Dark chocolate cups filled with a delicious no-bake lemon cheesecake, these Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups look impressive but are much easier to make than they look… the perfect dessert to make when you need to impress!
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A very special recipe…
This recipe is a very special recipe because I did not create it… my 12 year old son did! As you can imagine, having a food blogger for a mother means my kids (I also have a 14 year old daughter) have grown up loving food – making it, eating it… and now even inventing their own recipes!
My son came up with the idea for Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups all by himself and I was so impressed I wanted to share it with you all on my website. And when I say he came up with the idea by himself, I mean the whole recipe! The only input from me was a bit of supervision and a couple of suggestions about how best to make the chocolate cups.
Easy… and very delicious!
As you know, I only put recipes on my website that are a) easy to make and b) delicious.
Now I’ll admit, this recipe is a little more fiddly to make than my usual recipes… but only a tiny bit. And the result is more than worth it… the combination of dark chocolate, tangy lemons, creamy filling and sweet, crunchy biscuits is AMAZING!
All you need to do is make the chocolate cups (they’re easier to make than they look, honest!), make a super simple biscuit base (just crushed digestive biscuits and butter), whip up an easy peasy filling from cream cheese, double cream, icing sugar and lemon… then have fun decorating!
(See below for the full recipe card.)
Perfect for entertaining
These Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups make a great dinner party dessert, as they look impressive but are much easier to make than they look… and you can make them in advance, so no last minute stresses!
What to serve with Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups
These Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups are delicious just as they are, but if you want to take this dessert to the next level, serve with fresh berries and mint.
How to decorate Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups
As you can see from the photos, you can have some fun decorating these Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups with lemon zest, leftover biscuit crumbs, fresh berries, mint and chocolate sprinkles.
But you can keep things much simpler, if you prefer, and just decorate them with lemon zest and leftover biscuit crumbs – that’s what my son did when he first invented this recipe. Here’s a photo of his version…
Can you make Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups ahead of time?
Yes you can! I recommend for best results you make these on the same day as you plan to eat them, but they keep very well in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Can you freeze Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups?
No, this recipe is not suitable for freezing.
If you like this recipe…
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Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups
Ingredients
For the chocolate cups:
- 170 g 70% dark chocolate (I used Lindt)
For the biscuit base:
- 75 g butter
- 75 g digestive biscuits
For the lemon cheesecake:
- 200 g full-fat cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
- 50 ml double cream
- 50 g icing sugar sieved
- Zest of 2 lemons (see Note 1)
- Juice of ¼ lemon or to taste
Additional Decoration (optional):
- Fresh berries
- Mint
- Chocolate sprinkles
Instructions
Chocolate Cups
- Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of just-boiled water. Do not allow any water to touch the chocolate! (See Note 2.)
- Put 2 teaspoons of the melted chocolate into the base of a silicon cupcake mould. (I recommend THIS ONE - see Note 3.)
- Using a pastry brush, brush the melted chocolate all over the base and sides of the mould.
- Repeat for the remaining 5 cupcake moulds, then place the cupcake tray in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until the chocolate is completely set.
- Remove the cupcake tray from the freezer and repeat the whole process again, so that all 6 cupcake moulds in the tray have two layers of chocolate on the base and sides.
- Return the cupcake tray to the freezer for 10 minutes, or until the chocolate is completely set. Then move the cupcake tray to the fridge.
Biscuit Base
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat.
- Meanwhile, place the digestive biscuits in a small bowl and bash them with the end of a rolling pin until you have biscuit crumbs.
- Tip the melted butter into the bowl with the biscuit crumbs and stir to combine.
- Take the cupcake tray out of the fridge and carefully remove the chocolate cups from the silicon mould, placing them on a plate or serving platter. Be very careful and gentle as they can be quite fragile.
- Half fill the chocolate cups with the buttery biscuit crumbs. Do not try to press down, as you would for a standard cheesecake base, as you may damage the chocolate cups.
- Place the chocolate cups back in the fridge.
- You should have some buttery biscuit crumbs left over. Save these (at room temperature) to use for decoration.
Lemon Cheesecake
- Place the cream cheese, double cream and icing sugar in a bowl and beat until well combined.
- Stir in the zest of 1 lemon and the juice of ¼ of a lemon. Taste the cheesecake filling and add more lemon juice if necessary.
- Take the chocolate cups out of the fridge.
- Carefully spoon the lemon cheesecake filling on top of the the buttery biscuit crumbs. Neaten the top of the cheesecake, taking care not to damage the chocolate cups.
- Decorate the cheesecakes with the remaining biscuit crumbs and the zest of the second lemon.
- Place the lemon cheesecake chocolate cups back in the fridge until ready to serve.
Additional Decoration (optional)
- If you want to take these Lemon Cheesecake Chocolate Cups to the next level, decorate with fresh berries, mint and/or chocolate sprinkles just before serving.
Notes
- Make sure you zest the lemons before juicing (it’s much harder to zest an already-juiced lemon!)
- To melt the chocolate, first pour boiling water into a large saucepan, then sit a glass bowl over the saucepan so the bowl just touches the water on the base. Next, break the chocolate into pieces and place the pieces into the glass bowl. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is fully melted. DO NOT ALLOW ANY WATER TO GET INTO THE CHOCOLATE! Otherwise it will go grainy and bad and you will have to start again. If your bowl fits tightly over the saucepan, this shouldn’t be a problem.
- This recipe uses very simple equipment, the main thing you might not have already is a silicon cupcake mould. A silicon cupcake mould is essential for this recipe to work properly. I recommend THIS ONE.
- Not suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Disclosure
*This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
Aphrodite says
This sounds right up my street, I love anything lemony and chocolaty. I haven’t made it yet as I need to go shopping after our very long holiday weekend here in Cyprus (orthodox Easter, the weekend after UK). However, I would like to recommend ginger biscuits as a base, I personally prefer to digestives as I’m not a fan.
🙂
Eb Gargano says
That’s so great to hear! And I love your suggestion about ginger biscuits – thanks for sharing it here 😀