Vanilla cheesecake with cherries, hazelnuts, and chocolate ganache – it’s delicious and insanely easy to make with just a simple list of ingredients!
With a heart of cherry preserves embraced by 2 layers of vanilla cheese cream and covered with a delicious layer of milk chocolate ganache filled with crunchy chopped hazelnuts.
A perfect cake for any occasion but especially for a birthday. I made this cake for my friend and colleague Maria for her birthday. Anyone who reads my blog knows very well that I love to make and give my cakes to friends and relatives, satisfying their requests, especially for their special day.
Maria asked me to make her a cake that resembles her favorite ice cream of a famous brand, “the crunchy” and so I granted her a wish.
This cake can be made in any season of the year, in winter you use black cherry jam as I did (an organic one preferably), but in late spring and summer you can use fresh sour cherries, or you can make the preserves yourself. Your cake will have that sense of freshness that every season’s harvest gives. You can also turn it into ice cream just replace the cream cheese with condensed milk always in the ratio of 1: 2 example: 150g of condensed milk and 300g of cream.
Vanilla Cheesecake with Cherries, Hazelnuts and Chocolate Ganache
Equipment
Ingredients
Flat Sponge Cake
- 3 eggs
- 100 g sugar 1/2 cup
- 75 g flour 1/2 cup
- 15 g potato starch 1 ¾ tbsp
Cheese Cream
- cream-cheese 32 oz remove from the fridge 1hr before use
- 200 g icing sugar 1 ½ cups
- 400 g whipping cream 1 2/3 cups
- 450 g organic cherry preserves ~16 oz
- vanilla caviar
Milk Chocolate Ganache
- 350 g milk chocolate 12.34 oz
- 150 g whipping cream ~2/3 cup
Instructions
Flat sponge cake
- Mix the eggs with the sugar.
- Beat the mixture in a mixer for 15-20 minutes at medium speed.
- Add the sifted flour and starch potatoes and mix with a spatula starting from the bottom and then moving the spatula towards you to the top to obtain a homogeneous consistency.
- Put the mixture into the rectangular cake pan (9-inches x 13 1/2 inches) properly greased and covered with parchment paper.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (356°F) for about 35 minutes
- Do the toothpick test to check cooking, insert it in the cake, and make sure it comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool and don’t remove it from the pan.
Cheese cream
- In a large bowl whip the whipping cream until becomes firm and add the vanilla caviar.
- In the other bowl whisk the cream cheese until it becomes smooth.
- Add the whipped cream into the cream cheese bowl, little by little mixing the two creams.
Chocolate ganache
- Finely chop the chocolate and gradually pour the hot cream (92 ° C) over it.
- Mix gently with the spatula, trying to incorporate as little air as possible.
- Stir until the chocolate melts completely which should become a compact and shiny cream.
Assembling
- Put half of the cheese cream over the flat sponge cake and place it inside the freezer for at least 2 hrs.
- Then spread the cherry preserves over the frozen cream and put it again in the freezer for another half hour.
- Spread the other half of the cream cheese over the ricotta cream and put it in the freezer for another 2hrs.
- Remove it from the freezer and set it aside for another 30 min.
- Glaze the whole cake with the milk chocolate ganache and sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts.
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