I whipped this up on Thursday night for a dinner on Friday and it was completely divine. A total crowd pleaser. I plan on making it again before cherries depart.

– 250g chocolate biscuits (I used Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple biscuits)
– 100g butter, melted
– 500g cream cheese, softened
– 3/4 cup caster sugar
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
– 300g sour cream
– 300g cherries, pitted and halved
– cherries and icing sugar to serve

Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease a 5.5cm-deep, 24cm (base) springform pan. Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter. Process to combine. Press mixture over base of prepared pan. Cover. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating to combine. Beat in cocoa and sour cream until just combined. Fold in cherries. Spread over biscuit mixture.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until centre is just firm. Turn off oven. Cool in oven for 3 hours with door slightly ajar. Refrigerate overnight. Top with cherries. Dust with icing sugar. Serve.

Just don’t make the same mistake I did and start baking too late. I only let my cake cool for 2 hours in the oven because there was no way I could stay up until 1am to move it to the fridge.

Don’t the cherries look wonderfully festive?! Recipe from here. What’s your favourite dessert at Christmas?