No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake in Chocolate Box

It is Valentines day themed ~ Surely we are doing something lovey-dovey...

In modern days like now, it doesn't really matter if the girl or guy proposes, but one can always imagine your other half doing it for you.

Not saying this will be a 100% foolproof way of proposing, but the silver lining to this is you still have cheesecake *wink wink*

Cheesecake just makes everything better, add chocolate to that and double the happiness with a strawberry on top.

We always think of unique ways to do things and we came up with this cheesecake in a chocolate box which doubles as a ring holder. The strawberry not only gives an extra layer of texture and flavour to the choco cheesecake, it keeps the ring clean from any messiness.

To mix things up a little, required more advance techniques, you can spray on coloured chocolate to produce a velvet like texture to make the ring box more traditional or use a wood grain patterned chocolate transfer sheets to make a "wooden" box. You could even up your game and make a rim for the lid.

Any message can be written, go creative and think out of the box , pun surely intended, it is after all private and personal. Then when finally the time comes, you can pop the question on one knee with the more traditional "Will you marry me?"

Ok... All the talk above is just talk, I haven't propose to / been propose to by anyone in anyway. It is just in my imagination that I would like it simple and neat with a hint of effort put into it.  Not recommended for Drama Kings and Queens out there :P

We develop this recipe as a No bake recipe to ensure a lot of people can make it and still be very yummy.

You may find the strawberries we are using are very red, it is a breed native to Hakata-ku in Japan that is dub "the King of Sweet" in the strawberry world. It is plump, sweet, juicy and surely lives up to it's hype.

Chocolate Cheesecake Proposal Dessert

Yields 1 serving

Ingredients

Base:

1 Digestive biscuit, crumbled*

5g (1 tsp) Butter, melted

*You can use graham cracker crumbs or any cookie crumbs of your choice about 15g. We used Digestive biscuit crumbs

Cheesecake:

28g (1 oz) Semisweet chocolate, melted

55g (2 oz) Cream cheese, soften

15g (2 tbsp) Confectioners’ sugar

5ml (1 tsp) Heavy Cream

1g (1/4 tsp) Vanilla Extract

Pinch of Instant espresso powder

2 Fresh Strawberries, wash and dried

Couverture dark chocolate

Method

Cheesecake

1. Melt chocolate gently and let it cool to room temperature

2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy and smooth

3. Add in melted chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla and instant espresso and whip until incorporated 

4. Fill it in a piping bag fitted with a star tip

5. Refrigerate for 1 hour

Chocolate box

1. Cut a 6cm square (2.5 inches square) and a 6cm x 4 cm rectangle template

2. Temper dark chocolate and spread it over a silicone mat/ parchment paper

3. Let the chocolate set up half way and put the template on the chocolate and carve out 4 rectangle and 1 square

4. Let it set fully and pull it up

5. Spread more chocolate on parchment and attach the 4 cut outs to make the sides

6. Carve off the extra and let it set

7. Pipe more chocolate inside the box to secure it

8. Pipe chocolate bead borders for a design

Assemble

1. Coat the biscuit crumbs in melted butter

2. Fill the chocolate box with the coated crumbs and lightly pack it down

3. Pipe in cheesecake 1/2 full

4. Cut the stem off 1 strawberry and push it in the cheesecake cut side down

5. Pipe more cheesecake around the strawberry to fill the box

6. Attach box lid with temper chocolate on and angle and hold it in place until it sets

7. Transfer the dessert on to a plate, off set

8. Pipe on the message on the plate with chocolate, add a strawberry fan to the side and put the ring on the strawberry tip in the chocolate box

Tips 

I. Chocolate have to be tempered to set crisp, if you are not comfortable tempering, you can use compound chocolate

II. If the surrounding weather is cold, you can skip the refrigeration of the cheesecake batter on cheesecake step 5 

III. Assemble the dessert only right before serving, as cut strawberries in contact with sugar will release juices

IV. You can scale it up to make multi-size desserts, without the ring/message

Links to Supplies:

Star Tip

Silicone Mat

Spatula

Specific Chocolate we use
Valrhona

You can add one more line to make a gift cross

Strawberries we use :)

Hope you guys enjoy this weeks [How To's]

See you next week :)

xo D