Chocolate Cheesecake Bumblebees
Black and yellow stripes, constant buzzing, and equipped with a sting, bees are an absolutely essential part of our ecosystem. In fact, bees are the third most useful animal for humans and the environment. And because we're amazed that something so small can have such a huge impact on our planet's well-being, we decided to pay tribute to the gorgeous insect by creating un-bee-lievable chocolate cheesecake bumblebees. They're the bee's knees and a total showstopper!
You'll Need:
For the brownies:
- 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, melted
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp milk
- 3 eggs
- 1½ cups flour
For the cheesecake:
- 10 oz cream cheese
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 5 sheets of gelatin, soaked (or 5 tsp unflavored gelatin powder)
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ground saffron to taste
- 5 drops yellow food coloring
For the coating:
- 2 cups orange juice
- 3 tbsp honey
- 6 sheets of gelatin, soaked (or 6 tsp unflavored gelatin powder)
For the decoration:
- melted chocolate
- white chocolate drops
Here's How:
1. For the brownies, add the melted semi-sweet chocolate and vegetable oil to a bowl and whisk together well. Add the cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and milk, and mix everything together, then add the eggs one by one as well as the flour and vanilla extract. Mix everything into a smooth batter. Spread the batter over a baking tray lined with parchment paper and smooth it out. Transfer the baking tray to a preheated oven and cook at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.
2. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan and add the honey, saffron, and soaked gelatin. Mix everything together and gently fold the yellow mixture into the cream cheese. Fill a silicone mold with the cheesecake mixture and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
3. Carefully push the cheesecake ovals out of the silicone mold and place them on the chocolate cake. Use a knife to cut out the chocolate base using the cheesecake ovals as a template.
4. Heat the orange juice with the honey and add the soaked gelatin to make the coating. Let the coating cool down to about 70°F, then pour it over the cheesecake ovals and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This works best if you place the bumblebee cakes on a cooling rack so you can easily pour the coating over them.
5. Decorate the cooled bumblebee cakes with melted chocolate to create stripes and eyes and push white chocolate drops into the hardened cream for wings. Now the mini cakes actually look like little bumblebees – buzz buzz!
Don't these little bees look cute as a button? They're absolutely perfect for any family get-together or just for when you want to treat your friends to something adorbs and yummy. And because they're light and airy, they'll be all the buzz on a hot summer's day.
Get the recipe for the Apricot Bee Cake featured in the bonus video.