Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher - because you’re only 21 once

My baby boy is 21. When I first started writing this blog, we’d just moved to Ireland and Charlie was eight. Honestly, it seems like a lifetime ago now. I’ve said before that I never really felt like I was a natural at all this motherhood lark, so I’m eternally thankful that they’ve both turned into the kind, funny, loving adults (eek!) they are today. It’s really lovely to see them live, love and flourish. Charlie’s in his second year of university now and happily settled with a lovely girlfriend, and although it’s true that you never stop worrying about them, by the time they get to this life stage, you have to sit back, relax and just hope that you’ve given them all the skills to make the right decisions in life. which is kind of a relief after the stress of those teenage years. And talking of decisions, if you’re a regular reader, or maybe if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll know about the Birthday Challenge. In this household, the birthday person gets to choose whatever cake they like, however obscure, and I promise to make it for them. Once upon a time, it was all about finding the most obscure recipes (think of it as the inspiration for the technical challenge on GBBO), but now, they just choose something yummy, which is fine by me. Charlie’s choice was for a ‘Nutella chocolate cheesecake with Ferrari Rockets on top’, and while he was heading back down the motorway ready to celebrate with all our friends and family, I got to work creating the perfect, silky smooth Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher* on the top.

We were just planning a small celebration, with about 20 of our closest family and friends, and I decided to just keep it casual with the food, so we headed to M&S and bought a ton of their delicious posh dogs (if you haven’t tried them, I heartily recommend them, they’re gluten free, yummy and they don’t shrink either - much better than flabby frankfurters), plus a load of brioche buns, which we just served with fried onions, fresh tomato salsa and grated cheese, then I just put out a load of chips and dips on the table to nibble on. Although, as it turned out, I was having such a nice time that I forgot all about cooking the hotdogs until everyone was absolutely starving. Still, they went down very well with a few glasses of Prosecco!

I suppose this should really be called ‘hazelnut and chocolate spread’ cheesecake (in fact, I made mine with the Waitrose own brand version), but use whatever version you like. Nigella has a great recipe for Nutella cheesecake, but hers is very cream cheese-heavy and we prefer a lighter mix with whipped double cream. Oh and be warned, this bad boy uses nearly a full 400g jar. Here goes with the recipe then.

Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher

250g Hobnobs or Digestive biscuits
75g butter
1 tbsp Nutella
250g full fat cream cheese
150g icing sugar, sifted
250g Nutella
200ml double cream
1 box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates (16 pieces)

So first you need to tackle the base. I whizz up the biscuits in my small food processor but you can also just bash them with a rolling pin if you like - make sure there are no big chunks of biscuit left. Gently melt the butter and stir in a tablespoon of Nutella. Once they’ve melted together, stir into the biscuit crumbs.

Press the crumbs into a springform tin (I think mine is 20cm - if you use something a bit bigger you’ll obviously get a thinner base), making sure it’s all even, then pop the base in the fridge.

To make the filling, mix the cream cheese until it’s soft and creamy, then stir in the icing sugar. Next, beat in the Nutella, then whip the cream and fold that in too.

Flump this filling onto the chilled base and roughly smooth it off. It needs to go back in the fridge for a good few hours to be set enough to slice.

To decorate, I just piled all the Ferrero Rocher on to the top of the cheesecake: cutting some in half, leaving a few whole and smashing a few others. I also melted a couple of extra tablespoons of Nutella and drizzled it over the cake, and scattered over some chopped chocolate, but do whatever you fancy: gold sprinkles would be lovely here, or a scattering of toasted hazelnuts.

You’ll be pleased to hear that the cake went down a storm with the birthday boy (who actually wasn’t feeling very well on the day, but rallied the day after and managed to eat some). Now can time please stop going so flipping quickly. I can’t bear it!

Happy birthday, Charlie. We love you so much and we’re so proud of you and everything you’ve achieved. Here’s to a bright and happy future.

*What on earth is the plural of Ferrero Rocher? Ferrero Rochers? Ferrero Rochi? I’m taking the lead from their Facebook page, when they just refer to them as Ferrero Rocher all the time, whether it’s singular or plural.

Also, did you know that Rocher means rock or boulder in French, so these are literally Ferrero boulders? You’re welcome. Have a great weekend.

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