Recipe: Tanya Maher’s Squashed Berry & White Chocolate Cheesecake

When it’s time to pull out all the stops there’s one lady who never disappoints. And this berry and white chocolate cheesecake from The Uncook Book, brand new from Tanya Maher, is the perfect dinner party crowd-pleaser.

According to Tanya, there’s no better combination than the creamy, sweet, orangey white chocolate and soft, ripe, oozing, zesty berries and what’s even better is that it’s a breeze to make.

Ingredients:

( Serves 12)

For the cheesecake layer:

180g (6¼oz) cacao butter
260g (9½oz) cashew nuts, soaked for 4–6 hours
120ml (4fl oz) boiling water
grated zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 lemon
40g (1½oz) lucuma powder
110g (4oz) agave nectar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

For the berry topping:

220g (7¾oz) mixed frozen berries (I like a combination of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and red currants)

Method:

Shave the cacao butter on a grater and melt it gently in a double boiler (or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not touch the water below).
Transfer the melted butter to the jug of a high-powered blender, add the remaining cheesecake layer ingredients and blend, using a tamper, until creamy.
Cover the entire base of an 18cm (7in) round cake tin with the frozen berries and pour the blended cream all over the top.
Gently rock the tin so that the cream spreads evenly between all the berries. Refrigerate the cake for a minimum of 1 hour to set.
When you are ready to serve, run a small knife between the cake and the internal tin wall to loosen the cake. Place a serving dish face-down over the top of the tin, then flip over the tin and tip out the cake onto the serving dish.

Recipe taken from The Uncook Book by Tanya Maher (published by Hay House UK)