Chocolate Cheesecake Cake

So, one of my bestest friends 21st birthday was last week and I went up to Nottingham to see her and pretend to be a student for a little bit. Obviously I also took cake.
Jess was my partner in crime all throughout summer, helping out on most of the recipes on here so she deserved something of a special cake for her big 2-1. She also loves black bottom cupcakes and every time we have them says how good they would be in big cake form…so obviously I took this as my cue and my inspiration came from there. 
Instead of baking cheesecake into the chocolate cake I decided to bake a whole separate cheesecake and have it as a layer in between two chocolate sponges. (The cheesecake also had chocolate chips just incase there wasn't enough chocolate already) Like the real black bottoms the whole thing was then topped off with cream cheese frosting and I went a little OTT on the decorating.
The result? A pretty giant, horrendously calorific, but amazing 21st birthday cake. I think she might have liked it just a little bit…

You can cheat a tiny bit when making this and use chocolate cake mix rather than making it form scratch, you are making a whole cheesecake after all. The cheesecake recipe here is a really good one and would obviously be just as delicious baked as a "normal" cheesecake, just by adding a biscuit base and er…not sandwiching it between two giant chocolate sponges. 

Ingredients:

For the chocolate cake:
400g caster sugar
220g plain flour
65g unsweetened cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp salt
2 eggs
235ml milk
1tsp vanilla extract
120ml melted butter
235ml boiling water
(or one Box of Devils Food Chocolate cake mix)
For the Cheesecake:
500g cream cheese at room temperature
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tbsp cornflour
300g sour cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g choc chips
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
600g icing sugar
100g butter
250g cream cheese

To Make:

Make the Cheesecake:

• Pre heat oven to 150°C.
• Grease a loose bottom cake tin and line with greaseproof paper (as there is no base to the cheesecake we want to make sure it will come out of the tin!)
• Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl and mix with an electric whisk or in a food processer for 2-3 minutes. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
• Add the cornflour, sour cream and vanilla essence and process for 30 seconds to combine.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

• Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour. When cooked, the cheesecake should be well-risen, with a golden brown top. It should feel slightly firm to the touch – if the mixture still appears wet, continue to bake a little longer. When cooked, allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven, with the door open. When completely cool, place in the fridge. 

I made the cheesecake the day before baking and assembling the whole cake just so that it had plenty of time to cool and set, so it was in the fridge overnight. 
When making the chocolate cake, I took the cheesecake out of the fridge, removed it from the tin and wrapped it in cling film before popping it into the freezer for an hour before assembling the cake so that it was easy to handle and layer the cake up!

Make the Chocolate Cake:

• Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and lime two 9inch cake tins.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
• Add the eggs, milk, butter and vanilla. Mix until fully incorporated with a handheld electric whisk or in a food processor.
• Stir in boiling water. (The cake mix will be quite runny, but don't worry! It makes the moistest sponge)
• Pour evenly into the two prepared tins and bake for 30-35 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from tins and leaving to cool completely.

Make the cream cheese frosting:

• Combine the cream cheese and butter and gradually add the icing sugar, sifting to ensure there are no lumps and mix until smooth.

Assemble the cake:

• When the chocolate cake is completely cool start assembling the cake by placing one layer of chocolate cake on a board and spreading a thin layer of cream cheese frosting over it.
• Pop the chilled cheesecake on top and spread another thin layer of frosting and top of with the final chocolate cake.

• Cover the entire cake (top and sides) with a very thin layer of frosting and chill in the fridge for about an hour. This acts as a crumb layer and helps to ensure the end result is smooth and crumb free!

• Remove the cake from the fridge and frost all over. 
• Decorate as desired.