Home Cooking
I haven't posted any elaborate baked goods in a long, long time. The reason for this is simply because I haven't baked anything properly in a while. The days of flipping through dessert cookbooks and picking out a new recipe at a thrice-weekly rate are all in the past.
Nowadays, I rely on special occasions to give me an excuse to make something for family and friends to share.
I've been harping on about my lunch party for a while. This is the dessert I made for it. Because it was an event I had to cater for (as well as take care of social responsibilities such as making sure everyone got along reasonably well), I unfortunately forgot/didn't get a chance to snap a shot of the cake all sliced up into wedges.
I am kicking myself about it because it was a beautiful cake. Now, you have no choice but to take my word for it.
My only consolation is the fact that I'm still young and more likely than not will be baking many cakes in years to come. There are still plenty of opportunities to bake a fantastic cake and prove it online.
I researched long and hard before settling on a cake to bake. The recipe is originally from Taste.com.au. You may view it here. I stuck almost religiously to the recipe but took on some suggestions from the comments - such as using 1.5 packets of Choc Ripple rather than 1, and also adding a splash of Tia Maria to the white-colored cheesecake mix. Also, it wasn't specified in the recipe but I used a waterbath to bake my cake.
Baked Marbled Cheesecake
Makes 1 22cm cake
Ingredients:
- 1.5 packets of Arnott's Choc Ripple biscuits
- 100g butter, melted
- 500g cream cheese, softened
- 300g sour cream
- 3/4 cup (175g) caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 100g dark chocolate, melted
- 1 tbsp Tia Maria (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a 22cm diameter springform pan with baking paper. In a food processor, crush the Choc Ripple biscuits until they form a fine crumb.
2. Add the melted butter and process until combined. Press the crumbs about 2/3 of the way up the prepared cake pan. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
3. Beat the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs and beat until combined.
4. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Transfer 1 and 1/3 cups of the mixture to another bowl and stir in the dark chocolate. Add the Tia Maria to the remaining mixture.
5. Pour half of the light-colored batter into the pan. Dollop with half of the chocolate batter. Repeat. Using a small knife, create a swirling patter in the cheesecake mixture.6. Wrap heavy duty foil around the springform cake pan. Place it in a baking tray into the oven. Pour boiling water into the tray so that the water level comes 1/2 way up the height of the cake pan. If you wrapped the foil adequately, there should be no way that water can seep into the cake pan.
7. Bake for 1 hr, topping up the hot water as required. You won't be able to tell immediately if the cake is set but the top should look slightly pulled away from the sides. Turn off the oven and leave the door open. Let the cake sit there until cooled to room temperature. Allowing it to cool slowly prevents the top from cracking.
8. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours before serving so that the cake can set completely.
9. Serve on its own or with ice-cream and cream. I thought the cake was so perfect and rich that it doesn't need much else to compliment.
I have never had a good experience with making cheesecake before. In fact, rarely have I been allowed to make a full-size cake at all. This was a great success. The cake looked gorgeous and as far as taste goes, I'm quite picky with cheesecake (since it is not usually my first choice when It comes to cake) but I thought this one was glorious.
As fantastic as everything turned out, I will admit at this point (towards the end of my post, where perhaps people will overlook it) that the cake was extremely easy to do. Although I like to think that I'm Dessert Queen no. 1, all the credit goes to the recipe. Promise you'll give it a go?
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