Killer cheesecake

To celebrate the blog reaching the ripe old age of 10 weeks to the very day, I though I'd share my chocolate cherry cheesecake recipe. There's no escaping the fact that this is rich and dirty and very unhealthy, but it makes a handy dessert to take round to other people because you actually need to make it the day before so no worries about day-old baked goods letting the side down. Also a very small slice is enough of a chocolate and dessert hit to last a week so it goes a long way.

I'm not normally a fan of the canned fruit as an ingredient by the way, but this time it works perfectly.I made a variant of this cheescake to take round to Diane's this evening for dinner and knitting - plopped a few raspberries into the mix before it went in the oven and put a whole lot more on top instead of the cherry stuff.

Chocolate and cherry cheesecake

• 2 packets double choc cookies, crushed
• 75g butter
• 400g cream cheese (I use FULL FAT philadelphia)
• 120g granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 250ml double cream
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 300g dark chocolate
• 1 can black cherry pie filling

• Melt the butter, mix together with biscuit crumbs and press into the base and up the sides of an 8in springform tin. Chill until required.
• Beat the sugar and cream cheese until smooth, add eggs one at a time beating well.
• Beat in the cream, vanilla extract and melted chocolate.
• Pour into the tin and bake at 180C for around 1h15. You'll probably need to put some foil over the top to prevent burning in the last 15 minutes or so. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it overnight, then refrigerate until required. It'll collapse quite a bit during cooling but no worries - the topping hides all manner of sins.
  
• Top with the cherries and their goo at the last minute. Best served with something like creme fraiche or yoghurt to cut through the clag!