Baked Chai Cheesecake

So I have this policy at work where I tell my team mates that they can pick any type of cake they want for their birthday and I will make it.  It’s never actually backfired yet, but there have been a few times where I think they just like to test me.  Case in point – E asked me if I could make her a chai cheesecake for her birthday.  There are NO recipes I could find online at that stage… so I made up my own.

It was pretty delicious…

Now, I drink chai lattes (they’re common here in Australia, but I have no idea what happens in other countries).  My favourite brand of chai spice is this brand called Arcadia (you can kind of see it in the photo above).  Luckily I can purchase tins of it at Woolworths (can’t say I have seen it anywhere else).  If you want to try it, it is located in the tea and coffee aisle, and there are 2 types – spice and vanilla.  You could probably substitute this for most other types of chai powder.  I do NOT recommend using chai tea leaves or a brew as a substitute.

Ingredients

Base:

• 250g packet of plain/light nut biscuits (I used Arnott’s Butternut)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 150g butter (softened)

Cheesecake filling:

• 350g cream cheese (room temperature)
• 300mL sour cream
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup chai powder

Method

Base:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced).
2. Grease a 22cm or 9″ cake tin (I say ‘cake tin’, but I use silicon forms – generally no need to grease this.  Hot tip if you use silicon – I always place the silicon onto a flat baking tray so the base doesn’t get cracked when you move it around.  Pizza trays are also good as they are usually around the same size).
3. Add biscuits to food processor and blend to fine bread crumbs.
4. Mix cinnamon and butter into biscuit crumbs until even consistency.
5. Press butter crumb mixture evenly into the base of the cake tin. Place into refrigerator.

Cheesecake filling:

1. Add cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar to medium sized bowl and mix well (but gently – you don’t want to aerate the cheesecake).
2. Add eggs one at a time and continue mixing.
3. Add chai powder and mix through (you can see that I didn’t mix well in the photo – there’s a whole chunk of cream cheese mixture in the bottom of the cake… Oops!).
4. Take base out of refrigerator and pour cream cheese mixture onto this.
5. Bake in oven for 1 hour (or until light brown and not wobbly).
6. Remove from oven to cool.
7. Refrigerate overnight.
8. Take to work and impress your colleagues with your amazing baking skills.  Or eat it all yourself – no judgement here 😉