Russicher Zupfkuchen (German choc cheesecake)........finally the recipe works!

This is a type of Chocolate Cheesecake which I first saw on a video of the German band Tokio Hotel. Yes, it's Tokio Hotel. Not a a recipe site or anything.

It was the lady cook in the video who was responsible for the catering on their Zimmer 483 European Tour who showed the cake in the video and I hunted for the recipe in no time.

I'm hoping to find the video again on You Tube and I'll link it here once I found it.

This cake has been described as "the grand way to expand your waistline in style"! Haha, with that chocolate base and the cheese with butter. Sure, it's not kind to the calorie-worriers.

The normal version of the cake. Click here for its origin.

In Germany, it's called the Russian Cake whereas in Russia, it's called the German Cake. Hence, the name. Weird, huh?

I made mine in Cupcake form so it would be easy to divide the portions.

Recipe from Dr. Oetker.

Ingredients:

For the base and top sprinkles:
375 g flour
40 g cocoa powder
200 g butter or margarine
150-200 g caster sugar
1 medium egg
3 level teaspoons baking powder
3 drops vanilla essence

For the cheese filling:
250 g melted butter (use pure butter....it's decadent)
500 g soft cheese (I use Philadelphia cheese)
200 g caster sugar
3 drops vanilla essence
3 eggs
40 g custard powder, vanilla flavour or corn starch plus 1 or 2 egg yolks (I totally forgot to add any of these in mine which explains why the batter was so runny and my cake turned out like this picture)

I halved this recipe actually and the cupcakes lasted a few days enough for me to take to the office daily. I highly recommend the cupcake form.

Method:
For the base:
Mix the ingredients starting with wet ones before the dry ones till you form a dough. Mine turn out really soft that I kept adding flour to it. The original recipe asked for 30mins refrigeration which I did not bother to do because I was too impatient.
Divide into small balls with enough left to be the sprinkles. Flatten the balls into the cupcake paper-lined muffin tins. Leave enough dough to be the sprinkles!

For the filling:
Add all the ingredients together. That's easy because they're all wet.

Putting them together:
Pour the filling into the base and pinch the leftover dough and drop them on top of the filling.

Heat the oven to 180 degree C and bake about 50-65mins. Ok. I never monitor my baking time actually. I monitor by eyes only. When it looks cooked, I take it out. That's it.

Taste? There's only ONE word for it. DECADENCE! It's rich and delicious.

Get to know the fans of this cake. The super-skinny Kaulitz Twins. Did I say about the cake as "the grand way to expand your waistline"?

Expanding your waistline? This is proof that we are not created equal.

For those unhappy about why these pretty boys can eat for Germany and remain in those figures, just accept the fact of life that we are so NOT created equal. Deal with it.