Baked black forest cheesecake

Serious dessert time again. My man has a thing for black forest anything. For him, the combination of the sweet sour cherries, chocolate and cream takes him to his 'special happy place.' He likes black forest cakes, trifle, tarts, and now he likes black forest cheesecake slice. This was his birthday dessert this year.

I wanted to create something special, of course. I thought about making just a plain black forest cake, but that seems a bit boring. We all like cheesecake so I thought it might be interesting to incorporate the black forest flavours into a chocolate cheesecake. I made the cheesecake in a loaf tin as I thought it would look pretty.

And the words, 'best dessert ever!' may have been mentioned once or twice by my man. Mission accomplished I think.

What you'll need

30cm loaf tin, greased and lined with baking paper that overhangs the edge (this will give you a 'handle' to remove the cheesecake later on.

For the base
250g plain chocolate biscuits.
150g melted butter

For the filling
600g cream cheese
300g dark chocolate
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted

Topping
2 cups morello cherries
200g mascarpone cheese

What to do

Make the base. Process the chocolate biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add the butter and process until mixed and clumps of mixture form. Tip this into your prepared loaf tin. Squish down the mixture with the back of a spoon, making sure to smooth the mixture right into the corners of the tin. Level the mixture by pressing down with the bottom of a small drinking glass.

Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes until hard.

Now make the filling. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a simmering pot of water, or in short bursts in the microwave. Once melted, set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

In a bowl, add the eggs and sugar. Process until light and pale. Add the cream cheese and beat until well combined with no lumps of cream cheese. Pour in the chocolate and cocoa powder and mix until combined.

Pour the mixture until the prepared loaf tin. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, if you wobble the tin, the middle of the cake should still be wobbly but the outer part will be firm. Turn off the oven, but leave the cake in there to cool, with the door slightly open (I use a tea towel to keep my oven door open.) This will prevent the cake from cracking. Once this time is up, remove the cake from the and let it cool completely on the bench.

Once cool, remove the cake from the tin using the overhanging baking paper. Place it carefully on a serving plate. You can decorate however you like using the cherries and mascarpone. As you can see, I piled the cherries to one side of the cake, and piped the cream onto the other side.

Serve with lit candles while singing 'Happy Birthday.' You may also like to drizzle over from cherry liqueur for a more adult version of this dessert. Slice into 5cm thick slices and enjoy.