Jaffa Cake Cheesecake
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A delicious no-bake Jaffa Cake cheesecake with a buttery biscuit base, orange cheesecake, and hidden orange jelly layer, with chocolate ganache!
Another cheesecake!
So I have posted what feels like a million and one cheesecake recipes on this blog, and you all LOVE them. I can comfortably post more and more, as I know they’re basically the most popular recipes on my blog. I have oodles of requests all the time, and I don’t blame you to be honest.. there are so many combinations of recipes out there that I don’t think I will be running out any time soon!
Jaffa cake
One flavour that I have had requested multiple times is anything Jaffa cake related. I will admit, Jelly isn’t my favourite thing in the world so I held off a bit on posting anything till I found something that I actually liked. Turns out, putting jelly into other things makes me hate it a lot less, so it was time.
I have had may a request for homemade Jaffa cakes, mainly since they made it a challenge on ‘The Great British Bake’ off all that time ago, but I just wasn’t feeling making them quite yet. I wanted to make something Jaffa themed, and Cheesecake was quite clearly the answer. After different attempts and ways of making it, I finally settled on this version and I LOVE IT.
Base
It’s basically a no-bake biscuit base (using digestives because classic, and yum) and then an orange cheesecake filling. I went for orange because the Jaffa flavour is orange as well, but you can easily change this up. You could make it chocolate orange if you wanted by adding 100g of melted chocolate to the mix.
Hidden jelly layer
The tricky bit was the jelly layer. I tried doing the biscuit base differently by letting the biscuit base go up the sides and sort of incasing the cheesecake in a way, but when it came to pouring liquid jelly on, it all seeped though and formed a cracking jelly UNDERNEATH my tin and all over my fridge shelf. Time to try again. I tried it where I literally poured the cooled jelly mix onto the cheesecake layer, but it seemed to take F O R E V E R to set.
The best one, was setting the jelly itself on its own, and in a tub, and putting that into the middle of the cheesecake. It also helped my adding 1/5th less of the water to the jelly, so it was firmer. I found adding the normal amount gave me too much jelly, and also made it a bit delicate. Adding in less water, and setting it somewhat in the freezer gave me a firmer set, and much easier to transfer into the cheesecake.
Filling and ganache
I liked the idea of hiding the jelly in the middle of the cheesecake as with a classic Jaffa cake, you can’t actually see the Jelly. You know its there, but its technically hidden. Adding a ring of cheesecake mix around the jelly centre, adding some more cheesecake on top, and smothering in chocolate ganache made it DELICIOUS and sneaky. I love a hidden anything, like the sweets in my Easter piñata cake!
You can obviously go against what I have said completely, but I settled on this design you could say once I had made SEVERAL cheesecakes, and I like this one best. Everything is personal about a recipe, but you do you. Enjoy! X
Jaffa Cake Cheesecake!
Ingredients
Jelly Layer
- 1 packet orange jelly cubes
- 400 ml water
Biscuit Base
- 300 g digestives
- 150 g unsalted butter (melted)
Cheesecake
- 500 g full fat cream cheese (philadelphia or mascarpone)
- 100 g icing sugar
- 2 tsp orange extract
- 300 ml double cream
Decoration
- 100 ml double cream
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 12 Jaffa Cakes
Instructions
For the Jelly Layer
- Add your jelly cubes to a bowl, and pour over 200ml of boiling water. Whisk to dissolve the cubes.
- Once dissolved, pour in 200ml of cold water, whisk again. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so.
- Line a shallow round dish with several layers of clingfilm. It's important to use one thats smaller than your cheesecake tin. So I used a 6" wide tub.
- Pour the jelly in and add the tub to the freezer so it cools and sets quicker. Once its set, continue with the rest of the cheesecake.
For the Biscuit Base
- Add your biscuits to a food processor, or bag, or bowl, and bash/blitz them up to a fine crumb.
- Add in your melted butter and stir/blitz to combine.
- Pour into an 8"/20cm deep springform tin, and press down firmly.
For the Cheesecake
- Add your cream cheese, icing sugar, and orange extract to a large bowl or stand mixer and whisk until smooth.
- Pour in the double cream and whisk again until nice and thick.
- Spread 1/3 of the mixture onto the biscuit base, and add on the set jelly layer as carefully as you can, and as centrally as you can.
- Pipe/spoon the cheesecake mix around the edge of the jelly, and then spread the rest of the cheesecake mix on top. This makes the hidden jelly layer have a yummy cheesecake surrounding.
- Set the cheesecake in the fridge for 5-6 hours, or preferably overnight to make a better set.
Decoration
- Add your 100ml of double cream to a pan, and bring to just before boiling point.
- Chop your dark chocolate up finely and add to a bowl. Pour over the hot cream, and leave for five minutes without stiring.
- Once the five minutes are up, stir the ganache until smooth and leave to cool for 10 minutes or so.
- Spread it over the top of the cheesecake, and add some Jaffa cakes for decoration. I do one per slice!
- Leave to set the ganache slightly before serving, and then enjoy!
Notes
- I used the orange Hartleys jelly cubes, and used the entire quantity with less water so it set better making it easier to use in this recipe!
- This cheesecake will last for 3 days in the fridge once made
- The ganache on top is optional, you could just drizzle chocolate over, but I think it made it more Jaffa Cake like!
- You could use Jaffa Cake's in the base if you want, but I think its a bit of a waste to be honest.
- You can use orange zest in the cheesecake filling instead if you wished - I would use the zest of one large orange.
- You can just do a simple layer of jelly, but it can be quite awkward to cut this way, and it often comes away from the tin when opening the tin up after setting. I prefer it the hidden way like a Jaffa Cake!
- My favourite orange extract to use is this one!
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J x
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I love all of your recipes. I have just made the cheesecake. I made the jelly and left it in the freezer for an hour and then transferred it to the fridge overnight. Should I have left it in the freezer? I made the cheesecake the next day but found it really hard transferring the jelly to the cheesecake. I used the lid of a Pyrex dish to make the jelly as it’s quite shallow. Is there a technique for getting the jelly out? I had to plop it on top which then caused it to break. It looks fine as I managed to hide it.
Love this recipe!
I made this cheesecake for Father’s Day – the recipe was easy to follow and the cheesecake is delicious!
I used a 6 inch spring form cake tin lined with clingfilm for the jelly. I made the jelly on friday, left it in the fridge overnight and then made the cheesecake Saturday morning.
Leaving the jelly overnight definitely helped as it was easy to move from the tin to the cheesecake – if anyone struggles with the jelly, I’d definitely recommend leaving it overnight in the fridge as it worked well!
Thank you for the amazing recipe Jane x
You are very welcome!xx
Hi, I absolutely love your recipes! I have just attempted this one and I only had one issue….moving the jelly! Do you freeze yours until it’s pretty much fully frozen? Mine was set and as soon as I took it out of the tray to get it in the cheesecake it just broke apart in my hand. I still put it in there but now it’s more dome like but gonna roll with the punches (can’t waste it after all). But just wondered how long you usually leave yours in the freezer for so that you can move it without it breaking plus any other words of advice if you have any 😂
Hiya, yes you need to freeze it for longer!xx
Great Recipe
Easier than I thought and very tasty. I used a pie tin to set the jelly in just the right size for the cheesecake.
Thanks for sharing the recipe
Hi Jane, I can’t get this cheesecake to set. I’m using all the exact ingredients and quantities stated.
Same here Jack, I’ve never not had a cheesecake not set
before but this one totally collapsed and was like a trifle 😞
Hiya! If the jelly was too close to the edge this may have caused some instability, but there is no reason the cheesecake shouldn’t set if made correctly! Hope this helps! x
Hi! Haven’t made this yet but my British husband loves these Jaffa Cakes so I thought I’d give it a go. Any advice with regard to Jell-O as we don’t have Hartleys nor cubed Jell-O here…do I make the Jell-o let it set and then add to the cheesecake? Wish me luck!!
Hii! It depends, you want a slightly stronger jelly than usual, but home-made should be fine!x
Hi Jane,
Thanks for the lovely recipe, I made it for my wife on mother’s day. Needless to say that she loves jaffa cake :D.
I used orange zest and fresh juice to make jelly.
Great recipe and I love jaffa cakes so couldn’t go wrong with it.
My execution of it wasn’t the best and my cream cheese and chocolate layers were uneven but I believe this is partly from my jelly being a bit uneven and breaking on me trying to get it in to the tin.
I made this a fee months ago it went the very same day with 2 lads to feed I didn’t get a chance lol
Hi Jane, Just made this one, but misread the freezer technique! I popped the jelly in the freezer for an hour, so it was mostly set, and then transferred to the cheesecake, and covered it with the cheese and popped it back in the fridge! Hope this works the same!
That’s exactly what you are meant to do..! x
Lovely recipe. The cake went down a storm! Thank you x
Evening Jane,
Just looking at making this for weekend. Have made jelly, thought I would be smart to set jelly on a cling wrap bowl, hoping it would be easier to pull out.
Question; should I leave out of fridge before cutting into slices? If chocolate top is hard, would it be difficult to cut if chocolate is different and ruin the cheesecake?
Hiya – no you don’t need to leave it out of the fridge. The chocolate is a ganache, so it isn’t hard! You do not want the cheesecake to be left at room temp xx
Tastes lovely but it has just flattened totally with putting jelly in the freezer. All the water has released from frozen jelly as its thawed in the fridge. Next time I may just pop in thr fridge to set the jelly instead of the freezer.
Hey! Oh how strange – you can definitely just use the fridge, the freeze just makes it slightly firmer so easier to move without breaking!
Hello, would it be OK to halve all quantities of this one to make a smaller Cheesecake? Thanks!
Hey! Yes theoretically – half makes about a 6″ cheesecake – I just haven’t made the jelly part of this in half before haha! x
awesome, worked out perfectly and tasted delicious…just like a big creamy Jaffa
Jane, This was my first attempt at your cheesecake, it was perfect and went down exceedingly well, thanks!
Going to try something else this week.