Easter Egg Cheesecakes
These Easter Egg cheesecakes will delight the whole family and provide a fun and delicious way of using up some of that left over Easter chocolate! We have chosen fairly small Easter eggs cut in half – each half makes a perfect (generous!) single portion. You can double or even triple the mixture and use large Easter eggs if you’d like to make big sharing eggs for a family dessert. Invite your guests to grab a spoon and dive in!
Decorate with candy melts, sprinkles, chocolates, mini eggs or go fully Faberge fabulous and use edible gold leaf! (Gold leaf is readily available online, be sure to select the edible kind.)
I find that a 74g Easter Egg (the Cadbury Chocolate Buttons Egg, for example) cut in half longitudinally along the seam makes two perfect size portions.
This recipe provides 4 single portion cheesecakes.
Ingredients
For the eggs:
2 milk chocolate easter eggs (74g)
2 digestive biscuits
3 tsp butter, melted
40g dark chocolate, melted
80g soft cheese
100ml double cream
1 ½ tbs icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the topping:
20g milk chocolate
20ml double cream
Candy melts in various colours
Sprinkles (optional)
Edible gold leaf (optional)
Equipment
Kitchen scissors
- Separate the Easter eggs into two halves. Place the small sharp knife in hot water for a few seconds while you unwrap the eggs. Use the hot knife to carefully score along the seam joining the two halves of the egg together. Reheat the knife now and then and keep scoring patiently at the seam until the egg falls into two separate halves. Repeat with the other egg.
- In a small mixing bowl, crumble the digestive biscuits into crumbs (you can do this with your fingers, or bash them with the back of a spoon if you prefer) and mix in the melted butter.
- Divide the buttered crumbs evenly between the 4 easter egg halves and press the crumbs down, gently, with your fingers, to make a crumbly biscuit base. Chill the eggs for a few moments while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
- Whip the cream until it forms loose peaks then whisk in the icing sugar and vanilla extract.
- Quickly add the melted chocolate and beat again, as fast as you can before the chocolate has a chance to set.
- Spoon the mixture into the egg shells and level off with a knife or mini palette knife. Refrigerate while you work on the topping.
- Wash out the mini mixing bowl and place the milk chocolate and cream inside. Heat gently in the microwave in short bursts. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is glossy and flowing.
- Spoon two teaspoons of the ganache over each egg and spread it evenly across the top with the palette knife. Return the eggs to the fridge while you prepare the candy melts.
- The candy melts will set quickly, so work with one colour before moving on to the next. (Don’t melt all the colours at once as you will find that while you working with one colour the other colours will start to set again.) Place the melts in a microwave-proof bowl and microwave on low power until fully melted. Transfer the melts into a disposable piping bag and snip off the tip of the piping bag with kitchen scissors.
- Drizzle the candy melts over the surface of the egg. I find a smooth ‘back and forth’ motion works well. Repeat the process with the other coloured candy melts. Add sprinkles, sweets or gold leaf to your heart’s content.
- Chill until required but these cheesecakes are best eaten on the same day that you make them.
Tips:
Keep the foil Easter egg wrappers and use them as ‘mitts’ to hold the chocolate eggs while you are working on them. This will protect them from gathering fingerprints during handling and may offer some protection from the heat of your fingers.
Candy melts are easier to work with than chocolate but can still present a few problems as they like to harden quickly. Buy a little extra time by mixing in a few drops of sunflower oil to prevent the melts from setting too quickly.