Valentines treat- White chocolate and raspberry ripple cheesecake

Skill: Low
Cost: High
Time: 30 mins (Plus setting time- overnight)
Equipment: Food processor or electric whisk, mixing bowl, cake tin

A delicious and easy raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake

Last Friday it was valentines day. Instead of buying something I decided to make my boyfriend one of his favourite desserts, cheesecake. (Plus I jump at any opportunity to use my food processor!) I have one from Lakeland that I was lucky enough to get for Christmas last year and I absolutely love it! I would recommend it to any one who enjoys cooking. From smoothies and soups to cheesecake and chilli it does it all. It can be used for chopping, slicing, grating, blending, whipping and more. It has a special 'whipping tool' which is perfect for thickening the cheesecake filling.

I often make a Mary Berry lemon cheesecake, which is delicious, but thought something extra special was in order for valentines.  My boyfriend and I love the combination of white chocolate and raspberry so I set about creating a cheesecake including these flavours. I used this cute heart shaped silicone cake mould, but for a less soppy version a normal cake tin would be fine. I bought this in Lidl for around £3 last valentines but a similar one can be bought from House of Fraser.  I used a mixture of online recipes and my own ideas to create this cheesecake. It was a bit expensive for the ingredients but was well worth it for the occasion!

You can find a recipe for white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake here or trust me and try mine, you won't regret it!

Ingredients:

• 200g digestive biscuits 
• 75g butter 
• 300g white chocolate
• 284 ml double cream
• 250g soft cheese 
• 250g mascarpone 
• 250g raspberries 
• 100g Caster SUGAr

1. Crush the biscuits in a food processor or in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin (great for letting of a bit of steam!)  Melt the butter and mix the two together. 

2. Push the crushed biscuits and melted butter into your tin with the back of a spoon to form a level and smooth base. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

3. Create the jam for the 'ripple' by mixing 100g of raspberries with 100g caster sugar on a medium heat. Crush the raspberries as you mix. Continue until bubbling and continuously stir for a few minutes until slightly thicker. Leave to cool.

4. Whip the cream until thick. Add soft cheese and mascapone. Mix.

5. Melt white chocolate gently then stir into cream/cheese mix. Add half of the jam in blobs but do not mix in.

6. Scatter the biscuit base with 1/3 of the raspberries and spoon half the cream/cheese mixture on top. Scatter with another 1/3 of the raspberries. Add the rest of the cream/cheese mixture and smooth. Add the rest of the jam in blobs and swirl to make the ripple effect (I used a chopstick to do this). Scatter on the rest of the raspberries and push in to the cheesecake.

7. Refrigerate overnight 

8. The result:

9. Enjoy!

This was a huge hit! Creamy and delicious. It was the perfect mix of sweet and sharp. A very easy but impressive dessert. I can see this becoming a regular go-to recipe. 

Do you have a favourite cheesecake recipe? Any way to improve this one? Please comment and share your suggestions.

Until next time, 

Emily x