Starry Night Sky No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake

This post features some products that I was sent in exchange for a review. No other compensation was given, nor were any specific links or words requested. 

After a rough few weeks – which I’ll fill you in on in my monthly recap – I finally have a new recipe post for you all, and one I’m really happy with! ☺️ Back in May, one of my favourite baking brands, Dollar Sweets, asked if they could send me some of their products to test out and review which I obviously said yes to!

As you can tell, I took my sweet time brainstorming ideas on what to make 😅 and even longer on actually making one of my ideas, as life in 2020 sure knows how to throw a lot of hurdles at you, which I’m sure you all understand quite well, as unfortunate as that is 🙃 Don’t worry though, because I have finally brought one of my ideas to life (and I have more fun, delicious ideas on their way too!), and at a perfect time too 😋

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For those who may be new around here, I usually try to base my July content on the likes of my long-term boyfriend Daniel. July is his birthday 🎉 – and we celebrate birthdays all month long around here! – and today’s post will mark THREE years in a row that I’ve shared a cheesecake recipe in July because he loves cheesecake 🍰 This was my first time making a chocolate cheesecake, and I’m super happy with how it came out! Now, enough talking, let’s get onto the recipe 👇

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YOU WILL NEED:

Ingredients:

♡ 200g Choc Ripple biscuits
♡ 60g butter, melted
♡ 450g cream cheese, room temperature
♡ 250g milk chocolate
♡ 400g can of sweetened condensed milk
♡ 2/3 cup icing sugar
♡ 1 tsp coffee flavour extract
♡ Edible gold leaf (gifted from Dollar Sweets)
♡ Silver and gold spray (gifted from Dollar Sweets)
♡ Chocolate mirror glaze (I used Dollar Sweets, this was NOT gifted, just something I wanted to try!)

In June…

The first six months of the year are now GONE! Whilst it wasn’t an overall bad month, there were certainly some tough points, and I’m not sure how the rest of the year is going to end up honestly.

In terms of COVID-19, well… I’m from Victoria, Australia, and we’re not doing too well down here. Cases are rising again, people aren’t doing the right thing in terms of social distancing, and – I honestly can’t even believe I am typing this again – people have even begun to panic buy again. It’s actual madness.

Just as things seemed to go back to a “new normal”, others had to ruin it and think that the pandemic was over and now heavy restrictions are most likely going to be put in place again, and I am not looking forward to that. I am crossing all my fingers in hopes that my work doesn’t get closed this time around because my mental health will NOT cope with that!

Work has always been my only way of getting out of the house and seeing human beings, and if that gets taken away, I honestly don’t know what I am going to do with myself – OR how I am going to pay my bills. It’s scary to think about. Anyway, let’s get onto June’s recap! ✨

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TIDBITS FROM THE MONTH:

♡ I got sent some products (you can see a few of them here) from one of my favourite baking companies – Dollar Sweets – for me to use in future recipe posts, which I am really excited about. I’ve been in brainstorming stage for a while now because I want them to be perfect, but they should be on the blog soon! 🙊

♡ If you’ve been keeping up with my hair adventures throughout 2020, you may know that in February I went back to bleach blonde – which I was pre-2015 – but I bleached a few too many times close together to get it ready for a party, and HEAPS of it ended up falling out. Every time I washed it, more would fall out, and it was terrifying. So I decided to let it grow out, but my dark regrowth looked awful next to my bleached hair, so I dyed my hair dark brown so you won’t be able to tell as much.

Guess what? Even MORE of my hair fell out when I dyed it brown! So, I cut it to shoulder length and now wear a hat at work (because there are some SUPER short bits at the back that stick up 😳), and beanies everywhere else. I’m mostly upset because I’m loving the dark brown hair and want to keep it this colour, but I really need to let my hair grow out before it all falls out!

♡ I went on Discord pretty much every night this month, which included many 2-3am bed times 😅  (Surprisingly, despite all my late nights, I only had six seizures this month!) My friends and I finished our Star Wars movie marathon on Discord this month, but I honestly think I’m going to re-watch the sequels again by myself VERY soon, as I’ve seen the others multiple times – including the non-Skywalker ones – but have only seen the sequels twice each, despite loving them, no matter what anyone thinks.

♡ One of the best things that happened this month is the great weight loss that I’ve achieved! I mentioned in some posts earlier this year how my last medication made me gain 10kg+ (I mean, I was at a size I have never been ANYWHERE NEAR before, and I was NOT happy about it). It also did some horrible things to my mental health – and then it ultimately stopped working, so my neurologist was more than happy to take me off it, and gave me a new one that is also an appetite suppressant. Not only have I lost the weight I gained, but I’ve lost even more than I thought I would, and I’m now at a weight that I haven’t been at for a VERY long time!

Trying Out Marshmallow Club’s Marshmallow 101 Course!

Last month, Dani from Marshmallow Club – who I “met” through her Instagram account – allowed me access to her new online course on how to make marshmallows, called Marshmallow 101! Before I talk about Dani and the marshmallows I made I’ve got say that she offered me access to this as a pure act of kindness. She didn’t ask me to promote her course at all, she has no idea I’m even going to talk about it until I share this post.

Her exact words when she messaged me were “I thought of you straight away because I know you love giving things a go”, and I’m being 100% honest when I tell you that I teared up when I read that 😭🙌 Dani’s heart really is just as sweet as her marshmallows. I’ll always be grateful that, amongst all the hate that Instagram and the blogging world can have, it can do a lot of good too. It has allowed me to make friends with a lot of other creatives from around Australia and other countries.

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If you’ve followed me on here for a while, you may know that I’ve made marshmallows a few times before. Each time, I’ve tried a new recipe and each time, I’ve been confused and disappointed by the results of the texture. They’ve always looked fine, but the texture was always a huge let down. I’ve made some pretty fun designs actually: pink dice, lips shaped ones for Valentine’s Day, and “Pickle Rick” ones inspired by the TV show Rick and Morty.

A few years ago, Dani actually sent me some of her marshmallows to try and they were amazing. So, when she offered to let me try out her course, I knew this was going to the answer to my texture problem – and it WAS! Dani really does know her stuff. I had never taken an online course before, so I was really excited to add this to my list of things that I have tried – because, Dani is right, I do love trying new things! When it comes to creative endeavours, I want to try it all 🙌