Chocolate Cheesecake Graveyard Recipe | Halloween Bakes!

Hello lovelies,

It’s spooky season baby and I couldn’t be happier!

If you’ve been around here a while, you’ll know I love myself a good old Halloween inspired bake. I’ve shared quite a lot of Halloween inspired recipes throughout the last couple of years which have been shown endless love. Due to the amount of love I receive each year on my Halloween bakes, i couldn’t let you guys down and not share a couple of Halloween recipes at the very least.

As a baker, i sometimes struggle to get inspired for big occasions due to the amount of recipes I’ve already created and shared here on my blog. I won’t lie, I defiantly found it hard to get inspired for Halloween this year… well, that was until Jane Patisserie’s brand new cook book ‘Celebrations’ came out.

If you’ve been around here a while, you’ll know that I’m a HUGE fan of Jane’s. I’ve followed her for a years now and her love for baking forever inspires me. I don’t think it’s possible to come away from Jane’s social media or cookbooks without your mouth watering at her delicious bakes.

Anyway, now that I’ve cringed myself out by expressing my love for Jane and her recipes, we’ll carry on. I mentioned above that Jane has brought out a new cook book called ‘Celebrations’ and boy oh boy did this book get my creative juices flowing! A couple of the Halloween recipes she shared in her book really caught my eye, so, of course, I had to re-create them myself.

First up was Jane’s ‘Graveyard Cheesecake’ and I can hand on heart say, that I am chuffed with the outcome of this! It’s such a simple recipe to follow and tastes bloody delicious.

So, if this cheesecake graveyard has caught your eye, keep scrolling down and let’s get baking!

{ FYI: I cannot take credit for todays bake, it’s inspired by Jane’s recipe. That being said, me being me, I have added my own personal touches to this cheesecake. If you’d like to check out Jane’s new cookbook, here’s the link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Janes-Patisserie-Celebrate }

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Category: Desert / Sweet Treat

Serves: 6-8

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 20 Minutes

Chill Time: Overnight

Decorating Time: 30-40 Minutes

Overall Time: One Day

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Ingredients You Need For Shortbread Base:

• 490g Of Unsalted Butter
• 200g Of Caster Sugar
• 600g Of Plain Flour
• 2tsp Of Black Food Colouring

Ingredients You Need For Cheesecake Filling:

• 250g Of Dark Chocolate
• 500g Of Full-Fat Cream Cheese
• 75g Of Icing Sugar
• 1tsp of Vanilla Extract
• 300ml Of Double Cream
• 100g Of Black Shortbread Biscuits

Ingredients You Need For Decorating:

• 3 Black Shortbread Coffins
• 1 White Decorative Icing Pen Or 50g Of White Chocolate, Melted
• Brown Sprinkles
• 12 Zombie Hand Cake Toppers (https://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/edible-cake-decorations-c20/sugar-toppers-c333/wilton-zombie-hand-decorating-kit-12-hands)
• 233 Wilton Nozzle With Green Buttercream

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How To Make Shortbread Base:

• Firstly, gather together your equipment and ingredients, line two baking trays with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 190C / 170C Fan / Gas Mark 5.
• Secondly, in a large bowl, beat together 200g of caster sugar with 400g of unsalted butter until light and fluffy.
• Add 2tsp of black food colouring to the butter mixture and mix until blackened.
• Next, mix in 600g of plain flour until combined (TIP: if it resembles breadcrumbs and not a dough, add in a splash of milk and that should bind it together).
• Once your blackened shortbread dough has been formed, wrap in clingfilm and place into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
• When chilled, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to around a 1cm thickness.
• Using a coffin shaped cutter (TIP: if you don’t have a coffin cutter, you could draw a coffin shape on a piece of paper, cut it out and use that as your template), cut out 6 coffins. With the remaining dough, using a circle cutter, cut out the shortbread and place them onto the pre-lined baking trays.
• Place the shortbread in the oven for around 10-12 minutes.
• When the shortbread has finished baking, take out the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once cooled, place 300g of the circle shortbreads into the food processor and blitz the biscuits until it resembles a fine crumb and place into a large bowl (TIP: if you don’t have a food processor, place the shortbread into a zip bag and use a rolling pin to break the biscuits into a fine crumb).
• Next, in the microwave, melt the 90g of unsalted butter. Once melted, pour the butter into the bowl with the biscuit crumbs and mix together until combined.
• Press the mixture firmly into the base of a loose bottomed 8inch cake tin, making sure it’s levelled. Then, set to one side.

How To Make Cheesecake Filling:

• Once your shortbread base is made, it’s time to make the filling.
• In a microwavable bowl, in 30 second blasts, melt the 250g of dark chocolate. Once melted, set aside to cool down.
• In a large bowl using an electric whisk or spatula, cream together the 600g of full-fat cream cheese, 75g of icing sugar and 1tsp of vanilla extract until smooth.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the 300ml of double cream until thickened.
• Add the thickened double cream into the cream cheese mixture and using a spatula mix them carefully together (try not to over mix).
• Once the dark chocolate has cooled right down, pour the dark chocolate into the cream cheese / double cream mixture and fold in until combined.
• Spread your dark chocolate cheesecake filling over the top of the biscuit base, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon.
• Place 100g of the remaining circle shaped shortbread biscuits into the food processor and blitz into a fine crumb.
• Then, sprinkle the shortbread crumbs over the top of the cheesecake mixture until the top of the cheesecake is completely covered. Using your hands, press the crumbs down gently.
• Now, place your cheesecake into the fridge and allow to chill overnight.

How To Decorate Your Cheesecake Graveyard:

• Once your cheesecake has set, remove from the fridge and carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin (TIP: if your struggling to remove from the tin, either run a knife around the edge of the tin to loosen OR place your cheesecake tin on top of a slim and relatively tall container and carefully pull the tin downwards to release the cheesecake).
• Now, using a white icing pen or melted white chocolate, decorate your coffin shaped shortbreads. I piped RIP onto the centre of my coffins and added a simple spiderweb pattern on the corners.
• When you’ve decorated your coffins the way you want, carefully and slowly push down 3 of your best decorated coffin shortbreads into the chilled cheesecake filling.
• Around the 3 coffins, I added some brown sprinkles and placed a zombie hand cake topper in front of the coffins to make it look like the zombie hands are pushing out through the ground.
• Finally, I placed my cheesecake onto a wooden log serving board and using a Wilton 233 nozzle, I piped a simple green buttercream around the cheesecake to make it look like grass. Then, I added some plastic spiders around the edges.

That’s your Chocolate Cheesecake Graveyard prepared, baked, chilled, decorated and ready for you to enjoy!

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Can we just take a moment to appreciate how unbelievably easy this recipe is to make and decorate. It’s just amazing.

It’s the perfect show stopping bake for a Halloween party or as something fun to bake and decorate with the kids. Whoever you make this with or for, there’s no doubt that you’ll impress with this bad boy. It really is the perfect Halloween bake.

Let me know in the comments below if you make this graveyard cheesecake yourself and if you do, what your thoughts are on it. Are you impressed?

Sending you all tons of love & hugs as always,

Elle xo