No-Bake Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Behold- THE CHOCOLATE ORANGE CHEESECAKE!

It’s not Christmas without something chocolate orange, is it?

This cheesecake features a biscuit base, the most luxurious, rich and silky smooth chocolate orange cream filling, topped with a chocolate meringue swirl, homemade chocolate orange segments and fresh orange zest.

It’s 100% vegan and completely no-bake!

Only 2 days to go until Christmas, so now is the perfect time to get your special Christmas day dessert ready!

This cheesecake makes for the most spectacular, festive dessert with its rich chocolate and citrus burst.

Chocolate and orange are like Santa and his Reindeer…they just have to be together. 

When I was younger, my all-time favourite chocolate was ‘Terry’s Chocolate Orange’. Me and my sister would always get one for Christmas in our stocking’s. The chocolate orange flavour for me is very nostalgic, and I’m always looking at ways to veganize that specific flavour into a scrumptious dessert.

I wanted to combine the richness of chocolate alongside orange to create THE BEST chocolate orange cheesecake, whilst keeping it (obviously) vegan but also no-bake. 

No-bake recipes are always popular, check out my most popular Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake here, along with some other fan favourites. 

One of my most asked questions is- ‘What is coconut cream and where do I find it?’

Look no further:

Where do I find coconut cream?

Coconut cream is the thick white cream which comes from a can of coconut milk.

• Chill a can of full-fat coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. This will make the milk fat separate and solidify on top. 
• Use a spoon to skim the solidified coconut cream from the top of the can and place into a bowl.
• A tip would be to chill the can, and when you come to open it, turn it upside down and open it that way. This means the water should be at the top, so all you need to do is pour that away and all of the cream will be at the bottom. Its much easier that way. 

This heavenly cheesecake would be the perfect dessert for a Christmas day or New Year’s celebrations.
Happy “baking”!

Preparation time: Overnight

Serves: 8-10

Chilling time: 4-6 hours (or overnight)

Level: Easy

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Ingredients for the base

• 150g of plain cookies/biscuits (Digestives)
• 60g of dairy-free butter
• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

Ingredients for the filling

• 200g of cashew nuts (soaked overnight and drained)
• 350g of coconut cream (see method for details)
• 25g of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (melted)
• 1 tablespoon of orange extract
• 120g of dairy-free dark chocolate (melted)

TIP- The cashew nuts need to be soaked overnight in water. Just make sure the water is covering the nuts!

Ingredients for the swiss meringue swirl

• 120g of dairy-free butter (I use Naturli)
• 150g of icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 30ml of aquafaba (chickpea brine)
• 50g of dairy-free dark chocolate (melted)

Decorations

• Candied oranges 
• Chocolate orange segments
• Vegan Chocolate Truffles
• Fresh orange zest

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Method (base)

1. Grease an 8” springform / push up based cake tin with coconut oil or dairy-free butter.

2. Place the cookies/biscuits into a food processor/blender and whizz up until crumbly, but not too fine.

3. Melt the butter and coconut oil together, then pour over the cookie crumbs and mix until like wet sand.

4. Press the mixture into the lined cake tin, making sure to compact it in using a spoon or clean hands. 

Set aside whilst you make the filling.

Method (filling)

1. Drain the cashew nuts from the water and place them into a high-speed food processor/blender along with the coconut cream, maple syrup, melted coconut oil and orange extract.

Whizz up on high for around 5 minutes until smooth. As the mixture is thick, you might need to stop the blender and scrape down the sides a few times.

Add a splash more coconut cream if needed.

Coconut cream: The coconut cream needed is the thick white cream which comes from a can of full-fat coconut milk. More details at the top of this post.

2. Using a bain-marie, fill a small saucepan ¾ full with water and place a heatproof bowl on

top. Add in the chocolate, melt then pour the melted chocolate into the food processor/blender and whizz up. The filling should be thick and creamy.

3. Pour the filling onto the base, level with a spoon and pop into the freezer to set.

Allow the cheesecake to set fully.

This will take around 4-6 hours (I leave mine to set overnight).

Method (swiss meringue swirl)

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.

2. Add in the icing sugar, cocoa powder and whip on high speed for a couple of minutes to incorporate it.

Melt the chocolate using the bain-marie method (as seen above in step 2).

3. Add in the aquafaba and melted chocolate and whip for 5 minutes until it turns light and creamy. Don’t over whip it or it can become too soft. If it does, just add in more icing sugar until its thick and creamy. 

4. Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle. and pipe a swirl around the top edge of the cheesecake.

Decorate with candied orange segments and dairy-free chocolates.

I melted some vegan dark chocolate, mixed with orange extract and added in into orange segment moulds.

For the candied oranges, I followed this amazing tutorial. 

Store in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer.

To serve this cheesecake, remove from the freezer and allow to defrost fully before serving.

I usually remove mine from the freezer and let it sit out at room temperature for a few hours.

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