Love at First Bite: Valentine Cheesecake

Valentine Cheesecake

My hubbie loves cheesecake. He doesn't have a favourite flavour or type, just as long as it's cheesecake, so despite pouring over recipes in the run up to Valentines Day looking for a romantic dessert, I couldn't get past cheesecake! Conveniently, I'm confident making them now (after many!) and I love them too!

I've been wanting to try one of the cheesecakes from last June's MasterChef Magazine for a while, so the "Love at First Bite" Blog Hop seemed a perfect time. The Alice In Wonderland Cheesecake looks so impressive it kind of ups the cakes...I mean stakes!

Instead of the Alice in Wonderland theme though, I thought I'd go for a Valentine's theme. I had it pictured in my head, beautiful hearts instead of the raspberry circles of the original. However, the raspberry purée mix seems has a mind of it's own. No matter how heart-shaped I moved the piping bag nozzle in the cheesecake, I ended up with a weird round shape! Oh well, I crossed my fingers that it would taste good. In the end it was a smooth, not too sweet, delicious cheesecake and I worked on the heart shapes again directly onto the plate with the left over raspberry purée.

For my ever so slightly adapted for Valentine's Day recipe (instead of the original Alice In Wonderland Cheesecake) keep reading...




Valentine Cheesecake (ever so slightly adapted from MasterChef June 2011: Alice in Wonderland Cheesecake) 10 - 12 servings (so make sure you have many Valentine's or work colleagues with whom to share it!)

The not so romantic, more like
blood spatter looking
Valentine Cheesecake
before plating up

Cheesecake
150g frozen raspberries
50g white chocolate melts
1kg full fat cream cheese
330g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs

Shortbread Base
150g plain flour
55g brown sugar
125g butter
50g chopped walnuts

• Preheat oven to 170C
• Grease and line a 26cm springform pan

Shortbread Base

• In the food processor whizz the flour, sugar and butter until you have a breadcrumb consistency
• Add walnuts and process again till there are clumps forming
• Pack the crumbs into the springform pan
• Bake until golden (mine took around 30 mins)
• Cook for 10 mins then remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack

Raspberry purée

• Purée the raspberries in the food processor
• Pass through a sieve and discard the seeds
• Measure out 60g and leave the rest aside for the decoration

Cheesecake

• Melt white chocolate melts in a double boiler till smooth
• In the food processor whizz the cream cheese till smooth
• Add sugar and vanilla, beating until just combined
• Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined after each one
• Remove a cup of the cheesecake mix and add to the 60g of raspberry purée
• Add melted white chocolate to this raspberry mix too
• Reassemble the same springform pan as before (washed of course), spray with a little oil and wrap foil around the base in case it leaks
• Pour the white cheesecake mix into the springform pan and level off
• Fit a small round nozzle into a piping bag and twist the end (so the liquid doesn't run out till you're ready)
• Fill the piping bag with the raspberry mix
• Carefully untwist the end of the piping bag, and stick into the white cheesecake mix
• Pipe a "heart" shape in the middle
• Continue piping smaller shapes around until the mixture is finished
• Place the springform pan in a roasting pan and fill the pan with water up to half way up the side of the cheesecake pan
• Bake for 1 hour 15 mins, until the cheesecake is set around the edges and the middle only moves slightly
• Remove the cheesecake from the roasting pan and cool

To assemble

• Line a board with baking paper
• Release the springform pan from the cheesecake
• Carefully invert the cheesecake onto the board
• Place the base on the inverted cheesecake the invert again (so the decorative shapes are on top)

The more presentable plated version!

To plate

• Pour a drizzle of cream on the base of a serving plate - towards one side, to leave room for the heart shaped purée 
• Cut a slice of cheesecake (the profile looks most impressive if you cut through one of the circles) and place onto the cream 
• Using a heart shaped cookies cutter as a template, make a heart shape of the reserved raspberry purée on the plate next to the cheesecake
• Dot a few fresh raspberries around the plate just to make it look super healthy and fruity ;-)
• Eat with your Valentine!