Lemon cheesecake with chocolate and marzipan - Easter cheesecake
Recipe for the loveliest Easter cheesecake - lemon cheesecake with vanilla.
Servings 8 people
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 200 g oat biscuits - or digestives
- 60 g almonds or hazelnuts (optional)
- 60 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 60 g marzipan, cut into small cubes
- 1 lemon, finely grated zest of
- 125 g butter
Cream cheese filling
- 250 g full-fat cream cheese (not light)
- 350 ml whipping cream (38% fat)
- 50 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice - about 1 1/2 lemons
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds of
- 4 1/2 sheets leaf gelatine
- Yellow food colouring
You will also need
- Fresh thyme sprigs
- Edible pansies
- Chocolate Easter eggs - if in season
- Cake ring or springform tin, approx. 18-20 cm
- Acetate cake collar
Instructions
Biscuit base
- Melt the butter in a saucepan and turn off the heat.
- Blitz the biscuits and almonds to fine crumbs in a food processor, and mix with the melted butter. Let the biscuit mixture cool slightly.
- Then stir the marzipan pieces, chocolate and lemon zest into the biscuit mixture – ideally the chocolate should not melt, or the base will turn dark. If your lemon is very large, start with the zest of 1/2 lemon, then taste and add more if you like.
- Line the base of a springform tin with baking parchment, then fit an acetate cake collar around the inside of the ring. If using a cake ring, place it on a chopping board with a sheet of baking parchment underneath, and line the inside of the ring with acetate.
- Tip the biscuit mixture in and press it down firmly so the whole base is covered and the mixture is well compacted – that way the base will not crumble when you cut the cake. Chill while you make the cream cheese filling.
Cream cheese filling
- Soak the gelatine sheets in a large bowl of cold water for about 15 minutes.
- Stir the cream cheese together with the icing sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon juice. It helps to rub the vanilla seeds into a little of the icing sugar before adding them – that way they spread more evenly through the cake. Stir until the mixture is free of lumps.
- Whip 300 ml of the cream to soft peaks; pour the remaining 50 ml into a small saucepan. Be careful not to overwhip the cream.
- Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture and stir until you have a smooth, even filling. Try not to knock too much air out of the filling as you stir.
- Add yellow food colouring and stir it into the filling, continuing until you reach the colour you want. I used about 1 tbsp before the colour was right, but do not add it all at once; your colouring may be stronger, and you may prefer it paler.
- Warm the cream in the saucepan over a low heat. There is not much of it, so it will not take long, and it must not come to the boil – it only needs to be just warm enough to melt the gelatine.
- Squeeze the excess water from the soaked gelatine sheets and stir them into the cream, one at a time.
- Fold a couple of large spoonfuls of the cream cheese filling into the warm gelatine cream, and stir until it is free of lumps and has cooled. Test with your little finger whether it is cool enough to fold into the filling; if not, add another spoonful.
- Fold the gelatine cream into the cream cheese filling and stir well. Keep using gentle movements so you keep as much air in the filling as possible.
- Pour the filling over the biscuit base, spreading it with a spoon if needed, and tap the tin gently on the worktop to knock out any air bubbles.You can warm the back of a spoon in a little hot water, dry it off and use it to smooth the surface of the cake.
- Return the cake to the fridge and let it set for at least 3-4 hours, preferably overnight.
- Before serving, decorate the cake with fresh thyme sprigs, pansies or whatever the season offers.