Brownie, cheesecake, fruity goodness!

A couple of months back I hosted my first Clandestine Cake Club for the Wigan and Bolton Branch and the theme was for seasonal summer cakes. I took my inspiration from Neapolitan ice cream- chocolate, vanilla and fruit and transformed into a brownie based cheesecake. A layer of chocolate brownie, smothered with tangy no bake vanilla cheesecake and covered with raspberries.

I can’t tell you how good this is! Rich brownie, then the creamy cheesecake and the fruit just cuts through it all. There ain’t no cheesecake like a brownie based cheesecake!

I went for a lunchtime forage walk last week with a workmate and we managed a few blackberries so have used them on my second version of this cake. Use whatever is in season. My third version used frozen black forest fruit- see, anything goes.

So yes I made two this weekend – plus a chocolate Bundt cake in my new tin. And Andrew made chocolate whisky ice cream. I thought it was time to crack into the chocolate which I won! A couple of posts back I showed you an Infographic which the lovely people at Bako North Western made of my Nutella cheesecake. Well soon after the second part of my prize arrived: 23kg of amazing Callebaut chocolate! Seriously we are talking overwhelming amounts of the stuff and it’s taken me a couple of weeks to crack open one of the 5kg bars (!!!) and start baking.  There was also a beautiful book and some baking bits – I am a very lucky girl and can’t thank them enough.

This recipe uses my standard brownie as the base and therefore makes two bases. Wrap one well in baking paper and cling film and it will freeze for a rainy day. Or do what I did and make two!

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Brownie based cheesecake

Prep Time

45 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

 

Like a Neapolitan ice cream, this cheese cake has chocolate (brownie), vanilla (cheesecake) and fruit - just add sunshine!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cake

Keyword: Brownie, Cake, Cheesecake

Author: Claire

Ingredients

Base

• 300 g dark chocolate finely chopped
• 125 g butter cubed
• 250 g soft dark brown sugar
• 70 g Greek yoghurt
• 3 eggs
• 70 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• splash of milk

Cheesecake

• 300 g full fat cream cheese
• 100-120 g icing sugar
• 2 drops vanilla Spice Drops or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 ml Double Cream If you get one of those small pots which is 180-something ml, just use the lot, don't waste it!

Topping

• Fresh raspberries or other soft fruits

Instructions

1. Take everything out of the fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 160c and base line / grease two 20cm round cake tins.

Base

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together - in a bowl over simmering water or cheat like I do on the very lowest heat in a very good non stick pan. Leave to cool slightly for 5-10 mins.
2. In a food processor or stand mixer, mix together the eggs, sugar and yoghurt until light and frothy.
3. Add the cooled chocolate to the eggs and mix well.
4. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder.
5. If the mixture seems thick, add a splash of milk until it has a gloopy dropping consistency.
6. Pour into the two cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until crisp on top and a skewer comes out nearly clean. Leave to cool.
7. When your bases are cool, wrap one well and freeze. With the other, line one of your cake tins with clingfilm so it hangs over the sides and pop it back in.

Cheesecake

1. In a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese, vanilla, cream and 100g of the icing sugar. Taste- if you like it sweeter add the rest of the sugar (I like to keep it quite tangy). Mix together on a high setting - you will see it thicken up. When it is thick like well whipped double cream you are done.

2. Cover the base with the cheesecake mixture and arrange the fruit on top. Pop into the fridge to firm up. Give it a couple of hours.

3. Remove from the fridge before serving and allow to come back up to room temperature. Remove carefully from the cake tin - the clingfilm should peel off easily leaving you with a neat(ish) cake.

I hope you enjoy this most decadent of cakes. Oh and if you’ve any ideas for my mountain of chocolate, leave a comment. I’m looking for inspiration for the white choc in particular.

Also, if you love brownies as much as I do, then head over to my ultimate guide to chocolate brownies. 

I am adding this to the Recipe of the Week linky from A Mummy Too.

It is also a late entry into September’s #WeShouldCocoa– thank you to The Veg Space for accepting me after the link had shut. I must get my act together sooner! It is all about chocolate and blackberry – so well worth reading the round up here.

Happy baking xxx