Spiderweb Cheesecake
The web here is not chocolate piped on top but the filling itself, darkened with cocoa: rings are piped onto the pale surface and dragged with a toothpick from the centre outwards. It bakes into the cheesecake and does not flake when you slice. The rest is a classic dense cheesecake, which asks for two things: a low oven and a night in the fridge.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 1 h 35 min
- Rest
- 9 h
- Total
- 11 h 20 min
- Servings
- 12
- Level
- Challenging
- Per serving
- 650 kcal
Ingredients
Crust
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What to use instead
Any dark chocolate sandwich cookie works for the crust. With plain cookies without filling, use a quarter more butter.
Filling
Makes: 1 cheesecake, 21 cm, 12 slices
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
Oven
150 °C · top and bottom heat, no fan
With a fan: 130 °C
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Step 1: Make the crust
Blitz the cookies, filling and all, to crumbs, then mix with the sugar, cocoa and melted butter. Press firmly with a glass into the base and a little way up the sides of a 21 cm springform tin.
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Step 2: Set the oven low
Heat the oven to 150°C. The low temperature is the whole secret: hotter, and the filling puffs up and then cracks.
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Step 3: Beat cheese and sugar
With a mixer, on low speed, beat the cream cheese with the sugar and cornflour until smooth, 2–3 minutes, scraping down the bowl. Not on high — air in the filling makes cracks.
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Step 4: Add the rest
Mix in the vanilla and lemon juice, then the eggs one at a time, then the sour cream and double cream. Mix only until smooth.
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Step 5: Set aside the dark batter
Take about 200 g of the filling into a separate bowl and stir in the sifted cocoa. Pour the rest over the crust and level it.
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Step 6: Draw the web
Spoon the dark batter into a bag with a small hole and pipe 4–5 concentric rings from the centre. Then drag a toothpick 8 times from the centre to the edge — the rings pull into a web.
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Step 7: Bake
Bake for 1 hour 30–35 minutes, until the edges are set and the centre just wobbles. A wobble, not a slosh.
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Step 8: Cool slowly
Turn the oven off, prop the door open and leave the cheesecake for an hour, then refrigerate overnight. A sudden change of temperature is the other great cause of cracks.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Take all the dairy and the eggs out two hours ahead. Cold cream cheese never goes smooth, and the lumps show on the cut face.
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Variation
For an 18 cm tin, halve the filling and cut the baking time to 70 minutes.
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Swap
Any dark chocolate sandwich cookie works for the crust. With plain cookies without filling, use a quarter more butter.
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Storage
Five days covered in the fridge. Slice with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped after every cut, and the web stays sharp.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 12 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 650 kcal | 7,800 kcal |
| Protein | 10 g | 120 g |
| Fat | 44 g | 528 g |
| Carbohydrates | 55 g | 660 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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