Chocolate Orange Cheesecake 

I’m trying to fully embrace my 3 year olds inquisitive phase  (which is proving to be longer than I anticipated) by continuing to answer her questions – this week it’s wanting to know everyones name… literally everyone from the lady at the Tesco checkout to the 8 year old boy trying to scooter within a 5 meter radius of us at the park. 

So we’ve  established the neighbour’s dog is called Susan, the man who came to fix the internet, Tom, and not to forget the lovely Amazon delivery guy, who when delivering some last minute Christmas gifts probably wasn’t expecting to be quizzed by a small child on what his name is (Keiran), what was in the boxes and where he was going next… We have also established that Santa’s real name must be Terry as he brought the chocolate oranges…

In case you haven’t guessed by now I’m a huge fan of cheesecake. After receiving not one but three chocolate oranges this Christmas I’ve decided to go against the ‘It’s not Terry’s, it’s mine’ mentality and share at least one of my oranges via this cheesecake;

You will need a 9″ loose bottom cake tin, lined or lightly grease, and a rolling pin for biscuit bashing.

Ingredients 

• 220g digestive biscuits 
• 100g melted butter
• 600g full fat soft cheese 
• 200g icing sugar 
• 250g dark chocolate 
• Teaspoon orange extract
• 200ml whipping cream

To decorate

• 100ml whipped cream 
• Chocolate Orange segments 
• Optional gold sprinkles

In a large bowl, bash the biscuits to fine crumbs using the end of a rolling pin. Half  our house got involved with this as we clearly have a lot of holiday tension to take out on the poor biscuits…

Add the melted butter and stir until the crumbs are all coated in the butter. Press into the base of the cake tin and pop in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.

Melt the chocolate either in a bowl rested above a pan of simmering water or in the microwave using shortbursts of 10 seconds.

Whisk the icing sugar and soft cheese together until creamy (if you have an electric whisk is recommend using it) and then whisk in the orange extract and melted chocolate.

In a separate bowl, whisk the whipping cream until thick and fold into the chocolate mixture. 

Once combined, pour on top of the biscuit base and smooth the surface with a spoon. 

Return to the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.

To decorate add spoonfuls of whipped cream around the edge of the cheesecake and top with a segment of chocolate orange.