Chocolate & strawberry cheesecake recipe

Have you been watching the World Cup this week? Wasn’t it a shocker when defending champions Spain were knocked out after only two matches? I’ve been soaking up the atmosphere during the football games and have enjoyed watching both of England’s matches: the first game we stayed up late with friends after an England-themed BBQ and even though my eyes were closing involuntarily by the end of the 90 minutes (sooo beyond my bedtime these days!), it was exciting and I thought the team played well. I know the UK has high hopes for the national team and sometimes we are bitterly disappointed, but I just enjoy really enjoy the whole spectacle of watching international sporting competitions like this so it doesn’t matter to me how well England performs and you can bet that I will be glued the final on the 13th of July, whoever is playing!

Anyway, I’ve made a Pieday Friday recipe to celebrate the tournament and I took my little jam-jar cheesecakes to my friends’ house to munch during the England game. I found it easier to transport the cakes in individual portions (and most importantly, with lids on!) rather than holding a delicate cheese-cake in a pastry-tin on my lap during the car journey. These would be great for taking on picnics too, and will keep the bugs at bay with the lids covering up the sweet, sticky strawberries. Here’s how I made them:

Buttery biscuit base: 1 pack of digestive biscuits crushed up and mixed with melted butter until it resembles the texture of damp sand. I pressed this into the bottom of the jars before pouring a layer of melted white chocolate over the base and chilling for an hour or two until set. I’d recommend pouring a thin layer of chocolate otherwise you’ll find it hard to break through it when you’re eating the cheesecake! Luckily I found this out before I added the cheesecake mixture so I broke up the thick layer of hardened chocolate with a knife to make sure that a spoon could get through all the layers.

Cheesecake: Whisk up 200ml double cream until it’s thick. Mix in 225g cream cheese and whisk in 5 tablespoons of caster sugar. I added a little splash of vanilla essence but it’s up to you whether you’d like to add any flavouring. At this point you could whisk in some lemon juice to make it into a lemon cheesecake, or some melted dark chocolate or even a splash of Baileys for a boozy version! I dolloped the cheesecake mixture on top of the base-and-white-chocolate layer and smoothed over the top. Chill this until set, which might take a couple of hours or you can prepare it in advance and chill it overnight.

Strawberry topping: Slice fresh strawberries and cover with icing sugar and leave to become gooey and sticky before spooning the fruit and syrup over the cheesecake. If the syrup is too runny for you, you could even melt a little strawberry jam and spoon it over the top before putting the lids on the jars and refrigerating until you’re ready to eat.

I was desperate to eat the cheesecake but I waited until the game had started before insisting that we opened up the jars and enjoyed our creamy, sweet, naughty portions of cheesecake while the England team played on. It’s only really a ‘Come on England’ cheesecake because of the red and white colours, plus the fact that I want to eat it during every match now – I wonder how many more England games there will be in this tournament?? Let me know if you try out the recipe over the summer and you can tweet me photos of your jam-jar treats to @Cassiefairy 🙂