Chocolate Cheese Cake

Hmm... well there were illusions of actually cooking dinner tonight - there was going to be a lovely sweet potato salad and whatever meat took our fancy when we got to the shops. Alas we didn't make it to the shops and decided to come home after visiting Katie (who needed visitors because she broke her hand - but that is another story really) and settle for left over takeaway pizza (in our defence they were Eagle Boys gourmet pizzas), cheese and biscuits, magnum egos and wine. And I am totally happy with that decision - settled in on the couch, first watching Nigella Lawson who makes everything to do with food sound like she is talking dirty, and now watching Jamie Oliver in Andalucia and salivating over Spanish fare. 

The moral of this story is the sweet potato salad recipe will have to wait for another evening, mainly because I don't have a pretty picture of it to post tonight. But it's not like I have a shortage of food pics so I decided to share another recipe with you all, my mum's chocolate cheese cake. This cheesecake is a no bake one, it is light, creamy and delicious - a staple for Christmas/birthday celebrations in my family. So for those of you who aren't feeling as lazy as me you could try your hand at this. And if you have retired to the couch like me you can just dream up some excuse to get me or someone else to make it for you in the future :)

Base ~

• 1 1/2 cups crushed biscuits (arrowroot biscuits work well and putting them in a plastic bag and crushing with a tine of pineapple works well too)
• 90g butter, melted

1. Mix ingredients and press into a 20cm spring form tin with the back of a metal spoon. Chill.

Filling ~

• 250g cream cheese
• 125g chocolate metled (i find 50:50 dark to milk chocolate tastes particularly good)
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 300mL thickened cream, whipped
• 1 flake chocolate 

1. Separate eggs
2. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold through the whipped cream
3. Beat cream cheese, egg yolks and caster sugar together, then mix through melted chocolate
4. Add egg whites/cream mix to the cream cheese mix and gently combine
5. Pour on top of base and refrigerate (best over night otherwise you will end up with slop, tasty slop but slop nonetheless)
6. Sprinkle flake over the top before serving. You can also add a thin layer of cream, strawberries, kiwi fruit or whatever takes your fancy :)

This is definitely the best chocolate cheese cake you will ever taste!