Chocolate Cheesecake

Once upon a time, a woman whom I greatly admire (Sandi) "salvaged" a fallen chocolate cake by filling the crater with chocolate cheesecake. The outcome was nothing short of amazing.

It's surprisingly stressful to deliberately make a cake fall to make this cake, but that's what you gotta' do to make it! You will be rewarded handsomely. Don't you worry! I polish it off with another Sandi Trick: whip cream cheese in a bowl. Whip up some whipped cream in a separate bowl. Combine in equal portions and add powdered sugar and vanilla to taste. Best frosting ever.

Bake yourself a chocolate cake in a round tin. I found this one, but a boxed cake, or Steph's chocolate cake recipe would probably work too (Sorry Steph, I haven't gotten around to using your company chocolate cake yet, but I'm sure it's delectable!) I'm lazy, so I use a boxed cake and minus a few tablespoons of the oil and add a few heaping tablespoons of sour cream instead. It's not a 1:1 ratio at all. Just don't overwhelm the batter with liquid or you'll end up with pancakes. There's also this Extreme Chocolate Cake recipe I had next to the chocolate cheese cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (courtesy of some lady named RACH56). I honestly can't remember if it was delicious, but it sounds pretty legit.

Extreme Chocolate Cake

2 c. white sugar
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and mix on medium speed with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Stir in the boiling water by hand. Pour evenly into the two prepared pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

((I do believe I made this recipe at full portion and popped the batter into one spring-form pan and baked it off... don't remember how much longer that took though.))

So once you've made sure you ruined a perfectly awesome chocolate cake by purposely coaxing it to fall (I just opened the oven door several times for an extended period of time after the batter started to rise while baking) you let it cool completely then fill it with the cheesecake.


No-Bake Cheesecake Filling
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet, you can use dark or the mixture of the two)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 c. cool whip, thawed

Place chocolate chips in a small microwave bowl and carefully stir and melt in waves (about 15 seconds) until chips are melted. Set aside to cool.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and butter in large bowl on medium speed until creamy. Gradually add melted chips, beating on low speed until blended. Fold in whipped topping until blended. Refrigerate until firm (I usually do this overnight. Ain't nobody be goin be back for seconds on luke-warm cheesecake.)

OBVIOUSLY, you're going to put this filling into the crater cake you have made and cooled. Believe me when I say, you will want to serve this in slivers because it is incredibly rich! As such, I usually dip some strawberries in chocolate (I just melt more chocolate than what I need for the cheesecake filling, then dip them while the chocolate is cooling for the filling) and use them as garnish, along with a mini portion of cream cheese frosting.