I was going to write about my homemade ketchup, but I dropped the first bottle I made on my kitchen floor. If I had taken pictures then this would become more of a CSI fan blog. Of course I made a new batch, but I haven’t gotten around to taking pictures yet. Besides, it’s practically winter here, so I don’t think anybody has kilos of tomatoes just lying around waiting to be turned into delicious ketchup. Then I figured I would write about my favorite stew, but then I discovered I already did that. Is that Mr. Alzheimer calling? Anyway, you’ll have to make do with another cake recipe for now. But not any old cake, no, this is the one and only Mars cheesecake. I had never heard of such a concoction, but my little sister had a slice and couldn’t talk about anything else for days. So when her birthday arrived I didn’t have much of a choice: a Mars cheesecake had to be created. It actually was a breeze to make, and it gave me the chance to experiment with swirly chocolate and butterscotch decorations, which, as you can tell from the picture above, I still need to practice. Best thing about this recipe? No baking required! The original recipe can be found here.

You’ll need:

250 grams of chocolate chip cookes

125 grams butter, melted

2 tablespoons brown sugar

20 grams butter, extra

300 ml cream

50 grams milk chocolate

3 sheets of gelatine

60 ml. water

500 grams cream cheese

110 grams caster sugar

3 mars bars (around 60 grams each), chopped very finely. And I mean VERY finely.

To make the cake:

Blend the cookies in a food processor until they are very crumbly. Add the butter and mix until combined. Put the cookie and butter mixture in a springform tin and put in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Then we move on to butterscotch sauce: combine the brown sugar with the 20 grams of extra butter and 2 tablespoons of the cream in a saucepan. Stir over low heat and make sure the mixture doesn’t boil! When the sugar is dissolved you are done. Just let it stand while you make the chocolate sauce and the cake mixture.

Now make the chocolate sauce by melting the milk chocolate with another two tablespoons of cream in a small saucepan.

Heat the 60 ml of water and add the gelatine: stir until the gelatine dissolves completely. Let it cool a bit.

Beat the cream cheese together with the caster sugar into a smooth mixture. Beat the remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add the gelatine to the cream cheese mixture, together with the chopped Mars bars. Finally fold in the cream.

Now we come to the decorating part. First, pour about half of the cream cheese and Mars bar mixture in the springform tin. Get a spoon and drizzle the butterscotch in lines over this mixture. Repeat with the chocolate. Now get a skewer (or use the handle of the spoon) and pull it backward and forward through this mixture to create lines. Sounds difficult? Take a look here to see how a real pattisier does it. Add the rest of the cream cheese mixture and decorate the top the same way. Now you can just put the cake in the refrigerator and let it set for at least three hours.

Ta-daa! Your Mars cheesecake is done. I didn’t get to taste it, because I don’t eat chocolate, but I have it on good authority this cake is quite delectable!