No-Bake Easter Egg Cheesecakes

Day 6,787 of Lockdown (honestly, I’ve lost count what day we are on now)!

The plus side to lockdown is that, it is making me grateful for a number of things I previously took for granted like:

Seeing friends and family;
The great outdoors;
Nature;
Going to the park; and
Eating out.

I do see lockdown as an opportunity to slow down and evaluate our lives. It’s providing us with the opportunity to slow down and invest in a little bit of TLC; put your slippers on, slap on a face mask, grab a book and RELAX.

It is also allowing me to get back in the kitchen and get my creative flare going again! Cooking/baking had become a chore for me however, in lockdown, it’s become a little safe haven for me to pass time.

So…anyway…after all that drivel…I’m sure you’d like to know the recipe for my Dreamy Easter Egg Cheesecakes.

My mam’s cheesecakes are to die for, they aren’t too thick (too much gelatine) or too thin (too little gelatine or too much liquid), they are creamy light and well, divine!! Hence why I couldn’t not use her recipe and give it a little Easter tweak to make it utterly EGGtastic!!!

If you want to make the Easter Bank Holiday a little special with a vamped up cheesecake…look no further!

Okay, so firstly, what I learnt doing these cheesecakes is that you are better off buying the Cadbury Easter Eggs as they are already halved (who knew – not me otherwise they all would have been Cadbury’s), other eggs aren’t which will require you to half them yourself (directions below)!!

Ingredients:

450g Mascarpone Cheese or Philadelphia
12g Gelatine – I used Dr Oektar (Veggie Gelatine)
2 Eggs
100g Caster Sugar
300ml Fresh Double Cream
175g Biscuits Crushed (Digestive are my fave for a classic cheesecake)
75g Unsalted Butter
5 Chocolate Easter Eggs Halved (10 Halves)
Filling:
- 100g – 150g Strawberries, finely chopped
- 40 – 50g Aero Mint Chocolate, finely crushed

Decorations:
- Mini Malteser Bunnies
- Mini Crème Eggs
- Mini Eggs
- M&M Mini Eggs

Directions:

Half the Easter Eggs, if you did not buy Cadbury Easter Eggs you will have to half the Easter Eggs yourself! My Top Tip: boil your kettle, put into a mug and submerge a sharp knife into the hot water, then cut the Easter Egg in half, it works a treat with no breakage of the Egg either!!
Put the Easter Eggs in the fridge so that they don’t melt, this is the perfect opportunity to test out if you actually have the fridge space for them all!
Weigh out the biscuits and place in a food bag – then use either a food processor or rolling pin (or your fists if you don’t have either) and crush the biscuits. You want the biscuit to look like a fine crumb. On this attempt I must admit, I didn’t crush them as finely as I usually like but thought the rustic look worked and it adds a bit more texture to the Cheesecake.
Place the butter into a pan and place on a low heat, be careful as you do not want to burn the butter. Low and slow is best.
Once the butter is melted take the pan off the heat, add the biscuits to the melted butter and mix together. My Top Tip: If you notice there are very large biscuit bits, place the mixture into a bad and use a rolling pin to make the biscuit pieces smaller.
Take the Easter Eggs out of the fridge and place the biscuit mixture into the bottom of the Easter Eggs, so you have that crunchy biscuity cheesecake base. Then place the Easter Eggs back in the fridge.
Separate the egg yolk and egg whites (place into separate bowls).
Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff white peaks (you can do the bowl over your head test if you want).
For the gelatine, follow the instructions on the packet. Mine required me to use 8 tablespoons of boiling water, add the gelatine powder and mix until the gelatine powder had dissolved.
The bowl containing the egg yolks, add in the sugar and mix together.
Add the gelatine to the bowl with the eggs and sugar, then whisk together until sugar and eggs have dissolved with the gelatine – the mixture should thicken slightly.
Then add the mascarpone cheese or Philadelphia.
When the mixture is on the point of setting fold in the cream and the whisked egg whites.
Then half the mixture into two bowls.
Add the Aero Mint Chocolate to one half of the cheesecake mixture and fold until the chocolate is blended in. In the other half, I use the same method as above for 15 and add fresh strawberries.
Take your Easter Eggs out of the fridge and spoon the cheesecake filling into the Easter Eggs, go as far as either the brim of the Easter Eggs or just below and then place in the fridge.This is when I start to organise my decorations, crush up some more chocolate and half the crème eggs (refer back to step 1 for halving chocolate).
Before the Easter Eggs fully set, add your decoration to the top of the Cheesecake and Hey Presto!! You have your own Dreamy Easter Egg Cheesecakes!