Spoon milk chocolate cake covering to small pieces. Heat the cream to just simmering, then pour over the chocolate, mixing until all combined into a smooth glossy goo. Pour over the base, and return the whole thing to the fridge (or freezer) until it's set. This should coincide with when you've made the filling.

For the filling; beat the cream cheese and sugar together with either a wooden spoon or use a food mixer. Then beat in the flour (sifted if you fancy it), and eggs one at a time. Finally add in the Silver Spoon vanilla paste (reserve a little of the packet for your ganache later!) and golden syrup and give it all a good beat. When the base is set; pour this in to just below the top. Wrap the tin in foil tightly, then place into your baking tray (a brownie tin is good). Fill the baking tray with hot water so it goes about an inch up the outside of springform tin. Put it in the oven for an hour and a half, until it comes out with a slight wobble, and is golden all over.

Now you have some time for a cuppa, a sneaky Oreo dipped in some left over ganache, and i suppose some time to make the cookie dough. Cream the butter and sugar together, add in the flour and salt, and some water to get it to a nice consistency. Finally stir in the Silver Spoon snowies and white chocolate chips. Press out into a 6" round on some greaseproof paper, and pop in the fridge until needed.

When the cheesecake is cooked leave it in the tin until cool. You'll need to make the white chocolate ganache while this happens. This time melt the Silver Spoon easy melt covering in a bowl of hot water (as instructed) and pour into the remaining cream, along with a little more vanilla paste. Mix until combined and the place in the fridge to set slightly. Once you're ready to use the ganache remove it from the fridge, whip it up until you have a nice fudge like consistency, and place into a piping bag.

You're nearly done; honest!

Now using the white chocolate ganache, pipe a nice decoration around the edge (or just do some squiggles if decorations aren't your strong point,) and decorate with Silver Spoon duo chocolate hearts and Silver Spoon white chocolate letters. (We also decorated ours with a few sugar roses we had left over from our last meeting!)

Phew, done.

Put the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 2 hours before eating, and if possible overnight... If you can resist!

Thank you to Silver Spoon and Nielsen Massey for providing these wonderful products to for us to play with, even more thanks to Baking Mad for picking our blog to sample the products, and another thank you to all the members of Cambridge Cake'n'Bake Club for taking part!