This cheesecake is absolutely wonderful. It has the perfect balance of savoury and sweet in the cream cheese and dulce de leche mixture and the texture is velvety smooth – a bit like butter.

The recipe is based on this recipe for Dulce de leche cheesecake squares that I found at Smitten Kitchen, but I have changed both the base and the topping. There was no need to change the cheesecake mixture though, when I tasted the batter I realised it was pure perfection already.

I served this as a cake at work, just plain (although there is nothing plain about it) to celebrate the latest birthdays. But this would work equally well as the dessert for a dinner party or for any other occasion that needs a little pick me up.

I am making this again already next week, that’s how good it was! I hope you find it as amazing as I do. Out of the three cakes (the other two to follow) that I made for work, this was my own favourite and it went down a treat among the others too.

Dulce de leche cheesecake, serves 8

Base:

200 g digestives

75 g softened butter

Filling:

2 gelatine leaves

60 ml (1/4 cup) milk

225 g cream cheese

2 eggs

a small pinch of salt

235 ml (1 cup) dulce de leche (you can buy it ready made, or boil a can of condensed milk for 2 and a half hours)

Topping:

100 ml creme fraiche

what is left of the dulche de leche (if using a 397 g can it will be about 4 tbsp)

Mix the biscuits into crumbs into a food processor, add the butter and mix again. Line a springform with parchment paper in the bottom. Add the base-filling and press it onto the base of the tin in an even manor. Bake for about 10 minutes in 160C (without the fan on).

Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water. Squeeze out the water and place them in a sauce pan with the milk. Warm gently until the gelatine has dissolved. Set to the side. Mix cream cheese, eggs, dulce de leche, salt and the gelatine mixture in a bowl with an electric whisk to incorpotate properly. Pour the mixture into the springform and place the tin at the bottom of the oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until the mixture just started setting, it should still be quite wobbly in the middle. Remove from oven and make the topping. Just mix creme fraiche with dulche de leche and spread onto the cake. Bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool, then place in the fridge for a few hours until serving.  Decorate with small pieces of fudge.