Chocolate Chip Raspberry Cheesecake

I've been itching to try out this recipe for a while now. The only thing different was that I replaced it with raspberries and drizzled white chocolate on top and here you go Chocolate Chip Raspberry Cheesecake with White Chocolate Drizzles *swoon*. Cherries aren't in season yet in Australia although summer is coming in a month-ish time and I was not going to go out and get myself an expensive batch of cherries. I like recipes that are relatively easy and economical. I mean if you want to compare baking a cheesecake to a standard cake which mainly contains butter, eggs and flour, then of course the cheesecake is more pricey. However, you definitely get more value out of it by baking it yourself rather than buying one from the cake stores.

My mother creeped out when she saw me pulling out the frozen raspberries for baking this cheesecake. She has low tolerance for sour berries especially, but this cheesecake surely did not disappoint her. The sourness of the raspberries compensated for the sweetness of this cheesecake and the white chocolate drizzles on top made it a perfect combination. Insanely delicious. I wouldn't omit the white chocolate for this recipe. Never! I would love to try the original version as well once the cherries are cheaply available in the market.

Baking this cheesecake was the death of me because I did another late night baking session - the ninja style. It was wayyyy past my bedtime by the time I finished baking and cleaning up my mess. Although I could've easily taken my time to bake this cheesecake on the following day, time constraints did not permit me to do so. It is my little sister's sweet 16th birthday and sadly I had to pop into uni on the same day to do some work for my weekly meetings.

My little sister loves her cheesecakes. Actually we all do. My papa once bought a kilo's worth of marie biscuits from Costco just for me to bake a stash of cheesecakes. No I'm not exaggerating here. This cheesecake is a winner, I mean how could you not love the refreshing taste from the raspberries, the tangyness of the cheesecake and the chocolate amongst everything? Less than a quarter was left by the end of the night amongst 7 people. Many went for seconds and one went for a third...

One of the troubles I had with this cake was cutting it and the crumbs would fall apart easily. I should've made more biscuit crumbs for the base on the corner of the tart tin to be more thicker and bake it in the oven for more stability. I placed it in the freezer instead thinking it'll do the same thing...I guess was wrong.

Chocolate Chip Raspberry Cheesecake

(presentation inspired by Eat, Little Bird and recipe adapted from raspberri cupcakes)

2 cups (about 200g) of crushed digestive biscuits (I used arrowroot biscuits)
1 tbsp sugar
100g butter, melted
150g raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) + 2 tsp cold water
150g finely chopped dark chocolate, or 3/4 cup mini dark choc chips (I blitzed my chocolate in the food processor to make the pieces really tiny)
300g cream cheese, softened
60g (about 1/2 cup) icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
250ml thickened cream
50g white chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced . Line the base of a 20 to 22cm loose-base flan tin or tart tin with baking paper. Mix crushed biscuits and 1 tbsp sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the melted butter and stir until well combined. Press the mixture into the base of the tin forming an even layer, then using your fingers to gently push the mixture up to the sides of the tin, leaving a sufficiently thick border. Bake the biscuit base for 15–20 minutes. Place the tin on a wire rack and allow it cool completely.

2. Place raspberries, lemon juice and 1 tbsp sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat. Crush the raspberries until they're pureed and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the cornflour mixture to the saucepan and continue stirring over heat until mixture starts to thicken, then set aside to cool.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla at high speed until it becomes smooth and creamy. At low speed, gradually add the finely chopped chocolate and beat until it is evenly distributed. Add the raspberry mixture to the cream cheese filling and stir until combined.

4. In a separate mixing bowl, carefully beat the cream to stiff peaks (keep a close eye on this as the thickened cream is easy to overbeat). Fold cream into the rest of the mixture and then pour over the cooled crust. Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight.

5. Melt the white chocolate either in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water or carefully in the microwave. Pour the melted chocolate into a small plastic zip-lock bag, snip off a corner and slowly drizzle the melted chocolate over the cheesecake. Return the cheesecake to the fridge to set for about 15 minutes before serving.

No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake

Firstly, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish my papa a Happy Father's Day as well as to all the awesome father's out there! I've been meaning to come up with a 3 day baking marathon for father's day but I guess it was out of my league since I've got plenty of other important work-related stuff to do before Monday. I baked the banana cake mini's as my first instalment, knowing that my dad (and everyone else in my family) likes bananas...and not to mention that I had requests for an encore to bake the banana cake again, hehe. On the next day, I decided to make something rather simple that my dad had recently expressed his likings to, the No-bake Lemon Cheesecake. My sisters love it as well but on the contrary, mum and I personally prefer the classical baked cheesecake that I've always made in the past. I guess it's because the both of us cringe at the sour taste in desserts, although the cake is not explicitly sour. Mum and I are one of a kind where we've always had a sweet tooth and have minimal love for sour foods. Most of our dishes at home barely incorporate any sourness, only sometimes. I know certain people can eat a lemon or a grapefruit as it is (accompanied by salt or sugar at times) but I have low tolerance for it. You'll see me squirming and screeching when I eat something sour.

This cake doesn't take too long to bake which sort of makes me feel guilty about the amount of effort I've put into this special occasion. Originally, I wanted to decorate the cake to make it look a little more 'manly'...if there is such a word to describe a cake. Unfortunately, it turned out looking rather feminine and girly. I can't help it, Spring has just arrived and oooh! look at that lovely sunshine. I'm inspired to make something more light and vibrant to suit this season which turned out like...this. Sorry papa, you do live in a household that is dominated by women afterall...it's 4 against 1, heehaw.

For people who don't have an oven or that it is broken and waiting for it to be fixed, you don't need to be deprived from having cake as you only need to refridgerate it. Saves a lot of gas and electricity on your bill as well, haha.

No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake

125g unsalted butter, melted
Arrowroot biscuits, need approx. 20 biscuits (Marie or Nice biscuits may be used in place of arrowroot), finely crushed
500g cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla essence (I use Imitation Vanilla)
1/3 cup lemon juice
a tin of condensed milk (395g)
Optional: zest of 1 lemon


1. Line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin with baking paper.

2. Make the biscuit base. In a bowl, combine the biscuit and butter and mix well with a spoon. Press firmly onto the base of the cake tin and refrigerate for approx. 30min. You may sprinkle in some caster sugar into the biscuit mix if you want to emulate the 'Nice' biscuit.

3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the cream cheese and vanilla until smooth.

4. Gradually add condensed milk and lemon and beat until smooth. I start off with 1/3 of condensed milk, then half of lemon juice and then repeat.

5. Pour the batter onto the biscuit base and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or leave overnight. Remove from tin and serve.


Tips:
If you want to incorporate strawberries like what I've done, first of all, make sure they're all in similar height and not too tall or else you have strawberries poking out of your cheesecake. Strawberries ideally 3-4cm in height, approximately (or shorter). Cut the strawberries in half and line them up in the cake tin (as shown below) with equal distances apart. I like to spread a thin layer of the cheesecake batter evenly onto the base first before adding the strawberries for more support, then pour most of the cheesecake batter in.

Stick in full strawberries in the middle of the cake and then add the rest of the batter in. Using an offset spatula, make an even surface and make sure the strawberries are well covered. Easy-peasy japanesy?