Mocha Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

I am on a no-bake cheesecake spree ever since my last trip to Phoon Huat (local baking store). This is a result of buying cream cheese and diary whipping cream in bulk - think 1kg of cream cheese and 1L of whipping cream. To be fair, I couldn't resist the cream cheese. The one I bought comes from Australia in a tubular form and has a light creamy taste which I absolutely adore. I don't like cheese with a strong "cheesey" taste (it's ironic I know) and this affordable option ($12-ish for 1kg) is for those who want to make cheesecakes but find Philadelphia (250g for $5-ish) a tad pricey.

Oreos go superbly with cream cheese. It's one of those winning combinations which can't go wrong.

But let's give this a little twist and add on a layer of Mocha. Voilà!

I'm loving the colours, the layers and the flavours. A tinge of coffee and cocoa. It's like having a cold mocha drink with your oreo cheesecake. Oh wait, no need to make a cup, you have already integrated it in your cake.

(makes an 8 inch cake)

Ingredients
For base
100g oreo (with cream filling removed)
50g unsalted butter

For oreo cream cheese layer
250g cream cheese (softened)
40g icing sugar
Cream filling from oreos used to make base
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g whipping cream
100g roughly chopped oreos (you can break them with your hands)
1 tbsp gelatin powder
4 tbsp of water

For mocha cream cheese layer
250g cream cheese (softened)
40g icing sugar
1.5 tbsp instant coffee
2 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp warm water
1 tsp vanilla essence
150g (cold) + 50g (warm) whipping cream
1 tbsp gelatin powder

Method
1. To make the base, crush oreos to fine crumbs. You can put them in a large bag and pulverise till fine crumbs form. Melt butter and mix with oreo crumbs. Press mixture onto the base of a cake tin with removable base. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.

2. To make the oreo cream cheese layer, whip whipping cream till soft peaks and leave aside. Mix gelatin with water and heat till warm (either via microwave or direct heat). Stir well till gelatin dissolves.

3. Beat cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla essence and cream filling from oreos till smooth. Add in gelatin mixture. Mix well. Fold in whipped cream and add in broken oreos. Pour onto chilled oreo base and chill in fridge. In the meantime, prepare the mocha cream cheese layer.

4. To make the mocha cream cheese layer, whip whipping cream till soft peaks and leave aside. Mix gelatin with warm whipping cream and stir well till gelatin dissolves. Mix warm water with instant coffee and cocoa powder to form a paste.

5. Beat cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla essence till smooth. Add in gelatin mixture and coffee-cocoa paste. Mix well. Fold in whipped cream and pour onto chilled oreo cream cheese layer. Make sure that the oreo layer is set before pouring the mocha layer on top. Chill in fridge for 4-5 hours before serving.

Tips
To unmould the cake, boil some water and wet a towel with the hot water. Wipe the hot towel around the cake tin. This will cause the metal tin to expand slightly and for you to unmould the cake easily. Push the cake base up slowly and you get a cake with smooth sides. There is no need to line the cake tin when making this cake, you can, however, choose the line the base of the cake tin for easy transfer onto cake board

Whisk at low speed to ensure that there are no big air bubbles. Trapped air bubbles will look obvious when you slice up the cake

To get a clean cut/slice of cake without any smudges of oreo, wipe knife clean after every cut