Hello everybody, and Happy Halloween!
This year for halloween we wanted to bring you something completely original, and amazing! After searching our brains for something incredible we were left with 3 words - Strawberries and Scream!
We are so happy with how the whole thing turned out and we really hope you love it too! We love our spooky little meringue ghosts, which are the perfect crunchy but chewy consistency. The dark oreo base and dripping strawberry sauce definitely gives the perfect Halloween aesthetic, and taste absolutely incredible with the cheesecake. This is an amazing cheesecake recipe to file away, and bring it out time and time again, with a different topping. We're already dreaming of a salted caramel cheesecake creation!
Anyway, enough of the chatting, let's get baking...
Ingredients:
300g Oreos
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
90g Butter, melted
115g Caster Sugar
3 tbsp Cornflour
900g Cream Cheese
2 Eggs
115ml Double Cream
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
For the Strawberry Sauce...
300g Strawberries
3 tbsp Caster Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
For the Meringues...
115g Caster Sugar
2 Egg Whites
Black Food Colouring
We would definitely recommend making this the day before you need it, as there can be quite a few hours of waiting for meringues to bake, and cheesecakes to chill.
Start by making the meringue ghosts. Preheat the oven to 120ºC fan/140*C/Gas Mark 1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and then gradually whisk in the sugar one spoonful at a time, until you have a thick and shiny consistency.
Transfer your mixture to a piping bag, and pipe the meringues around 2 cm wide onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. It doesn't matter if they all come out different shapes and sizes, this just makes the little ghosts even cuter.
This recipe makes enough meringue for enough ghosts to fill your cheesecake and a then few more just for eating. So we decided to paint a separate piping bag with red food colouring, for a few spooky looking spare meringues.
Place your meringues in the oven and bake for around 40 minutes. Then turn your oven off, leaving the meringues in there until the oven has cooled completely. This helps to dry them out. Once your ghosts are out of the oven, use black food colouring and a paint brush to paint on their faces.
To make the strawberry sauce, start by chopping up your strawberries and placing them into a saucepan. Add in the sugar and lemon juice and place on a medium heat, until you can mush the strawberries with a spoon. Once this has begun to boil, turn down the heat and leave to simmer until your sauce has thickened. This will take around 20 minutes. We then used a blender to create a completely smooth sauce - but this is up to you, whether you want a smooth sauce or not.
Now, time for the actual cheesecake.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line a 9" cake tin.
To create the base, you will need to start by crushing the oreos. You can do this by blending them in a food processor, or placing into a food bag and crushing with a rolling pin.
Then, in a bowl mix your crushed oreos with the cocoa powder, and then stir in your melted butter. Pour into a lined 9" cake tin, and press down firmly using the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven, for 8 minutes.
While the base is baking, you can begin the make rest of the cheesecake. Mix together the caster sugar and cornflour, then beat in the cream cheese until fully combined. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla, and lastly beat in the cream, a little at a time, until you have a smooth and thick mixture.
Once your base has been taken out of the oven, set aside to cool and turn the oven up to 200ºC/180ºC fan/Gas Mark 6. When your base has cooled completely, spread the cheesecake mixture evenly on top and place in the oven for 40-45 mins until the top has browned and the filling has set around the edges. If it is becoming too brown, cover the cheesecake with foil for its remaining time in the oven.
Let the cheesecake cool, and place in the fridge for a minimum of three hours - ideally overnight if possible.
Decorate your cheesecake using your strawberry sauce and meringue ghosts, allowing the sauce to drip over the edge to create a gory, bloody effect. Fill the top of your cheesecake with a crowd of spooky ghosts and then it's ready to serve!
We absolutely love this cheesecake. We can't stop laughing at the spooky little faces of the ghosts! It tastes super delicious too, as fruit topped cheesecakes are always our fave and the combination of oreos, strawberries and meringue is just divine. It's almost an eton mess on a cheesecake, which is absolutely amazing!
Thanks so much for reading this post!
Please let us know what you think of our ghostly cheesecake, and please let us know if you give this a go just in time for Halloween! Tag us on any of our social media - we LOVE to see you give our recipes a go!
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Lots of love, Antonia and Imogen x
