I recently made this Triple Chocolate No-Bake Cheesecake for my son-in-law’s 32nd birthday. For some reason, I seem to always come up with my best cheesecake recipes on his birthday. Must be because he happens to have a love for cheesecake that’s just as profound as mine…

Two years ago, I’d elaborated for him a Salted Caramel Cheesecake with Crunchy Praline which turned out to be pretty amazing if I may say so myself.

Last year, I created my famous Ferrerro Rocher Nutella Cheesecake at his request — this one ended up being my most popular cheesecake recipe of all times, and with reason! Just one peek and you’ll totally understand why…

Now this year, when I asked him what kind of cake he would like for his birthday, he simply answered: Some kind of cheesecake? Surprise me! And this triple chocolate layered beauty is what I came up with.

Seriously, his cakes always turn out so crazy amazing, I voted that from now on, we celebrate his birthday 2-3 times a year.

Not so surprisingly, he didn’t object; or anyone else, for that matter…

Now you may look at this post and think “forget it, this cake looks so complicated to make, I’ll be at it forever and then some” but I swear, it actually isn’t so bad. Granted, it’s not as easy as say, adding water to a boxed cake mix, but you don’t need to be an experienced baker to successfully make it.

And let me tell you, with a cake this stunning for both your eyes your mouth, you are guaranteed to please and impress everyone who’ll be lucky enough to get a taste of it… even yourself!

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS & PICTURES

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TO MAKE THE CRUST

Line the bottom of a 9” springform pan with parchment paper. To do that, remove the ring and cover the bottom with parchment paper. Fold the excess paper back under the plate and, while holding it in place with one hand, put the ring back in its position with the other hand. Bring the excess paper back from under the pan but do not cut it off.

Combine the Oreo baking crumbs, mini crispearls and melted butter in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Mix until all the ingredients are well combined and dump them into the prepared pan; using your fingers or better yet, a flat bottomed object, press firmly at the bottom of the pan, without going up the sides, and set aside.

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TO MAKE THE CHEESECAKE FILLING

Place the sheet gelatin to soak in a large bowl filled with icy cold water. If you’re not familiar with sheet gelatin, see my recipe for No Bake White Chocolate Lime Cheesecake for more details on how to use it.

Whip 1-1/4 cup of heavy cream until stiff peaks form and reserve. Melt all three kinds of chocolate, i.e. unsweetened, milk and white, in separate mixing bowls and set those aside, too.

In yet another mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and salt and mix on high speed with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Delicately fold in the reserved whipped cream with a rubber spatula…

Next, warm the 3/4 cup of heavy cream in the microwave until barely just warm to the touch. Remove the sheet gelatin from the water bath and squeeze it between your hands to remove as much water as you possibly can. Add that gelatin to the warm cream and stir until fully dissolved.

If necessary, you can return the cream and gelatin to the microwave, for no more than a few seconds at a time, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Whatever you do, make sure that the cream never actually becomes hot: this would destroy the gelatin, rendering it useless.

Now pour the warm cream and gelatin into the cream cheese mixture…

And resume mixing with the electric mixer until it’s well incorporated.

Transfer about a third of this batter (you’re looking at 475g, or 16.75oz) into the bowl containing the melted unsweetened chocolate…

Mix delicately with a rubber spatula until well combined.

Pour that batter onto the reserved crust and spread evenly all the way to the side of the pan.

Be sure that the top is as smooth and straight as can be to ensure that all the layers are nice and straight when you slice into your cake.

Now pour another third of the batter into the bowl containing the melted milk chocolate, mix well and pour over the dark chocolate layer.

Spread delicately all the way to the edge, again, making sure that the top is as smooth and even as possible.

Repeat with the white chocolate, using what’s left of the cheese filling; smooth the top as best as you can.

Sprinkle mini crispearls evenly all over the top of your cake.

You will need about one cup of crispearls to cover the entire surface of the cake. And if you couldn’t find the mini crispearls, you could very well use chocolate sprinkles instead. They’re not quite as interesting to eat or visually pleasing, but they would definitely make for a suitable replacement.

Now place your cake in the fridge to set, at least 6 hours or up to overnight.

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TO MAKE THE GANACHE SWIRLS

Take out 3 medium bowls and in each one, combine one variety of the finely chopped chocolate, 1/3 cup of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of softened butter.

While you’re busy chopping chocolate, you might want to chop a few extra tablespoons of each and reserve them to melt and drizzle over your cake later… 

Dealing with one bowl at a time, microwave each chocolate for 1 minute, allow the mixture to rest for 1 full minute and then stir delicately for 1 full minute. At this point, the ganache should be completely smooth and well combined, but if there were still lumps remaining, repeat the process again but for no longer than 20 seconds this time; stir until the ganache is smooth and silky.

Cover and let rest at room temperature, stirring from time to time, until it has the consistency of cake frosting, which should take about 6 hours, depending on ambiant temperature. You can speed up the process by placing the ganache in the refrigerator but make sure to stir often if you choose to do that and take it out of the fridge as soon as it’s reached the desired consistency.

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ASSEMBLY

Carefully remove the cake from the pan but leave it on the parchment paper for now.

To help release the cake real cleanly, it helps to slightly warm up the side of the pan. I find the best way to do this is by delicately heating it with a propane torch or warm cloth. If you choose to use a propane torch, make sure that you maintain a good distance from that pan. You just want to warm it up some, not completely melt the cake.

Now put each variety of ganache in a diposable piping bag. Don’t forget to cut out the tips!

Then, you’ll want to place all 3 bags inside a large pastry bag equipped with a medium closed star tip. Using the disposable bags that way will ensure that the three different ganaches don’t mix before they even come out of the pastry bag.

Pipe 12 generous swirls of ganache around the cake and one in the center…

As you can see, you don’t need to have all kinds of talent and make absolutely flawless swirls. Just be sure they’re nice and big! 

Place a Lindt Truffle on top of each swirl, alternating between colors…

If you want to go all out, prepare 3 piping cones out of parchment paper and then melt the few tablespoons of dark, milk and white chocolates that you (hopefully) chopped earlier – it will only take a few seconds in the microwave. Pour each chocolate into separate parchment paper cones and then drizzle a little bit over each truffle, again, alternating between colors and creating a pretty contrast: dark goes on white, milk goes on dark, white goes on milk.

Note that you could also use a squeeze bottle instead of the parchment paper cone, but that doesn’t work quite as well when dealing with such small quantities.

TA-DA!! You’re all done! All that’s left to do is carefully lift and place your now finished cake onto a cake plate!

And stare at it for a few minutes, maybe…

Keep your cake refrigerated until about ready to serve. Leftovers will keep for up to about a week, providing that you keep them refrigerated, in an airtight container.