CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CHEESECAKE

Why I Love This Recipe
Ingredients You'll Need
For Brownie layer:
1 cup unsalted butter 250 mL
1 cup cocoa powder 250 mL
1 3/4 cups sugar 425 mL
4 large eggs at room temperature 4
2 tsp vanilla 10 mL
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour 300 mL
1 tsp baking powder 5 mL
1/2 tsp fine salt 2 mL
For Cheesecake layer:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped 175 g
2 8-ounce (250 g) packages of cream cheese at room temperature 2
1/2 cup sugar 125 mL
1 tsp vanilla 5 mL
1 1/2 cups whipping cream 375 mL
10 Oreo cookies, cut in half 10
Directions
For brownie layer, preheat oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Grease a 10-inch (3L) springform cake pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper. Melt butter and pour into a larger bowl. Sift cocoa into butter and stir in sugar. Add eggs to mixture, blending well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt (do not sift). Add to cocoa mixture and blend. Pour into pan and bake for 35 minutes, until firm. Cool completely before filling.
For cheesecake layer, place chopped chocolate in a bowl of a pot of gently simmering water (be sure bowl does not touch the water) and stir to melt. Remove from heat. Beat cream cheese until fluffy with electric beaters or in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment on high speed. Slowly add sugar while mixing and beat in vanilla. Pour in whipping cream and whip into cream cheese on high speed, until mixture becomes firm and holds a peak. Scrape chocolate into mixture and blend quickly. Scrape filling onto brownie base and spread evenly.