Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie a la The Hummingbird Bakery

Hummingbird's brownie-cheesecake-raspberry torta / Hummingbirdi šokolaadi-toorjuustu-vaarikatort

The Hummingbird Bakery is the bakery in London at the moment, specializing in American-style cakes and sweets. It's a brainchild of Tarek Malouf that opened in 2004, and the book - The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - featuring their most popular cakes and pastries was published in 2009. It's a gorgeous book, full of inviting and appetizing recipes, though the only one I've made so far is this Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie. And I've made it three times during the last month or so - for K's mum's birthday (twice) and for our daughter's first birthday party as well. I've followed the recipe more or less - replacing the icing sugar with caster sugar, topping up the amount of cheesecake to suit our local 150 g packs of cream cheese, and baking it in a round cake tin instead. I might reduce the sugar content in the brownie layer next time, as the cake is rather sweet (though the slight acidity of the raspberry layer balances it all out nicely).

The interesting thing about this cake is that the cheesecake and brownie layers are cooked at once - and this can be made a day or even two days before serving. A great cake for making in advance, as all you have to do before serving is topping it with raspberry whipped cream.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie
(Vaarikatega šokolaadi-toorjuustukook)

Serves 12

Hummingbird's brownie-cheesecake-raspberry torta / Hummingbirdi šokolaadi-toorjuustu-vaarikatort

Brownie layer:
200 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
200 g unsalted butter, softened
250 g caster sugar
3 large eggs
110 g plain flour (200 ml)

Cheesecake layer:
450 g cream cheese, softened
150 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Raspberry topping:
200 ml whipping cream
100 g caster sugar
200 g raspberries

Butter a 26 cm springform tin, line the base with a sheet of parchment paper.

For the brownie layer:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a pan of simmering water.
Cream the butter and sugar, then whisk in the eggs one at a time. Sift and fold in the flour and finally fold in the slightly cooled melted chocolate.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the cake tin.

For the cheesecake layer:
cream the softened cream cheese with sugar and vanilla extract until combined, then whisk in the eggs one at a time.
Pour the cheesecake mixture carefully over the uncooked brownie mixture.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 170 C / 325 F oven for 30-40 minutes, until the cheesecake is firm to the touch and light golden around the edges. (The cheesecake layer will firm furthen when cooling).

Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Before serving whisk the cream and sugar until soft peaks form, then fold in the fresh or frozen (defrost and drain first!) raspberries. Spread the raspberry cream over the cheesecake and decorate with chocolate and extra raspberries.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW this looks great!

Ben Rosamund said...

That is a very beautiful thing.

ChichaJo said...

Oh my! Chocolate, cheesecake, and raspberries in one grand dessert! This looks like a winner Pille :)

Hannah said...

Yum! I love cheesecake in any form :) Do you think one could get away with just pureeing some raspberries with sugar for a sauce, rather than doing the whipped cream layer on top?

Alanna Kellogg said...

And so it's 10 in the morning and I've had too much food over the past few days and thanks to you, all I want to do is make cheesecake with a brownie on the bottom and raspberries on top. You ol' meanie, you ...

wink, wink

Kat said...

OMG :)
Seriously Pille, this is just too much. I think I just cried a little when I saw this. What I'd give for a slice :D

Annie said...

wow, gorgeous desserts

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

Oh this looks like such a treat. I love the chocolate swirls up top.

Anonymous said...

This is a truly awesome cake. After reading your post I made it for my Finnish wife for her birthday. She declared it the best cake she has ever had. I'm inclined to agree. Sooo good. I would agree with your comments about reducing the sugar levels though. I often find American cakes are a little too sweet. Love the blog.

Janine said...

Hi, made this cake on sunday for 4th of July. At first, i thought my springform was too small but then I measured it with a ruler at it came to 26 cm. I felt there was too much dough - 2 sticks of butter and 3 eggs? I was tempted to use a 9x13 inch pan. And yes, after baking, there was was too much dough. Also, I waited about 4 hours as recommended, but when I cut the cake it was still runny in the middle. After a night in the refri it was better yesterday, but still, next time around I will cut the batter in half and use a bit more flour. It seemed too moist for me, almost like biting into a chocolate-falvored stick of butter. But other than that, great taste. Maybe I got the measurements wrong?

Jiri said...

I tried this and it was not good at all. Not a good recipe. I don't recommend it. The brownie part especially was not good as it was very buttery.

Pille said...

Lara, Ben, Joey, Annie, Xiaolu, Anon. - thank you!

Hannah - that could work as well - a raspberry coulis with chocolate brownie-cheesecake.

Alanna - oops! :)

Kat -:D

Janine - I've used now 600 g of cream cheese and one extra egg for the cheesecake layer, and it seems to be more suited for that amount of brownie layer.

Jiri, I'm sorry you didn't like the cake. The brownie layer is a classic brownie layer - I use the same recipe for my regular brownies and love it. Also, I'm just about to blog about (frozen) Oreo/Domino chocolate brownie bites that uses the same brownie recipe, which we all adore.

With less butter it's no longer a brownie but a chocolate cake (which can also be a very good thing). Perhaps proper brownies as such aren't your thing? ;)

Anonymous said...

We adore chocolate and rasberry combination, but there seemed to be too much dough for us.
Other than that tastes delicious!