One serve of Strawbunny: A Slice to Tingle the Tastebuds With

The weird discovery I made about cheesecake is that you have to be in the mood for it or it just doesn't tingle your tastebuds like it should. Of course, when you're in the mood for it you're really in the mood for it. As in, you can almost literally taste the texture of it on your palate. And woe to anyone who stands in between you and your chosen slice!

My latest cheesecake escapade came about from a meld of a craving and necessity. I needed to bake a thank you gift for an extremely helpful group of people and, as one of the individuals of that group was a self confessed coffee nut, I figured I'd kill two diets with one cake and rustled up the recipe for a mocha cheese slice.

I have to say what attracted me to this particular recipe was the awesome photos on display. And after greeting my newly baked cheesecake at the oven door I could see how those picture perfect shots came about. The slice settles beautifully into three layers once all is done. And it looks so cute and yummy, you could just eat them! Which I did. *Aaaah*

*Sneak peek*

I'm proud to say the cake was enjoyed thoroughly by all and sundry (including yours truly of course). And I really recommend this to anyone who wants to try out a recipe of intermediate difficulty. It's absolutely worth the effort if you're into both presentation and taste. It does take a little time though, especially if you're attempting it for the first time. So spare a whole afternoon or evening for the joys of baking.

Viola!

How would I describe it? Rich and creamy, and the layer of icing contrasts perfectly with the bittersweetness of the dark chocolate mocha beneath, while the nice biscuit base sets both layers above off just ..urmm..nicely. (excuse the pun but I couldn't find another word that would describe the cake without making it sound toooo good)

Mocha Cheese Slice

Ingredients

Base

200g nice biscuits, crushed
94 g butter

Filling

60 ml (3 tbs) of water
1½ tsp instant coffee powder
100g dark chocolate
250 g cream cheese, softened
½ cup (112 g) caster sugar
1 large egg
¼ tsp vanilla essence

Topping

1 cup(250g) cream
1½ tsp caster sugar
chocolate shavings

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C
Combine base and press firmly down into 20 cm greased square pan. If you want to make mini cheesecakes like the one in the pictures, grease your muffin trays and use them instead.
Place water, coffee, chocolate over fire on low heat until chocolate melted and mixture smooth. Set aside
Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth, then add in egg and vanilla
Add chocolate mixture to the cream cheese and beat until combined
Pour the combined mixture over the base and bake for 22-27 minutes
Cool at room temp for 30 min then refrigerate
For topping beat cream and caster sugar with a mixer until thick. Decorate with chocolate shavings on top