That Friday feeling in a cheesecake!

A cheesecake just ain't worth making (or eating), in my opinion, unless it's a baked cheesecake.  If I'm making a chocolate cheesecake, I like to make it from mascarpone because it doesn't have the sour quality to it that some soft cheese have.  The only problem with cheesecakes made from mascarpone it that they have a tendency to rise up and sometimes crack, and I am far too lazy to bake mine in a water bath (I do it when I'm making individual ones in ramekins and it does make the texture smoother, but I just can't be bothered to make my springform tin leak-proof!).

I remember loving crunchie when I was young, along with the 'I'm so excited!' advert with the chocolate girls doing leg kicks so I thought 'why not hide the top with broken honeycomb?', homemade of course.

Remember, when making any type of cheesecake, it really does need to be chilled for at least 6 hours ideally overnight.

Cheesecake

275 g digestives (I believe they're known as Graham crackers in the US), crushed
100 g unsalted butter, melted

750 g mascarpone, at room temperature
100 g light muscavado sugar (you may need more if you're using a high cocoa content chocolate)
150 g dark chocolate, melted
3 large eggs
2 tbsp cornflour


Honeycomb and drizzling 

100 g caster sugar
40 g golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100 g milk chocolate, melted when you're ready to start decorating


You will also need

A 23 cm round springform tin
Baking parchment for lining the tin
Heavy based pan
Lightly oiled baking parchment or greaseproof paper for pouring the honeycomb onto 
Glass of cold water for testing sugar 


Making the cake

• Line your baking tin, mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter, press into the tin and chill for 10 mins
• Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 (180°C/160°C fan) and get started on making your filling mix.  
• Simply beat together the mascarpone, light muscavado sugar, dark chocolate, eggs and cornflour.  Pour onto the biscuit base and bake for 55-60 mins.  
• When the cooking time is up, leave the cheesecake to cool completely in the oven

When completely cooled, peel away your baking parchment and put it onto a plate.  It's a bit rustic looking, especially as I use huge cupcake-like cake tin liners, but you could just leave off the honeycomb topping and still have a delicious cheesecake =)

Making the honeycomb

As a kid, I loved those little bags of rough-hewn honeycomb you could buy from the seaside.  Had I known it was so easy to make, I'd have been making it all the time!  All you need it a heavy based pan, sugar, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda. Some people like to use a sugar thermometer or to use a glass of cold water to drop it into to test it, but when making honeycomb I prefer just to judge it by colour.  Remember to be very careful when working with caramel as it reaches a very high temperature and can leave nasty burns!

• Heat the sugar and syrup on a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Don't stir it, just shake the pan every now and then if needs be
• When the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat up and let it bubble until it reaches a nice caramel colour.  Do not let it over cook or it will become bitter and burnt tasting.  If you are going to test it using a glass of cold water, drop a small amount into the water.  It will sink to the bottom quite quickly and will be brittle when you fish it out and break it.
• Quickly stir in the bicarbonate of soda.  The mixture will quickly froth up as it is stirred
• Pour the mixture onto the prepared paper and leave to cool completely and harden

When the cheesecake and the honeycomb are completely cool, bash the honeycomb with a rolling pin and scatter over the top of the cake.  Drizzle with melted chocolate then use the rest of the chocolate to coat the sides of the cake and hide the imperfections.  If you want a perfectly smooth finish, spread the melted chocolate over a strip of greaseproof paper and wrap it round the cake.  Leave it to chill completely then peel the paper away.

One thing I absolutely love about this cheesecake is that it contains three eggs so the ingredients can fairly easily be divided by three.  A third of the mixture makes 4 ramekin-sized cheesecakes.  Just bake them for 25 mins instead.  Brilliant for when you fancy a treat but don't want to end up pigging out on a whole cake!!!

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