Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe

From all the Halloween posts I have done, I think you have seen a pattern here… I am riding a hobbyhorse of pumpkin every October!!! This Pumpkin Cheesecake is not the last one for this year, I could have more to come, at least another one with the pumpkin theme. Hope you won’t get tired of seeing pumpkins around here.

This little pumpkin face cheesecake was baked from the 6-cavity pumpkin face silicone mold from Wilton. When I first saw this silicone mold on the internet, I died for it. I made a few phone calls to the local baking supplies shops to inquire about it but no luck, they don’t have it in stock. Unfortunately, Wilton won’t ship directly to me.

So, the only alternative I have is to buy through Amazon which is always my preferred online shopping platform when I can’t find the product locally and directly from the manufacturer. I have it ship within 3 days as time is running out for Halloween theme recipes and tutorials, so I don’t mind to pay extra bucks for expedited shipping. My friends said I am crazy… well, that’s me!

The pumpkin silicone mold is here and I need to bake something with it before I used it for non-edible crafts in future. So, I tried out a pumpkin cheesecake recipe from Life Made Simple and modified to suit my taste buds and available ingredients I can get from the locals.

Do you believe that it is my second attempt to bake this cheesecake? The face didn’t stick well on the crust during the first attempt and the color was not contrast enough, so I tried again with oreo cookies as suggested by my baking pal, Mandy. I was so excited to see them come out nicely with crispy clear facial features of the classic spooky look 🙂

Please do try out the recipe and the method of molding, your guests will be amazed by these cute little pumpkin cheesecakes with upside-down crust and faces showing.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Makes 6 pumpkin face & 1 round cheesecake (4 1/2″)
or 1 round cheesecake (9 1/2″)
Prepare Time: 30 minutes | Total Baking Time: 40 minutes | Chilling Time: overnight
Recipe adapted from Life Made Simple

Ingredients:
Biscuits Crust
3 pcs. Oreo cookies (without cream)
100 gram digestive biscuits (about 7 1/2 pcs.)
25 gram ground almond
2 TBsp melted butter
1 1/2 tsp fine granulated sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger / 1TBsp grated fresh ginger
Pumpkin Cream Cheese
A.
250 gram cream cheese (Philadelphia), room temperature
120 gram pumpkin puree (about 1/2 cup)
80 gram fine granulated brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground all-spice
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
B.
1 egg (room temperature)
2 tsp heavy cream
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F / 180 degree C, top and bottom heat. Lightly grease a Wilton Pumpkin Face Silicone Mold and a 4 1/2″ cheesecake pan with butter or baking spray. Set aside.

Prepare Biscuits Crust
2. Put 3 oreo cookies into a small zipper bag, release extra air & close the zip. Crush the biscuits with the rolling pin till fine.
3. Add melted butter to the oreo crush until it is just wet, wet enough to hold the crumbs together.
4. Fill the pumpkin face cavities with oreo crumbs, press the crumbs firmly into the cavities. Clean up the excess crumbs outside the cavities. Poke a few holes. Set aside.
5. Place Digestive biscuits and ground almond into the bowl of the food processor, grind till fine. Pour out the mixture and add melted butter, sugar and spices, mix well. The crumbs are just wet to hold together.
6. Press crumbs into the base of the silicone mold (about 1/8″ to 3/16″ thick), press the rest of the crumbs into the base of the 4 1/2″ cheesecake pan.
7. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Prepare Pumpkin Cream Cheese
8. Cream ingredient A (cream cheese, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, vanilla, and spices) in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer.
9. Gradually add ingredient B (egg, heavy cream and salt), mix well and smooth.
10. Pour pumpkin cream cheese mixture into the pumpkin silicone mold and cheesecake pan.
11. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. The cheesecake will rise when baking but it will sink during cooling.
12. Let the cheesecake cool in the mold and pan, then refrigerated overnight and until it is ready to serve. Un-mold when they are ready to be served.

Prepare the face of the pumpkin, step 2-4.
Clean up the excessive oreo crumbs by scooping out with a teaspoon, then wipe clean with cotton buds.
Don’t forget to poke a few holes so that the digestive biscuit crumbs can adhere better.

Prepare biscuits crust and bake, step 5-7.
If you bake this before the cream cheese is ready, just place it inside the fridge after it has cooled down while you prepare for the pumpkin cream cheese.

Prepare pumpkin cream cheese, step 8-10.
Start with low speed to combine the ingredients, increase the speed after the cream cheese soften down.

Bake, cool and un-mold the cheesecake form silicone mold, step 10-12.
Push the bottom of the cheesecake pan to release the round cheesecake from its pan. You may leave the bottom plate as it is while serving, or remove it by using a butter knife and transfer it to a serving plate.
Pull the sides of the silicone mold to release the cheesecake from sticking on the mold. Flip the silicone mold upside down on a non-stick parchment paper or wax paper, lightly press the mold and feel the cheesecakes drop onto the paper. Remove silicone mold.
Transfer pumpkin cheesecake to a non-stick cake liner.

The is how the pumpkin cheesecake looks like with crust on top and cake at the bottom.
Upside down Pumpkin Cheesecake!!!